Fri 15 Aug 2008
Beating US News to the punch, Forbes released its own college rankings this week. The methodology is pretty questionable (Wabash ahead of Stanford, Bowdoin, Middlebury, MIT etc.?), but anything that places Williams above Amherst has to be on to something … the top five, according to Forbes:
1. Princeton 2. CalTech 3. Harvard 4. Swarthmore 5. Williams
August 16th, 2008 at 12:28 am
Having the Ephs over the Lord Jeffs is a truly marvelous notion.
Whatever the criteria in their rankings, having Williams in the top 5 is outstanding to say the least.
Though not particularly fond of Swarthmore as to fit, a number of fine liberal arts colleges are equally qualified to support interest and benefit.
Onward with the expansion of rankings to rattle the rabble.
August 16th, 2008 at 1:11 am
There was the Cardiff Giant and the War of the Worlds; there now re-emerges Bigfoot; and contemporaneously with that re-emergence there is manufactured one more college ranking - all for the benefit of the mountebank and the hemiplegia of the intellectually homespun and/or hysterical.
August 16th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
No, I think the overwhelming absurdity of those rankings may actually provide Amherst with a very plausible argument in their favor. USNA at 36? WashU (St. Louis) in the hundreds? NYU, UMichigan, and Grinnell even lower? Rutgers in the 400s? This makes US News look like revealed prophecy.
August 16th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
What’s wrong with the US Naval Academy?
And, I should hope that NYU is lower than 36th. Public school numbers at private school pricing, probably one of the biggest rip-offs in higher education.
Why would Rutgers, a crappy public university that’s probably even worse than UMass, be above the 400s?
August 16th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
And speaking of college rankings in magazines, did anyone else see “The Top 12 College Rivalries” in the latest Newsweek? Examples:
Harvard and Yale
Berkeley and Stanford
Annapolis and West Point
Caltech and MIT
and, of course, the classic Division III liberal arts college rivalry:
Amherst and … Pomona
Huh. Did the Lord Jeffs decide that it was just too difficult to compete with the Ephs?
http://www.newsweek.com/id/151735/page/4
August 16th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Don’t forget the rivalry of Bigfoot versus Chupacabra…I think they were spotted near Mount Greylock chasing a catamount
August 17th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
HWC:
My comments were directed more at the rankings of school relative to one another.
Absolutely nothing is wrong with the Naval Academy. I think it should be ranked higher than 36.
There is no way that Rutgers should be ranked lower than the University of Louisville or North Central College, both places that I have taught, thanks to my Rutgers PhD. U of L is an open admissions school with a retention rate below 30%. North Central College is, well, not a place to be ranked above Rutgers, a selective state university with top-10 programs in philosophy, math, and English, as well as top-50 programs in women’s studies, agriculture, etc.
Maybe the most apt thing to say about this list is the problem of comparing across the spectrum of liberal arts colleges, comprehensive Masters colleges, and universities.
August 17th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
The Forbes rankings are a total joke. Stanford at 23? Wesleyan at 21? Brown at 27? Penn at 63?!!…and why would they combine national universities and LACs. All this college ranking nonsense has become a three ring circus…US News and Washington Monthly are both flawed systems, but they look absolutely brilliant compared to the trash that Forbes has just put out
August 17th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Going through page after page of questionable choices….comparing apples to oranges to bananas…Universities to colleges. Wabash? Wabash? Nice college, great cannonball song…but…..? How did Hamilton sneak up the list? When your methodology includes creative mascot and proximity to livestock, funny things are going to happen.
August 18th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Only those whose view of the world approximates the formerly-humorous New Yorker map of the US would say, “Wabash? Wabash?” Many others would say with equal vehemence, “Middlebury? Bowdoin?” Aside from the bizarre costs for both — they are largely unknown outside of the Northeast. So let’s dispense with the false shared knowledge of what we all “surely must know” — especially when some here clearly are lacking in the knowledge necessary to make such judgements.
That said, it does seem odd to place universities and liberal arts colleges together in one category. If the goal is to reveal those colleges that accomplish their educational missions, rather than ranking the admissions departments, this list may prove valuable.