<p>Even though I normally completely discount rankings, I think that they do play SOME role and I am curious how well W&M performs in this capacity. I know it is on several best value lists but anything else...</p>
<p>Google can serve your needs.</p>
<p>I’m not sure on the current rankings, but William and Mary is regarded very highly and tons of people know about it. </p>
<p>In a 2008 edition of U.S. News & World Report:
33 on national universities
6 on public national universities</p>
<p>Arggh I’m waitlisted and would give my right arm at this point to get in lol. :p</p>
<p>It has been called the best small (relative term, I don’t think 6k students is that small) public school in the nation. I think I remember it being #1 for best public undergraduate education as well.
And yes, I remember seeing some “best value” listings too. I think it is usually ranked in the top 30 nationally depending on who’s doing the scoring.</p>
<p>You can always try and make your own rankings:
[Rank</a> My Way](<a href=“http://www.rankmyway.com/rank.php]Rank”>http://www.rankmyway.com/rank.php)</p>
<p>We Jumped a spot:</p>
<p>WM is 32 on US News.</p>
<p>Also number three on one of the “best bang for the buck” schools</p>
<p>Good stuff, I love it here and its real affordable</p>
<p>[William</a> & Mary - W&M by Numbers](<a href=“http://wm.edu/about/wmbynumbers/index.php]William”>W&M Rankings | About W&M | William & Mary)</p>
<p>while you can debate whether 6k under grads is small, W&M is significantly smaller than all of the other top public schools.</p>
<p>W&M (as well as Tufts, Rice, and Georgetown) suffer from smaller grad school programs. This halo effect from larger schools with more emphasis on research helps their undergrad rankings even though they are disconnected. The “peer assesment” score is overweighted on grad school prestige which conversely hurts the aforementioned schools whose main focus is teaching. W&M is one of the best schools in the country for undergrad education. In fact, the only time USNWR tried to gauge this concept, W&M finished third behind Brown and Dartmouth. I believe the subsequent embarassment from the "top "schools being ranked so poorly in actually educating students resulted in that ranking disappearing. Kind of like the “Da Vinci Code” of college rankings coverup.</p>
<p>The most up-to-date ranking system is the K9Leader Family Report Collegiate Rankings. A subscription to view the entire list is only $99.95. Here is a preview of the top of the rankings:</p>
<ol>
<li>The College of William and Mary</li>
<li>Bucknell University</li>
<li>All the rest tied for 3rd.</li>
</ol>
<p>Oh, wait, that’s not just a preview - that’s the entire list. Guess you don’t have to pay that subscription fee and I have to come up with some other way to fund my son’s tuition at William & Mary and my daughter’s at Bucknell.</p>
<p>Help, that is about the worst college ranking system ever! Why would percentage of minorities have anything to do with the quality of education? </p>
<p>How about considerations like percentage of classes taught by tenured professors, etc?</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m hoping they add more field in it too. But it is kind of cool to play around with though! As for the advantage of diversity, it has been shown that students learn better in a diverse community, among other things. But that’s the beauty of do it yourself rankings - you get to choose! To someone, that may be an important factor in deciding where to look for colleges.</p>
<p>W&M is great for an undergrad education, and it is consistently one of the top 10 public universities in the US. I think our school takes great pride that our undergrad classes’ accolades match OR surpass most of the public universities ranked ahead of us (Virginia, Michigan, Cal, UCLA, and North Carolina) The only reason why W&M isn’t ranked higher is because we don’t have full blown graduate programs in nearly every academic area, like the five public universities ranked ahead of us.</p>