I know Williams was ranked #1 in 2014, #2 in 2015 and 2016, and then suddenly fell out of the top 10 in 2017, going to 13th, then 12th, and then, finally, this year #19th.
This isn’t really going to affect my decision in anyway, I’m mostly just curious. I’m aware that being in the Top 20 is still amazing, it’s just that going from 1st to 19th in five years seems rather sudden. Does anyone know how that happened?
Forbes changed their methodology to be more about the Benjamins and PR of alumni in 2017. Not saying it’s not valid, just different: https://www.forbes.com/sites/cartercoudriet/2017/08/02/top-colleges-2017-the-methodology/#30148b1be44a
Interesting.
Just to quickly elaborate on a data issue with Forbes ranking, it pulls its data from both Payscale (self-reported salary) and DOE (needs to have outstanding federal loans that are reported via Federal Income taxes to be in DOE’s data set). Neither of those seem like a great way to poll for the salaries of Williams students, especially considering the small n size per class year (550).