why aren't national university and liberal colleges ranked together?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>why aren't national university and liberal colleges ranked together?</p>

2

<p>comparing apples to oranges.</p>

3

<p>How are top liberal colleges compared to ivy league schools?</p>

4

<p>Williams and Amherst are the top LACs…I believe they share a cross admit battle with Ivies. Both attract the same caliber student, but the student probably prefers a particular environment that an LAC or a research university offers.</p>

5

<p>What about Wesleyan and Haverford? How are they ranked among LACs and how are they compared to ivies?</p>

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<p>This is something I’ve always wondered as well. In theory, the mission of LACs and Unis for undergrads should be the same.</p>

7

<p>The missions are similar, but there simply are some who prefer big schools with many majors and a wide variety of activities, and some who prefer small schools with smaller classes and closer attention from profs.</p>

8

<p>“In theory, the mission of LACs and Unis for undergrads should be the same.”</p>

<p>It would be too expensive and complicated to implement such a system, and even the wealthiest research universities wouldn’t have the resources or leadership to do it.</p>

<p>What’s to be done? Assign certain professors to focus on teaching, others to focus on research? Hire a lot more faculty, obviously. That sort of financial investment is unsustainable in the long run.</p>

<p>“What about Wesleyan and Haverford? How are they ranked among LACs and how are they compared to ivies?”</p>

<p>Ranking isn’t important among the LACs. Wesleyan and Haverford are among the best LACs, though. You need to be clearer with your questions. Compared under what metrics?</p>

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<p>universities are researched-based institutions. LACs are undergrad (teaching-based) focused.</p>

<p>apples and bananas. lol</p>

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<p>Yes, but I’m talking about ranking them by comparing the success of their undergrads (post-grad salaries, grad school admissions, LSAT/MCAT scores, etc). I don’t see why comparing them like that is impractical/hasn’t been done.</p>

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<p>You can do ranking on the students, but comparing the institutions is impossible. Having large graduate student populations, research centers, professional schools, hospitals, museums, etc makes a comprehensive institutional comparison impossible. And you can’t just look at rankings by the student body. For example, Brown’s student body would rank significantly higher than Brown does as an institution.</p>