New US news rankings: liberal arts colleges

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think Oberlin and Kenyon both suffer from being in Ohio. The kind of kid who wants to go to Oberlin doesn’t want to be in MAGA land. That’s why they’re trying to attract students with so much merit. If Oberlin was in a blue state, it wouldn’t be handing out money.

Explain Grinnell then. It’s in the heart of MAGA country and in the middle of nowhere and súper left wing and kicks the snot out of Kenyon and Oberlin in the rankings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Oberlin and Kenyon both suffer from being in Ohio. The kind of kid who wants to go to Oberlin doesn’t want to be in MAGA land. That’s why they’re trying to attract students with so much merit. If Oberlin was in a blue state, it wouldn’t be handing out money.

Explain Grinnell then. It’s in the heart of MAGA country and in the middle of nowhere and súper left wing and kicks the snot out of Kenyon and Oberlin in the rankings.

Grinnell has a huge endowment and tosses merit aid around like nobody’s business. Money conquers all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Oberlin and Kenyon both suffer from being in Ohio. The kind of kid who wants to go to Oberlin doesn’t want to be in MAGA land. That’s why they’re trying to attract students with so much merit. If Oberlin was in a blue state, it wouldn’t be handing out money.

Explain Grinnell then. It’s in the heart of MAGA country and in the middle of nowhere and súper left wing and kicks the snot out of Kenyon and Oberlin in the rankings.

Grinnell has a very big endowment (usually in the top 10 or so for largest endowment per student of any school). It still gets ranked much lower than most of the schools with similar amounts of $$.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Oberlin and Kenyon both suffer from being in Ohio. The kind of kid who wants to go to Oberlin doesn’t want to be in MAGA land. That’s why they’re trying to attract students with so much merit. If Oberlin was in a blue state, it wouldn’t be handing out money.

Kenyon just suffers because of the outcome weighting that is pegged to this Pell Grant stuff. Peer assessment rating is generally higher than the schools that moved above it. Kenyon test scores also higher than a lot of schools coming above it. Kenyon ranked 15th in undergraduate teaching. Kenyon has difficulty competing on a lot of these newly emphasized DEI metrics, though, and being in rural Ohio is possibly a factor.

Oberlin has an array of problems, mostly do with the campus culture and extreme wokeness.

I actually think that Trinity is underrated because of this. It's in a bad neighborhood, although at the same time kids want city schools and it's in a city. There aren't that many LACs in cities: Tufts, Emory, Tulane, Macalaster, but not many others. It's also not as woke as Oberlin by far so for people who want a little more balance it's a good choice. Not sure why it's not higher up on the ranking. It has good academics, a nice campus, and is sporty and it's not in the boonies like Kenyon.

No one in their right mind WANTS to be in Hartford. Trinity has become fairly non-selective if full pay as I understand it and has the type of kids who require non-selectivity paired with ability of dad to cut a check.

[Anonymous]

I thought you were talking about the one in tx

[Anonymous]

Actually, Trinity has great internship opps because of being in Hartford, plus West Hartford is as nice as any college town and is ten mins from the school. I think you're misinformed about the "dad cutting a check" which is true at any school where people are paying full freight. Silly. I have no skin in this game, but it has great sports facilities and they're building a new gym. The dorms could use sprucing up but the professors are really dedicated and academically oriented. I think it's low on the list because they tried to get rid of greek life a while ago and that made alumni upset and so the giving went down. Now (this year) that isn't factored in but when it was it dragged the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Oberlin and Kenyon both suffer from being in Ohio. The kind of kid who wants to go to Oberlin doesn’t want to be in MAGA land. That’s why they’re trying to attract students with so much merit. If Oberlin was in a blue state, it wouldn’t be handing out money.

Explain Grinnell then. It’s in the heart of MAGA country and in the middle of nowhere and súper left wing and kicks the snot out of Kenyon and Oberlin in the rankings.

Grinnell has a very big endowment (usually in the top 10 or so for largest endowment per student of any school). It still gets ranked much lower than most of the schools with similar amounts of $$.

“Much lower?” Really? It’s ranked 11th in the current rankings, which sure ain’t low, and it’s ranked 8th with the service academies taken out, which is very high. Several of the seven liberal arts colleges above it have higher endowments.

In other words, you’re wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Oberlin and Kenyon both suffer from being in Ohio. The kind of kid who wants to go to Oberlin doesn’t want to be in MAGA land. That’s why they’re trying to attract students with so much merit. If Oberlin was in a blue state, it wouldn’t be handing out money.

Kenyon just suffers because of the outcome weighting that is pegged to this Pell Grant stuff. Peer assessment rating is generally higher than the schools that moved above it. Kenyon test scores also higher than a lot of schools coming above it. Kenyon ranked 15th in undergraduate teaching. Kenyon has difficulty competing on a lot of these newly emphasized DEI metrics, though, and being in rural Ohio is possibly a factor.

Oberlin has an array of problems, mostly do with the campus culture and extreme wokeness.

I actually think that Trinity is underrated because of this. It's in a bad neighborhood, although at the same time kids want city schools and it's in a city. There aren't that many LACs in cities: Tufts, Emory, Tulane, Macalaster, but not many others. It's also not as woke as Oberlin by far so for people who want a little more balance it's a good choice. Not sure why it's not higher up on the ranking. It has good academics, a nice campus, and is sporty and it's not in the boonies like Kenyon.

