USNWR 2016 Predictions

College Search & Selection
61

Can someone explain why people rank Colgate lower than Hamilton?

62

@NASA2014: Probably for the same reasons that any two colleges would be rated above or below the other: a combination of objective (e.g., SAT scores) and subjective (in this forum determined by the poster) factors.

63

@prezbucky there’s no way that Bucknell won’t be in the top 30.

64

USNews is “previewing” the 2016 list by listing the top 10 LAC’s (actually 11 because of a tie) in alphabetical order:

Amherst College (MA)
Bowdoin College (ME)
Carleton College (MN)
Claremont McKenna College (CA)
Davidson College (NC)
Middlebury College (VT)
Pomona College (CA)
Swarthmore College ¶
United States Naval Academy (MD)
Wellesley College (MA)
Williams College (MA)

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2015/09/04/2016-best-colleges-preview-top-10-national-liberal-arts-colleges?src=usn_tw

65

Whoa, so Haverford drops out of the top 10?

“@prezbucky there’s no way that Bucknell won’t be in the top 30.”

@samf01, that isn’t what I think the US News ranking will be; that’s my personal ranking. Or it was, on that afternoon. Looking at it again, I think I was too harsh on Caltech.

As for Bucknell in my LAC ranking, they would be included in that group at #25 - I included ellipses to suggest that there are a number of other schools, of roughly the same quality, deserving mention.

66
  1. Dartmouth
  2. Brown
  3. MIT
  4. Vanderbilt
  5. Northwestern
  6. Rice
  7. Princeton
  8. Duke
  9. Notre Dame
  10. Stanford
  11. Columbia
  12. Yale
  13. UChicago
  14. Penn
  15. Cornell
  16. Hopkins
  17. Caltech
  18. Berkeley
  19. Harvard
  20. WUSTL
67

It’s about time one of the academies cracked top ten. I really believe the quality of academics and overall undergraduate reputation have always been top 10-worthy.

68

The top 10 publics have also been released. Unsurprisingly, the UCs make up half of the top 10.

College of William and Mary
Georgia Institute of Technology
University of California—Berkeley
University of California—Irvine
University of California—Los Angeles
University of California—San Diego
University of California—Santa Barbara
University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill
University of Virginia

An interesting case, for sure. It regularly ranks in or just outside the top 10, and yet it receives fewer posts than all 30 of the “CC Top LACs” except Macalester, Trinity (CT), and Whitman. Skepticism of the quality of southern schools greatly outweighs the impact of USNWR, it seems.

Perhaps it would get more attention if it were one of the “hidden” and “underrated” colleges on the ever popular Colleges That Change Lives list.

69

I’d rank University of Washington higher than all Universities of California except UCLA and Cal. What California bias! And what about Cornell’s Agriculture School?

70
  1. Yale
  2. Harvard
  3. Columbia
  4. Princeton
  5. Stanford
  6. Duke
  7. MIT
  8. Dartmouth
  9. CalTech
  10. Northwestern (please G-D)
  11. UChicago
  12. Johns Hopkins
  13. Penn
  14. WashU
  15. Brown
  16. Rice
  17. Notre Dame
  18. Vanderbilt
  19. Berkeley
  20. Cornell

My honest picks

71

“And what about Cornell’s agriculture school?” (#114)

Cornell regards the three – Agriculture and Life Sciences, Human Ecology, and Industrial and Labor Relations – of seven of its undergraduate colleges that benefit directly from New York State financial support to be privately run and therefore private colleges.

72

@SeattleTW (#114), various rankings often place UW higher than the other UCs, but US News seems to favor the UCs, all of which are great schools, of course.

If you combined the big four university rankings (US News, THE, QS and ARWU), the “top 20” would be:

1 Harvard 2.25 avg. rank
2 MIT 4.25
2 Stanford 4.25
4 Princeton 5.75
5 Caltech 6.5
6 Yale 8.25
7 Chicago 8.75
8 Columbia 10
9 Penn 13.25
10 Johns Hopkins 14.5
11 Berkeley 14.75
12 Cornell 16.5
13 Duke 20.50
14 UCLA 21
15 Michigan 22.75
16 Northwestern 24
17 NYU 34.5
18 Wisconsin 35.25
19 UCSD 37.75
20 Washington 38.5

Not a bad list (and Harvard moves back to #1)!

73

@prezbucky …why did you not include any of the service. academies in your LAC prediction? I’m just curious; they usually do quite well.

74

In two days, this tread will have a breakdown. Let the countdown begin

75

@jc40 we already know USNA is in the top 10. See post #104.

76

I like the ranking from N*iche (only research universities for this list) and think USNWR is going to see the light, although I am upset Dartmouth is not in the top 15

  1. Stanford
  2. MIT
  3. Harvard
  4. Yale
  5. Rice
  6. UPenn
  7. Princeton
  8. WashU StL
  9. USC
  10. Vanderbilt
  11. Duke
  12. Brown
  13. UNC CH
  14. Columbia
  15. Notre Dame
  16. UT Austin
  17. Chicago
  18. UCLA
  19. Michigan
77

Dartmouth isn’t a top research university. It’s endowment is so low compared to other high research universities.

78

Jennings99: I like the Niche rankings too but it should be noted that the list you posted included various other factors besides the academic ranking. Niche also has a ranking that is exclusively based on academic factors. In terms of the overall rankings (which is where you got the list you posted), Niche considers the following criteria: academics (35%), student surveys re: overall experience (12%), campus quality (from stats and surveys) (12%), loan default rate (6%), athletics (stats and surveys) (5%), average net price (5%), diversity grade (5%), local area grade (5%), endowment per full time student (4%), guys and girls grade (statistics and surveys) (4%), health and safety grade (4%), party scene grade (4%), private gifts/grants per full-time student (3%).

79

Re #126: Dartmouth’s absolute endowment may be less than some of its peers, but by per student endowment, Green is fourth in its athletic conference.

Re #125: Where’s #17?

80

Sorry, I was taking out the liberal arts schools from the list (niche combines them online list) and my numbering got off