macalester

[Anonymous]

Macalester is strong in sciences, on these lists of best colleges for both chemistry and bio:

https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/top-colleges-chemistry

https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/top-colleges-biology

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks so much for this list. This is incredibly helpful. Can you list the formula you used and how each criteria were weighted?

The first thing I did was to figure out the median SAT score for each college, since I wanted to include only those with a 1360 or above (95th percentile). For colleges that don't require test scores from all applicants, I set the cutoff at 1400.

I then chose the criteria that would likely matter the most to me, placed them each on a 100-point scale, and gave them the following weights (annotated):

% of classes with under 30 students--20% I like the <20 measure that USNWR uses, but wasn't sure classes that small would be necessary for me, so I upped it a bit.

diversity of student body--10% I decided that anything up to 50% non-white was a good thing, but anything beyond that didn't have any effect on my thinking. Using 50% also makes it easier math-wise, since I just have to double whatever each school's number is to put it on a 100-point scale. 42 of the 90 schools I looked at had over 50% non-white students and received a score of 100.

% of faculty who are women--5% Same thing with taking any number up to 50% and doubling it. The only schools to score 100 on this were all liberal arts colleges.

% of faculty who are minority--5% Again, any number up to 50% was doubled. The closest anyone got to 100 here was a 74 (37%)...at the University of Miami, interestingly. USC was #2 with 35% (score of 70).

Princeton Review score for how much students like their professors--20%. They do this on a 100-point scale, so no need for adjustment.

Princeton Review score for students' overall happiness with non-academic issues (food, dorm, admin, campus, etc)--20%. They use a 100-point scale for this, too.

Total number of classes offered--20% I transferred out of my LAC into a state school at least partly due to the limited number of classes in my major, so this is important to me. I decided that anything under 2000 class sections (for the entire school) should have points taken off, so I subtracted 1 point for every 100 class sections below 2000.

I like the balancing of the first and last factors. To whatever extent possible, I personally value any school higher that has many, many options for me to choose from, but that also has classes small enough for me to be able to ask questions without feeling like I'm monopolizing limited time. Smaller classes also mean I'm more likely to be able to connect with the professors outside the classroom and get to know the other students well enough to continue discussions when class is over.

The data came from each college's Common Data Set and from Princeton Review. Section B of the CDS has data on student diversity, and Section I has faculty diversity and data for classes.

FYI, please don't respond with arguments about why my choice of criteria or my weightings are not what should be used. That's the whole point of this exercise! Everyone should pick what's important to them as an individual and create their own personal ranking. Yes, I realize that 40% of my decision is based on the opinions of students. I happen to think that's a great source of information, certainly better than the 20% that USNWR gives to the opinions of school officials. You may disagree, so adjust accordingly.

Reminder: the overall score differential between Pomona at #1 (score 91.0) and MIT at number 50 (score 84.9) is 6.1 on my personal list. That's NOT a large spread! I would probably be happy at any of these schools if all the other factors I might consider fell into line. The list is just to show myself where things fall for a combination of the factors MOST important to me. If I decide that being closer to home, or in the city with the largest student population in the country, or at a school with lots of cool research in physics going on is really important to me, too, then MIT might end up edging out places higher on the list.

Oh, and getting back to the original point of this thread, here are the scores for Macalester:

% classes under 30--93 times .2 (weight) = 18.6
Student diversity--86 times .1 = 8.6.
Women faculty--100 times .05 = 5.0
Minority faculty--55 times .05 = 2.75
Professors good?--93 times .2 = 18.6
Happy with school?--91 times .2 = 18.2
Number of classes--85 times .2 = 17
Total score = 88.75

Hope this is helpful!

[Anonymous]

Thanks very much for the personal formula. Very helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did my own ranking of colleges using criteria that make more sense to me than those that USNWR uses: class sizes, total number of classes offered, happiness of students with their faculty and the school in general, and the diversity of the student body and the faculty. I included all schools on the National Universities list and the National Liberal Arts list that have a median SAT score in the 95th percentile (1360) or above.
Macalester came in 13th place on this list (Carleton is #8), and the only National University that's ahead of it is Vanderbilt at #9 (Northwestern is #14). If you look at Princeton Review, which is where I got the happiness numbers, students at Macalester are very happy.
Also, anecdotally, I had a student of mine who was close to the top of her class and won our school's award for best all-around student who went to Macalester and loved it. The cold is an issue, but other than that it sounds pretty awesome.

OP here--this is awesome! Would love to see the whole list! These are great inputs into a ranking!

1) Pomona
2) Scripps
3) Pitzer
4) Mt. Holyoke
5) Bryn Mawr
6) Williams
7) Wellesley
8) Carleton
9) Vanderbilt
10) Vassar
11) U Richmond
12) Occidental
13) Macalester
14) Northwestern
15) Smith
16) Claremont McKenna
17) Barnard
18) Emory
19) Yale
20) Penn
21) Brown
22) Stanford
23) Trinity U (Texas)
24) Reed
25) Rice
26) Colorado College
27) Haverford
28) Washington U in St. Louis
29) Amherst
30) Princeton
31) Northwestern
32) Tufts
33) Boston U
34) Swarthmore
35) NYU
36) William and Mary
37) U Miami
38) Duke
39) Wesleyan
40) UC Santa Barbara
41) Bowdoin
42) Cornell
43) Santa Clara U
44) Harvey Mudd
45) Middlebury
46) USC
47) Hamilton
48) Carnegie Mellon
49) Dartmouth
50) MIT

Obviously, the criteria I used favored small schools (smaller classes and happier students). Others who seemed to fare well were those in warmer climates (more diverse and happier students), and women's colleges (smaller classes, happier students and more diverse).