Those aren't LACs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Carleton is way too woke. My DW hated it

Woke as in dropping legacy? Yes. (I personally agree with their doing so.)

Woke as in trigger warnings and such? Not as much. Here’s an interesting video by two of their most popular profs (based on Rate My Professors anyway), one of whom is also an alum:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qZFyl8wmKqg

No woke as in crazy liberal professors who won’t let a different viewpoint be expressed in the classroom

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Carleton is way too woke. My DW hated it

Woke as in dropping legacy? Yes. (I personally agree with their doing so.)

Woke as in trigger warnings and such? Not as much. Here’s an interesting video by two of their most popular profs (based on Rate My Professors anyway), one of whom is also an alum:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qZFyl8wmKqg

No woke as in crazy liberal professors who won’t let a different viewpoint be expressed in the classroom

Not our experience, or that of anyone we know there in recent years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Oberlin and Kenyon both suffer from being in Ohio. The kind of kid who wants to go to Oberlin doesn’t want to be in MAGA land. That’s why they’re trying to attract students with so much merit. If Oberlin was in a blue state, it wouldn’t be handing out money.

Explain Grinnell then. It’s in the heart of MAGA country and in the middle of nowhere and súper left wing and kicks the snot out of Kenyon and Oberlin in the rankings.

Grinnell has a very big endowment (usually in the top 10 or so for largest endowment per student of any school). It still gets ranked much lower than most of the schools with similar amounts of $$.

“Much lower?” Really? It’s ranked 11th in the current rankings, which sure ain’t low, and it’s ranked 8th with the service academies taken out, which is very high. Several of the seven liberal arts colleges above it have higher endowments.

In other words, you’re wrong.

I still contend I'm right. Pomona and Amherst would be the only selective LACs above Grinnell based on endowment per student, so I'd say they are ranked significantly lower than those $$ peers (Swarthmore and Williams would be right behind Grinnell in that regard). No offense to Grinnell but it doesn't get mentioned in that top ranked group it is a part of in terms of endowment per student.
https://www.collegeraptor.com/college-rankings/details/EndowmentPerStudent/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Oberlin and Kenyon both suffer from being in Ohio. The kind of kid who wants to go to Oberlin doesn’t want to be in MAGA land. That’s why they’re trying to attract students with so much merit. If Oberlin was in a blue state, it wouldn’t be handing out money.

Explain Grinnell then. It’s in the heart of MAGA country and in the middle of nowhere and súper left wing and kicks the snot out of Kenyon and Oberlin in the rankings.

Grinnell has a very big endowment (usually in the top 10 or so for largest endowment per student of any school). It still gets ranked much lower than most of the schools with similar amounts of $$.

“Much lower?” Really? It’s ranked 11th in the current rankings, which sure ain’t low, and it’s ranked 8th with the service academies taken out, which is very high. Several of the seven liberal arts colleges above it have higher endowments.

In other words, you’re wrong.

I still contend I'm right. Pomona and Amherst would be the only selective LACs above Grinnell based on endowment per student, so I'd say they are ranked significantly lower than those $$ peers (Swarthmore and Williams would be right behind Grinnell in that regard). No offense to Grinnell but it doesn't get mentioned in that top ranked group it is a part of in terms of endowment per student.
https://www.collegeraptor.com/college-rankings/details/EndowmentPerStudent/

I think the answer is that Grinnell is almost like a “new money” school. It by no means has the historical prestige of the east coast schools and there is clearly a disadvantage associated with being so far from commercial/power centers. (There is also perhaps a charm and benefit to the isolation but it doesn’t offset the disadvantage.) But thanks to Warren Buffett and other good fortune, the endowment is at the level of the top east coast schools with richer histories as academic institutions. Ultimately money buys you almost anything you want… great professors, great facilities, great students (via generous need based or merit aid). It is no coincidence that Princeton ranks as the top school year after year given its huge endowment per capita advantage. But some things money can’t buy and that is why Grinnell stays a notch below Williams, Swat, etc which have comparable resources but the benefit of being elite colleges for longer and ultimately better located.

[Anonymous]

Go Navy, beat Army (and Air Force)!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Oberlin and Kenyon both suffer from being in Ohio. The kind of kid who wants to go to Oberlin doesn’t want to be in MAGA land. That’s why they’re trying to attract students with so much merit. If Oberlin was in a blue state, it wouldn’t be handing out money.

Explain Grinnell then. It’s in the heart of MAGA country and in the middle of nowhere and súper left wing and kicks the snot out of Kenyon and Oberlin in the rankings.

Grinnell has a huge endowment and tosses merit aid around like nobody’s business. Money conquers all.

Interestingly, Grinnell ranks 14th for LACs on Financial Resources, per USNWR, despite having the 4th largest endowment/student ratio. It appears there’s more to it than endowment when managing finances. Here’s the description:

“Generous per-student academic spending indicates a college can offer a variety of programs and services. U.S. News measures financial resources by using the average spending per student on instruction, research, student services and related educational expenditures in the 2021 fiscal year. Expenditures were compared with fall 2020 full-time and part-time undergraduate and graduate enrollment. New for this edition for all schools, U.S. News only used FY2021 financial resources data sourced directly from the U.S. Department of Education to ensure more standardized reporting among schools. Previously this indicator had used a two-year average.“

[Anonymous]

They are all good schools. Really all the same. Ranking is a silly ego game.