New college ranking

[Anonymous]

It looks like places that emphasize natural sciences are ranked higher than they would otherwise be in other ranking systems. This means the post-university salaries are an important component in the ranking system. Whether this is justified is for you idiots to quibble endlessly.

[Anonymous]

Yep...schools that are excellent for grad school admissions are penalized.

[Anonymous]

Campus safety is a weird metric to include but the rest of the metrics make sense to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Campus safety is a weird metric to include but the rest of the metrics make sense to me.

The other metrics make sense to me, too. But actually measuring things like the components of “campus experience” gets pretty subjective, which makes this ranking less valuable to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Campus safety is a weird metric to include but the rest of the metrics make sense to me.

The other metrics make sense to me, too. But actually measuring things like the components of “campus experience” gets pretty subjective, which makes this ranking less valuable to me.

PP again. To be clear, why include some components but not others, like the pct of classes taught by TAs or the availability of on-campus tutoring centers. How about clubs or intramural sports or what have you. How about the percent who live on campus vs off, or student rankings for the food. How about the pct of students taken to the hospital for alcohol poisoning every year? Random, I know. But I’m trying to say the “undergraduate experience” includes so many things and the choice inevitably biases the index.

Whereas measures like SATs, # research papers published, or pct graduating and finding a job within six months are easier to agree on. Even if things like starting salaries are subject to different interpretations (is it a good thing that half the class goes into investment banking?).

Call me an index skeptic.

[Anonymous]

I wish there were a way to create your own ranking with the values that were important to you. Maybe you don't care about faculty salaries, but you do want classes under 20 students and a high percent of classes taught by PhDs. Maybe you don't care about diversity, but you do care about retention and graduation rates.

I think that it's telling that the same schools constantly make the top of these lists for undergrad rankings, but the order shifts around depending on the factors weighted. As such, it's best to think in tiers or groupings rather than #1 vs #5.

[Anonymous]

Rice cannot rank higher than UCB.

It's the same kid who got rejected from Rice posting again. So sorry you didn't get in!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish there were a way to create your own ranking with the values that were important to you. Maybe you don't care about faculty salaries, but you do want classes under 20 students and a high percent of classes taught by PhDs. Maybe you don't care about diversity, but you do care about retention and graduation rates.

I think that it's telling that the same schools constantly make the top of these lists for undergrad rankings, but the order shifts around depending on the factors weighted. As such, it's best to think in tiers or groupings rather than #1 vs #5.

I agree. Even better would be if you could enter your planned major. A STEM major’s top 10 isn’t going to look anything like a history major’s top 10. Plus, some universities have a handful of nationally-respected departments even if the school as a whole is further down the list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://wallethub.com/edu/college-rankings/40750/?utm_source=&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=

" In order to determine the best higher-education institutions in the U.S., WalletHub’s analysts compared 973 colleges and universities across seven key dimensions: 1) Student Selectivity, 2) Cost & Financing, 3) Faculty Resources, 4) Campus Safety, 5) Campus Experience, 6) Educational Outcomes and 7) Career Outcomes."

Top 20

1. MIT
2.Princeton
3.Harvard
4.Stanford
5.Caltech
6.Yale
7.Duke
8.Penn
9.Columbia
10.Rice

11.UCB
12.Harvey Mudd
13.JHU
14.Brown
15.Pomona
16.ND
17.Dartmouth
18.Vandy
19.Williams
20.UChicago

Another useless ranking based on stupid premises ...just a marketing tool

Truly. never even heard of wallethub. USN&WR and Forbes and Princeton are the only ones to care about. Everyone here should be reading Collegeconfidential not getting their info from DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Virginia Tech and UMCP are missing from this list and I'm sure so are many others..

[Anonymous]

lol

If money were no object very few would choose Berkeley over Brown, Dartmouth, Hopkins, Williams or Chicago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:lol

If money were no object very few would choose Berkeley over Brown, Dartmouth, Hopkins, Williams or Chicago.

Many would choose Berkeley over Brown, Dartmouth, Hopkins, Williams especially for STEM and CS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:lol

If money were no object very few would choose Berkeley over Brown, Dartmouth, Hopkins, Williams or Chicago.

Many would choose Berkeley over Brown, Dartmouth, Hopkins, Williams especially for STEM and CS.

+1. Plus Berkeley out of state is $55-60k, which doesn’t represent a huge savings over those private schools, so money isn’t the issue. Quality of STEM and CS are the issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://wallethub.com/edu/college-rankings/40750/?utm_source=&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=

" In order to determine the best higher-education institutions in the U.S., WalletHub’s analysts compared 973 colleges and universities across seven key dimensions: 1) Student Selectivity, 2) Cost & Financing, 3) Faculty Resources, 4) Campus Safety, 5) Campus Experience, 6) Educational Outcomes and 7) Career Outcomes."

Top 20

1. MIT
2.Princeton
3.Harvard
4.Stanford
5.Caltech
6.Yale
7.Duke
8.Penn
9.Columbia
10.Rice

11.UCB
12.Harvey Mudd
13.JHU
14.Brown
15.Pomona
16.ND
17.Dartmouth
18.Vandy
19.Williams
20.UChicago

Another useless ranking based on stupid premises ...just a marketing tool

Truly. never even heard of wallethub. USN&WR and Forbes and Princeton are the only ones to care about. Everyone here should be reading Collegeconfidential not getting their info from DCUM.

WSJ/THE is also good.
This ranking is also not bad. This top 10 makes way more sense than the USNews top 10 for example. USNews focuses only in inputs which provides limited insights and can be easily manipulated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Campus safety is a weird metric to include but the rest of the metrics make sense to me.

The other metrics make sense to me, too. But actually measuring things like the components of “campus experience” gets pretty subjective, which makes this ranking less valuable to me.

PP again. To be clear, why include some components but not others, like the pct of classes taught by TAs or the availability of on-campus tutoring centers. How about clubs or intramural sports or what have you. How about the percent who live on campus vs off, or student rankings for the food. How about the pct of students taken to the hospital for alcohol poisoning every year? Random, I know. But I’m trying to say the “undergraduate experience” includes so many things and the choice inevitably biases the index.

Whereas measures like SATs, # research papers published, or pct graduating and finding a job within six months are easier to agree on. Even if things like starting salaries are subject to different interpretations (is it a good thing that half the class goes into investment banking?).

Call me an index skeptic.

Agree. And I can tell you from experience that what is chosen as a metric most often depends on the data that is available and how complete/reliable it is. Some things that would be really valuable don't get included because colleges don't (or won't) report the numbers, or because no one has yet taken the imitative to gather that data. Have to applaud WSJ/THE for trying to bring deifferent criteria to the table and wish others would do the same, rather than just creating formulas that reweight the existing data.