Finally! An OBJECTIVE ranking of the "smartest" colleges

[Anonymous]

Some may think there is more to college than academics (athletics, social life, networking), but for those who care about academics, here's the data:

http://blog.lumosity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/SmartestColleges2013_white-paper.pdf

[Anonymous]

Interesting. but I certainly would not pick a college for academics or any other offerings solely based on one 'objective' ranking. I think a comparison and study of other rankings would be more beneficial.

Although as I get more and more brain freezes, I might engage in Lumosity to keep those cobwebs at bay.

[Anonymous]

Nice to see my alma mater on the list!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nice to see my alma mater on the list!

Mine too but a few steps down.

[Anonymous]

GMU beat UMD. Prepare for the battle of the boosters.

[Anonymous]

This is a ranking of people who play this company's on-line games. You might ask yourself why college students would have the time or interest in playing these games and how that would affect the rankings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a ranking of people who play this company's on-line games. You might ask yourself why college students would have the time or interest in playing these games and how that would affect the rankings.

Yet the results are highly correlated each school's SAT averages. Sorry your alma mater fared poorly.

[Anonymous]

I think both educators and statisticians might have a lot of trouble with this study.

From an education perspective, (a) I'm not aware of studies that demonstrate that the things supposedly measured by the Lumosity games are actually correlated to academic success and (b) I'm not aware of studies that demonstrate that the Lumosity games actually measure those things.

From a statistics perspective, the self-sampling from institutions does not appear to be controlled for (who's playing Lumosity games - the top 50 students or the bottom 50?) and the minimum sample size seems like it would be small. While generally you need at least 30 to approximate a normal distribution, a sample of 50 is different when you're talking about a population of a few thousand vs. a population of many thousands.

There have been mixed studies on whether Lumosity actually works, but, as one reviewer said,

Lumosity tends to send the same games to me over and over (they're usually spread out over different days of the week while gradually introducing new games here and there). I get it, repetition will make you better and raise your BPI, but I can never tell if I'm actually experiencing any cognitive improvements in the real world or if I'm just familiar with the games, so I know what to expect when playing them.

(I've got no dog in this fight, my alma mater isn't in the list.)

[Anonymous]

MIT and Caltech are the smartest, followed probably by Reed. Can't discern this from results of selected students who play certain video games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a ranking of people who play this company's on-line games. You might ask yourself why college students would have the time or interest in playing these games and how that would affect the rankings.

Yet the results are highly correlated each school's SAT averages. Sorry your alma mater fared poorly.

Those who excel at the SAT often say that, for them, the test is much like a game. If you don't see the "fun" in that type of test, you should look at the ACT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a ranking of people who play this company's on-line games. You might ask yourself why college students would have the time or interest in playing these games and how that would affect the rankings.

Yet the results are highly correlated each school's SAT averages. Sorry your alma mater fared poorly.

My alma mater is Princeton. I didn't check to see how it fared because I don't care.

There are all sorts of reasons to wonder if these are skewed. Wouldn't more males than females play on-line games? Wouldn't more STEM students than humanities students?

But hey if you want your child to select a school based on this silliness (I think all rankings are silly, but this one takes the cake) go at it.

[Anonymous]

12:37, I don't think you get what Lumosity is.

It's not really a game site. It's a "brain training" site with games designed to improve memory, cognition, etc. Assumptions that might apply to actual video games (more males than females, more STEM than humanities) don't necessarily apply to Lumosity.

I think 08:36 summed up the problems with this the best, and I personally think this has about as much credence as an IQ test.

[Anonymous]

Just another dumb list. Who cares? The smartest school for my kid is the one that fits my kid the best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just another dumb list. Who cares? The smartest school for my kid is the one that fits my kid the best.

How do you determine that without trying each one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:12:37, I don't think you get what Lumosity is.

It's not really a game site. It's a "brain training" site with games designed to improve memory, cognition, etc. Assumptions that might apply to actual video games (more males than females, more STEM than humanities) don't necessarily apply to Lumosity.

I think 08:36 summed up the problems with this the best, and I personally think this has about as much credence as an IQ test.

Why would college students even be playing these games? 70 year-olds who are worried about dementia, I can understand. I would be interested in a break down by age group of who visits the site.