<p>I agree with a lot of the complaining that is going on, and it is nice to see the recognition that rankings are a joke…
So, what would a quality university ranking system entail?
Some ideas; although some would be simply next to impossible to obtain.
A ‘point score’ based on overall GPA/internship hours/campus involvement, How long it took new grads to obtain placement into their intended career, % increase in earnings 10 years out, gre/gmat/lsat/mcat scores, scholarships/grant awards to its students, and a ‘maturity index’ for freshman versus seniors.</p>
<p>agreed, instead of focusing on what college resources there are, we need to focus on what college graduates do after they leave college, how much they earn, their GRE scores etc… because getting prepared to go out into the real world is the point of college</p>
<p>Overall rankings will always be flawed, no matter what the criteria are. But individual rankings like this one–or some of USNWR’s single-criteria rankings–can be holistically combined and weighted according to each individual’s preferences to become an accurate tool of assessment. This particular ranking is only applicable to assessing entering strength of the overall student body as approximated by standardized testing–it is not designed to assess anything else, and I don’t see the point of people complaining that it doesn’t accurately rank colleges, because it isn’t supposed to be comprehensive at all.</p>
<p>BobbyCT,
My data is a year behind what the OP provided so I expect most schools have improved on this, but here is the most recently available data on USNWR. I also limited my data collection to LACs ranked in the Top 25 so there may be a few ranked lower that actually have statistically stronger student bodies. If you are looking beyond the Top 25, I encourage you to dig a little yourself on the Peterson’s or USNWR sites.</p>
<p>Total Score , LAC , % of students scoring 700+ on CR (25%) , % of students scoring 700+ on Math (25%) , % of students scoring 30+ on ACT (50%)</p>
<p>85% , Harvey Mudd , 74% , 95% , 85%
73% , Pomona , 74% , 71% , 73%
69% , Amherst , 66% , 60% , 75%
66% , Williams , 66% , 61% , 68%
65% , Swarthmore , 71% , 64% , 62%
62% , Carleton , 57% , 52% , 69%
62% , Middlebury , 56% , 49% , 71%
62% , Claremont McK , 52% , 53% , 71%
59% , Bowdoin , 49% , 45% , 70%
56% , Wesleyan , 56% , 49% , 59%
54% , Wellesley , 54% , 47% , 57%
54% , Grinnell , 46% , 37% , 66%
53% , W&L , 55% , 43% , 57%
52% , Haverford , 55% , 49% , 52%
50% , Colgate , 38% , 36% , 63%
48% , Davidson , 41% , 40% , 56%
48% , Vassar , 58% , 38% , 48%
47% , Macalester , 47% , 31% , 54%
46% , Oberlin , 57% , 35% , 46%
44% , Colby , 45% , 38% , 47%
40% , Hamilton , 49% , 31% , 40%
30% , Bates , 32% , 28% , 30%
28% , Bryn Mawr , 42% , 20% , 25%
27% , Smith , 32% , 17% , 29%
26% , US Naval Acad , 14% , 24% , 33%</p>
<p>na , US Military Acad , na , na , na</p>
<p>Hawkette, you’re welcome. Thank you for devising this method. It is a very interesting approach, and as you are aware, quite the conversation starter! All the best to you.</p>
<p>Love this. I’m a Pepperdine student, and I feel that my school is severely underrated, especially when compared to the UC system. My high school graduating class valedictorian was smart enough to choose Pepperdine over every UC (as well as UNC Chapel Hill, Duke, and some Claremont Colleges, I’m not disputing their prestige though.)
I can’t even say, however, how many idiots (I mean IDIOTS) from my senior class with high/inflated GPAs and low/mediocre SAT scores got accepted into UCLA/I/D/SD/SB. Those schools rank above Pepp according to U.S. News rankings, but I can say from experience, the student bodies of the UC system (with the exception of LA and Cal), are by no means nearly as intelligent as Pepperdine’s.
Pepperdine’s average admitted SAT is 1920 and ACT is 30, that’s higher than all UCs except UCLA and Cal isn’t it?
I also believe that Pepp’s religious affiliation pulls its rank down.</p>