Question about Mary Washington

[Anonymous]

I just looked up on US News and UMW is ranked at #149
in National Liberal Arts Colleges. Seems really low given that Randolph Macon is #107 and Roanoke College is #120. I am pretty sure UMW is harder to get in but why is the ranking is so low?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just looked up on US News and UMW is ranked at #149
in National Liberal Arts Colleges. Seems really low given that Randolph Macon is #107 and Roanoke College is #120. I am pretty sure UMW is harder to get in but why is the ranking is so low?

I think this just shows that the USNWR methodology makes very small differences between schools seem like large ones. I just compared those three schools in College Navigator and any differences are very slight. Their admit rates are very similar, grad rates too. Except UMW seems to do better with Pell recipient grad rates. UMW has a larger part-time cohort and also a greater female skew (2/3 female). There may be things like endowments giving a slight bump to the private schools for the privates. Or, since UMW is bigger, it might be slightly higher in student/teacher ratios.

Don't take USNWR rankings as gospel, outside of broad tiers IMO they are pretty meaningless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just looked up on US News and UMW is ranked at #149
in National Liberal Arts Colleges. Seems really low given that Randolph Macon is #107 and Roanoke College is #120. I am pretty sure UMW is harder to get in but why is the ranking is so low?

I think this just shows that the USNWR methodology makes very small differences between schools seem like large ones. I just compared those three schools in College Navigator and any differences are very slight. Their admit rates are very similar, grad rates too. Except UMW seems to do better with Pell recipient grad rates. UMW has a larger part-time cohort and also a greater female skew (2/3 female). There may be things like endowments giving a slight bump to the private schools for the privates. Or, since UMW is bigger, it might be slightly higher in student/teacher ratios.

Don't take USNWR rankings as gospel, outside of broad tiers IMO they are pretty meaningless.

Thanks. This is helpful. I suspect the endowment is a difference. Mary Washington, as a public school, probably won’t need as much endowment as private schools.