<p>So these rankings mean next to nothing, but I was just wondering what everyone’s thoughts were about W&L’s new ranking and the US News system in general. Feel free to launch a tirade against or employ a spirited defense of this controversial system.</p>
<p>I said this on the main CC thread about the rankings: </p>
<p>Th US Service Academies should not be ranked as Liberal Arts colleges. The cadets and mids do take English, History, FL but those are in addition to Calc, DiffEQ, Thermo.....</p>
<p>Also on the thread is an inaccurate comment lambasting W&L. It was written by a poster who had been corrected of her misconceptions about W&L on the W&L forum but is apparently still spouting her vitriol.</p>
<p>In general, I think Davidson and W&L would be higher ranked if they were located in the North. Their Peer Assessments are much lower than the rankings would indicate. There seems to be a geographical bias against the Southern schools.</p>
<p>The message by friedokra that you are referrring to:</p>
<p>Ahem....Fordham went up three spots too.</p>
<p>As for W & L...its one of those schools that is very hard to get into, but once there, its rather mundane. Their ONLY claim to fame is producing a Supreme Court Justice and having ties to Congress to place people as congressional staffers. Blah Blah Blah. Its a beautiful campus, mind you, but its faculty is aging and UNCHANGED in 20 years......and BORING.</p>
<p>Their admissions is not exactly the paragon of HONOR they profess...they regularly admit kids who DONT apply for financial aid and legacy kids..up to 25% who have LOWER scores than kids they rejected.</p>
<p>Its a game.</p>
<p>Its very preppy and girls with pearls. But its sports absolutely suck.</p>
<p>Its a small school in a small town with nothing to do but drink and go on sorority panty raids. FACT.</p>
<p>My comment: someone is very bitter about an undisclosed event. time to move on as they say and get over it. but what is it? i'm really curious and i've asked it directly before.</p>
<p>at some point in the top 20, differences are minimal at best. i think rankings are basically idiotic but it's something we love in America--but do we like the lyrics or the beat best? Just to be there is quite an honor.</p>
<p>these freaks who obsess over being #1 or #4 need to get a life beyond college. but i doubt they ever will get over attending a particular institution. i once worked with someone who never forget they went to Princeton and they made sure you never did either. he was an overweight pompous ass with greasy hair and disgusting teeth but such an intellectual!!! Ha.ha.ha.</p>
<p>Ranking schools is such an inexact science anyways. Although the US News rankings are probably the most widely-used, other independent guides rank W&L much more towards opposite ends of the spectrum. College ******* alleged that W&L's academics were second only to Princeton, Harvard, and Williams and superior to Penn, Northwestern, Cornell, Middlebury, and the like. The Fiske Guide to Colleges, however, never seems to resist the chance to vilify every aspect of the school. </p>
<p>There is obviously no magic formula for ranking schools, but I do believe that many schools located in the South do not receive recognition commensurate with their excellence (i.e., Duke, Davidson, GA Tech, Vanderbilt, W&L, W&M, etc...).</p>
<p>Sorority panty raids? Sounds fun, especially since it's a "FACT" . . . now if only there wasn't the problem of the sorority houses having swipe card entry that only allows the girls of that specific sorority in . . .</p>
<p>And personally, I have long ago stopped caring about the US News Rankings. Since I've been at W&L, the school rose a few spots, then fell a few spots, now rose a few spots again. So what was different my sophomore year that made us "worse" than Hamilton/Colgate/Smith while my freshman and junior year we're "better"?</p>
<p>Actually I've been thinking about that, and it wouldn't be all that hard, you'd just need to steal a sorority sister's swipe card. Which shouldn't be a problem since W&L doesn't have any kind of honor system in place that would lead to your expulsion for that act . . . oh wait . . . maybe I need to think about this some more.</p>
<p>gchris~ USNEWS is a sad commentary on our culture which places so much emphasis on what we THINK is supposed to be good, because THEY say so! of all the ranking books/systems out there, this one is the most creative about all the statistical variables that are hogwash.(i'd use other terminology, but would get bleeped!) as has been said many times by now, remember the MAJOR variables accounting for the rankings are endowments and other "good 'ole boy" presidents' votes. one hand washes the other, as far as the president's votes go, and endowments (which are SUPPOSED to reflect money spent on students) often don't go to them at all!</p>
<p>And since the rankings can be affected by something as completely subjective as a school's supposed "politics" (as opposed to W&L's excellent politics department), they should not hold much water.</p>