FYI, some colleges were not considered because they don't make their data public. Notably, this includes Columbia and U Chicago.

Interesting, too, is that Harvard doesn't make the cut. According to Princeton Review, their students are not very happy with the quality of the professors or the overall university. I have a feeling this is at least partly due to higher expectations their students enter college with than their peers at other schools. "I worked my butt off to get into the school everyone talks about, and it sounds like lots of my friends have it at least as good as I do?"

It's fascinating to me that the first three are all part of a 5-college consortium in one location (the other two are numbers 16 and 43). I guess small classes, a diverse student body and faculty, and a warm climate close to mountains, the beach and a major city make for a great combination.

Also notable is that the spread in overall scores on my scale was 6 points between #1 and #50, while it's more like 18 points if you were to combine the two lists on USNWR. The criteria and weights they make use the colleges seem artificially farther apart in quality than they really are.

Take a look at the criteria and weights USNWR uses and I think you'll agree they're they're not what you'd choose if creating your own ranking from scratch. There's loads of data out there and this is a big decision. It's worth taking the time to make your own list, which will not unlikely be pretty different from mine, especially if you insist on a higher median SAT score. I just don't think there's all that much difference between the 99th percentile and the 95th.

Good luck to all!

You got two Northwestern #14 and #31
Maybe one is Northeastern?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did my own ranking of colleges using criteria that make more sense to me than those that USNWR uses: class sizes, total number of classes offered, happiness of students with their faculty and the school in general, and the diversity of the student body and the faculty. I included all schools on the National Universities list and the National Liberal Arts list that have a median SAT score in the 95th percentile (1360) or above.
Macalester came in 13th place on this list (Carleton is #8), and the only National University that's ahead of it is Vanderbilt at #9 (Northwestern is #14). If you look at Princeton Review, which is where I got the happiness numbers, students at Macalester are very happy.
Also, anecdotally, I had a student of mine who was close to the top of her class and won our school's award for best all-around student who went to Macalester and loved it. The cold is an issue, but other than that it sounds pretty awesome.

OP here--this is awesome! Would love to see the whole list! These are great inputs into a ranking!

1) Pomona
2) Scripps
3) Pitzer
4) Mt. Holyoke
5) Bryn Mawr
6) Williams
7) Wellesley
8) Carleton
9) Vanderbilt
10) Vassar
11) U Richmond
12) Occidental
13) Macalester
14) Northwestern
15) Smith
16) Claremont McKenna
17) Barnard
18) Emory
19) Yale
20) Penn
21) Brown
22) Stanford
23) Trinity U (Texas)
24) Reed
25) Rice
26) Colorado College
27) Haverford
28) Washington U in St. Louis
29) Amherst
30) Princeton
31) Northwestern
32) Tufts
33) Boston U
34) Swarthmore
35) NYU
36) William and Mary
37) U Miami
38) Duke
39) Wesleyan
40) UC Santa Barbara
41) Bowdoin
42) Cornell
43) Santa Clara U
44) Harvey Mudd
45) Middlebury
46) USC
47) Hamilton
48) Carnegie Mellon
49) Dartmouth
50) MIT

Obviously, the criteria I used favored small schools (smaller classes and happier students). Others who seemed to fare well were those in warmer climates (more diverse and happier students), and women's colleges (smaller classes, happier students and more diverse).

FYI, some colleges were not considered because they don't make their data public. Notably, this includes Columbia and U Chicago.

Interesting, too, is that Harvard doesn't make the cut. According to Princeton Review, their students are not very happy with the quality of the professors or the overall university. I have a feeling this is at least partly due to higher expectations their students enter college with than their peers at other schools. "I worked my butt off to get into the school everyone talks about, and it sounds like lots of my friends have it at least as good as I do?"

It's fascinating to me that the first three are all part of a 5-college consortium in one location (the other two are numbers 16 and 43). I guess small classes, a diverse student body and faculty, and a warm climate close to mountains, the beach and a major city make for a great combination.

Also notable is that the spread in overall scores on my scale was 6 points between #1 and #50, while it's more like 18 points if you were to combine the two lists on USNWR. The criteria and weights they make use the colleges seem artificially farther apart in quality than they really are.

Take a look at the criteria and weights USNWR uses and I think you'll agree they're they're not what you'd choose if creating your own ranking from scratch. There's loads of data out there and this is a big decision. It's worth taking the time to make your own list, which will not unlikely be pretty different from mine, especially if you insist on a higher median SAT score. I just don't think there's all that much difference between the 99th percentile and the 95th.

Good luck to all!

You got two Northwestern #14 and #31
Maybe one is Northeastern?

Yup, already fixed earlier, but thanks. #31 is indeed Northeastern.

[Anonymous]

I just wanted to add that my niece is a freshman and loves it. She comes from a single parent household and has never been able to travel or do a lot of things so was nervous about going there. She had never even been on a plane. The school has been amazing and done a great job both supporting and challenging her

[Anonymous]

I’m from MN it’s definitely known for alternative type kids

[Anonymous]

Why did part of this thread get deleted?

[Anonymous]

What got deleted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What got deleted?

The part about Grinnell