<p>The publication of the 2009 USNWR College Rankings provides an opportunity to compare schools based on a wide variety of data points. In this and in other threads, I urge the reader to think less about the absolute rankings and more about the nature and value-added of the data point being discussed.</p>
<p>USNWR describes its Financial Resource Rank as follows:</p>
<p>"Financial resources (10 percent). Generous per-student spending indicates that a college can offer a wide variety of programs and services. U.S. News measures financial resources by using the average spending per student on instruction, research, student services, and related educational expenditures in the 2006 and 2007 fiscal years. Spending on sports, dorms, and hospitals doesn't count, only the part of a school's budget that goes toward educating students."</p>
<p>Following is how colleges ranked in the USNWR Top 50 national universities and the USNWR Top 25 LACs compared on this metric:</p>
<p>USNWR FINANCIAL RESOURCES RANK , NATIONAL UNIVERSITY</p>
<p>1 , Caltech
2 , Yale
3 , MIT
3 , Johns Hopkins
5 , Wash U
6 , Wake Forest
7 , Harvard
7 , U Chicago
9 , U Penn
10 , Stanford
11 , Duke
11 , Dartmouth
13 , Northwestern
14 , Princeton
14 , Vanderbilt
16 , Columbia
17 , Cornell
17 , Emory
19 , U Rochester
19 , Yeshiva
21 , Case Western
23 , Rice
23 , Carnegie Mellon
25 , Brown
26 , UCLA
28 , UCSD
29 , U Washington
31 , Tufts
31 , U North Carolina
31 , UC Davis
35 , U Michigan
37 , Georgetown
38 , USC
38 , NYU
40 , Notre Dame
43 , Rensselaer
44 , UC Berkeley
44 , U Florida
47 , Georgia Tech
50 , Brandeis
50 , Lehigh
50 , U Wisconsin
53 , Tulane
55 , UC Irvine
63 , U Virginia
63 , U Illinois
65 , Penn State
70 , Boston Coll
94 , UC Santa Barbara
94 , U Texas
111 , W&M</p>
<p>USNWR FINANCIAL RESOURCES RANK , NATIONAL UNIVERSITY</p>
<p>1 , US Military Acad
2 , US Naval Acad
4 , Williams
5 , Wellesley
6 , Swarthmore
6 , Middlebury
8 , Pomona
10 , Amherst
10 , Vassar
12 , Bowdoin
12 , Harvey Mudd
14 , Haverford
14 , Claremont McK
18 , Smith
20 , Hamilton
22 , Wesleyan
22 , Grinnell
25 , Carleton
25 , Davidson
25 , W&L
25 , Colgate
25 , Bryn Mawr
33 , Oberlin
35 , Bates
38 , Colby
45 , Macalester</p>