<p>I've been perusing US News's top colleges list for a while now, but as I understand it, that list only pertains to 2008. It seems kind of arbitrary, but I would be interested in seeing the rankings from previous years. I tried locating them on US News's website, but it appeared as though they have been discontinued. Does anybody know of a site that has them posted?</p>
<p>Sweet, thanks</p>
<p>particularly fascinating is watching WashU's meteoric rise from out of nowhere / unranked 20 years ago -- jumping into the 20s 10 years ago -- and is now ranked a Top 15 school (even rising as high as no. 9).</p>
<p>its amazing how great WashU has become in such a relative short period of time. makes you wonder how they achieved such greatness over such a short period of time? ;)</p>
<p>
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its amazing how great WashU has become in such a relative short period of time. makes you wonder how they achieved such greatness over such a short period of time?
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They did it the old fashioned way -- by purchasing it. The same thing that U$C has and continues to do...</p>
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They did it the old fashioned way -- by purchasing it.
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</p>
<p>God bless America.</p>
<p>Univeristy of Southern California also shows a meteoric rise. I guess academic laziness can only be preserved at great effort :). I assume the donors became weary of the mediocrity and the jokes about the undergrad program.</p>
<p>I say USC's rise is even more astounding than WashU's. Thirty three years ago when I applied to undergrad colleges, USC didn't turn anyone away who could pay the tuition... I mean ANYONE. USC's reputation rested at that time on the first rate professional schools, especially dentistry. A certain unnamed person very close to me who attended USC in the late 70s, early 80s complained to me once about this really, really hard class she had that semester. How hard could it be, I wondered to myself, after all it was at USC. Last I checked most classes are graded on a curve, and the other parts of the curve are other USC students.... unless a bunch of Caltech, Pomona and UCLA students were secretly taking the same class. :) So I asked. She replied it was SOOO HAARRD she had to actually "go to every class"! This is an honest to goodness true account.</p>
<p>u penn has also made a large rise.</p>
<p>There are 9 schools with higher PA scores than WashU yet ranked below WashU (no. 12) in the overall USNWR Rankings 2008:</p>
<ul>
<li>Cornell (no. 12 -- tied WashU but Cornell had higher PA score) </li>
<li>Brown (no. 14)</li>
<li>JHU (no. 14)</li>
<li>NU (no. 14)</li>
<li>Cal (no. 21)</li>
<li>CMU (no. 22)</li>
<li>UVA (no. 24)</li>
<li>UNC (no. 25)</li>
<li>UCLA (no. 28)</li>
</ul>
<p>All 9 schools had a PA score higher than 4.1 (WashU's PA score). Aside from CMU (and perhaps UNC), if I had a choice, I'd take all of those schools over WashU.</p>
<p>So, even though I am not a fan of the PA, this disparity shows you that something is "off" with WashU. There isn't another school on this list with such a disparity between its PA score ranking and its overall USNWR ranking.</p>
<p>the_prestige -</p>
<p>Sorry, what is a PA score? I am new to this jargon.</p>
<p>Peer Assessment</p>
<p>Wash U got a ton of $$$ a generation ago and made good use of it; Penn rose w/ good marketing schemes.</p>
<p>Peer Assessment. Where is this stat published?</p>
<p>It's one of the USNews Ranking components...there was a thread that posted all of that information...I'll look for it soon...unless the_prestige beats me to it.</p>
<p>US News is not reflective of academic quality for undergraduates – not by a long shot.</p>
<p>I have heard from many people who know more about it than I do that WashU's rankings are largely BS. They have been cutting down their class sizes considerably in order to be more selective. That's hardly making the school "better."</p>
<p>everyone seems to be picking on wash u. Are they really that bad? I always had the impression that it was a solid college. I don't know too much about the college though.</p>
<p>It's solid, yeah, but like many other schools, you'll get TAs and so forth. Besides that, it's great for grad schools.</p>
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Cornell and JHU both have PAs of 4.6-4.7. That is significantly higher than Wash U at 4.1.
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</p>
<p>Exactly. That is what I said. All of those schools listed in my last post have HIGHER PA scores than WashU, yet are ranked BELOW WashU in the overall rankings (except for Cornell, who tied WashU at no. 12 -- but the point still stands, as Cornell's PA score is significantly higher). In other words, WashU's overall ranking does not jibe with its relatively weaker (in fact much weaker) PA score ranking -- no other top ranked school exhibits such a large disparity. Though I am not a fan of the PA it is still the one component that WashU cannot "fudge" / manipulate.</p>
<p>Perhaps you didn't read my initial post carefully.</p>
<p>Are you getting the PAs from the paid sub to Usnews rankings?</p>