<p>Specifically, where would Amherst College and Wellesley College fit, you think, on the list for national universities?
Thanks !</p>
<p>It's really hard to do that because the system of ranking is totally different. Don't worry so much about rankings. Those are both excellent schools.</p>
<p>It is difficult to find the combined ranking but this is one of them from "Br*dy".</p>
<ol>
<li> Harvard</li>
<li> Princeton</li>
<li> Yale</li>
<li> Stanford</li>
<li> Dartmouth</li>
<li> MIT</li>
<li> Amherst</li>
<li> Williams</li>
<li> Columbia University</li>
<li> California Institute of Technology</li>
<li> Brown</li>
<li> Duke</li>
<li> University of Pennsylvania</li>
<li> University of Chicago</li>
<li> Swarthmore</li>
<li> Northwestern University</li>
<li> Cornell University</li>
<li> Johns Hopkins</li>
<li> University of California-Berkeley</li>
<li> Bowdoin</li>
<li> Georgetown</li>
<li> Harvey Mudd</li>
<li> University of Michigan</li>
<li> Wellesley</li>
<li><pre><code>Washington University of St. Louis
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>NYU
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>Notre Dame
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>Carleton
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>UCLA
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>Claremont McKenna
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>University of Virginia
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>Pomona
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>Middlebury
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>Vassar
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>Colgate
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>University of Wisconsin-Madison
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>University of North Carolina
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>William and Mary
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>Vanderbilt
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>Bates
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>Emory
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>Smith
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>Wesleyan
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>Davidson
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>Grinnell
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>Rice
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>Colby
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>University of Texas-Austin
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>University of Southern California
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code>Tufts
</code></pre></li>
</ol>
<p>One of the few things USNews does right is not try to rank schools with completely disparate goals—i.e. LACs vs. national/research universities—together. Let's not either. (And the above ranking is whack)</p>
<p>Dartmouth ahead of MIT?</p>
<p>NYU ahead of Pomona, Middleburry, Wesleyan? In fact, even amoungst the givien catagories this ranking seems off. I've never seen Colgate or Vassar so far ahead of Wes...</p>
<p>Bowdowin ahead of Georgetown and ND? Laughable.</p>
<p>Here is another one. This one is from "T*p Tier Educational Services".</p>
<p>2006-2008 TOP TIER™ College Rankings
Academic Peer Assessment; Employer Assessment (Upper Level Management); Graduate and
Professional School Admissions Officer Assessment; Quality of Student Body by SAT / SAT II; Quality of
Student Body by GPA / Class Rank; Resources / Expenditure Per Student; Graduate /Professional
School Attendance; Wage and Employment; Number of Applications / Desirability of School</p>
<ol>
<li> Yale</li>
<li> Princeton</li>
<li> Harvard</li>
<li> Williams</li>
<li> Amherst</li>
<li> Stanford</li>
<li> Massachusetts Inst. of Technology</li>
<li> California Inst. of Technology</li>
<li> Columbia</li>
<li> Penn</li>
<li> Chicago</li>
<li> Northwestern</li>
<li> Cornell</li>
<li> Swarthmore</li>
<li> Johns Hopkins</li>
<li> Brown</li>
<li> UC Berkeley</li>
<li> Duke</li>
<li> NYU</li>
<li> Michigan</li>
<li> University of Virginia</li>
<li> Wellesley</li>
<li> Dartmouth</li>
<li> Pomona</li>
<li> Smith</li>
<li> Univ. of Southern California</li>
<li> Barnard</li>
<li> UCLA</li>
<li> Vasser</li>
<li> Wesleyan</li>
<li> Carnegie Mellon</li>
<li> Emory</li>
<li> Bowdoin</li>
<li> Rice</li>
<li> Notre Dame</li>
<li> Cooper Union</li>
<li> Harverford</li>
<li> Scripps</li>
<li> Smith</li>
<li> Bryn Mawr</li>
<li> Vanderbilt</li>
<li> Bates</li>
<li> Harvey Mudd</li>
<li> Georgetown</li>
<li> Middlebury</li>
<li> University of North Carolina</li>
<li> Tufts</li>
<li> Tulane</li>
<li> William and Mary</li>
<li> U.S. Naval Academy</li>
</ol>
<p>"Dartmouth ahead of MIT?"</p>
<p>I am sure you'll be happy to see that Dartmouth is ranked below MIT on this ranking. Actually too low.</p>
<p>It just shows that all rankings are dependent on the criteria you set. Having said that, I must say that these rankings do show some trend.</p>
<p>hi nyu is not > than notre dame</p>
<p>Amherst would rank with Dartmouth, Duke, and Stanford.
Wellesley would rank with Tufts, Georgetown, Emory.
based on student quality/selectivity</p>
<p>This top tier rank seems fairly accurate and more like the real world, and eliminates some of the things that skew the USNWR ratings. It is not as if the 24th school is "better" than the 28th school, but as a general tiering of reputation and desirability, this is not bad. Everyone will have some quibbles--Carnegie Mellon over Bowdoin, Notre Dame and Rice??- and the Wash U apologists will be dejected at their school's absence from the top 50. One can quarrel with the categories chosen but this, at least, is not a manipulated ranking.</p>
<p>love how mudd is #43 on that list... because we all know that state schools are better than mudd...</p>
<p>Copper Union...isnt that where you go to become a coal miner?</p>
<p>I created this grouping for another thread. In further analysis of this, I discovered a high correlation between my groups and SAT scores. Anyway, one person's opinion:</p>
<p>The Premier Schools with the Premier Students: (The Top Ten)
Amherst, Cal Tech, U Chicago, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, Swarthmore, Williams, Yale</p>
<p>The Second Group (Ranks 10-20)
Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Duke, Middlebury, Northwestern, Penn, Rice, WashU, Wellesley</p>
<p>The Third Group (Ranks 21-30)
Bowdoin, Cornell, Davidson, Emory, Georgetown, Haverford, Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame, Tufts, Vanderbilt</p>
<p>The Fourth Group (Ranks 31-50)
Boston College, Brandeis, BYU, UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Colgate, UCLA, Lehigh, NYU, U Michigan, U North Carolina, U Rochester, USC, U Texas, Vassar, U Virginia, W&L, Wesleyan, Wake Forest, William & Mary</p>
<p>The Fifth Group (Ranks 51-70)
Bates, Bryn Mawr, Bucknell, Colby, U Florida, Fordham, George Washington, Georgia Tech, U Georgia, Hamilton, Indiana U, Lafayette, Mount Holyoke, Penn State, U Richmond, Smith, Syracuse, Trinity, Tulane, U Wisconsin, Yeshiva</p>
<p>Hawkette, no Grinnell or Carleton?! The latter is certainly deserving of placement into the third group, at least.</p>
<p>Leaving out Mudd, CMC and Pomona as well???</p>
<p>hawkette there are so many omissions its not even funny:</p>
<p>ever heard of a little school called POMONA??? easily one of the top schools in the country, uni or lac.
carleton????
claremont mckenna?
grinnell?
harvey mudd??
connecticut college?
REED??
oberlin???
macalester?
barnard??
kenyon?
whitman?
holy cross?</p>
<p>all at least in the 5th category.</p>
<p>lehigh and nyu over any of the schools in the last grouping??</p>
<p>I'd argue that Amherst, Williams and Swartmore are on par with Columbia, Penn, Dartmouth, and Brown. I would argue that Middlebury and Wellesley are below this list (along with Northwestern and Rice). For example Dartmouth's SAT's are on par with Williams and Amherst, and D splits cross admits evenly with Amherst and has an edge against Williams.</p>