2026 USNWR LACs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many tied at #13. Kind of random?

anything in the #13 belongs to the second tier right below t10.
Harvey Mudd seems to have a good year.

Sorry but no. The most egregious thing as always is putting the moderately selective service academics in the top 10. They are excellent schools and excel at their purpose but they end up here because they don’t fit anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So many tied at #13. Kind of random?

Not really, the facts show that there are about 15 schools pretty indistinguishable from each other when looking at them holistically. Add in the service academies and you’ve got you bucket of top,schools.

Same goes on the university side.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Soka U? What?

Soka is a cult with very deep pockets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many tied at #13. Kind of random?

anything in the #13 belongs to the second tier right below t10.
Harvey Mudd seems to have a good year.

Yeah, seemed to move to tiers this year. Very clear what they are now, at least according to this list.

Is it? Not really

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's always been weird to me that people say WASP with the exclusion of Bowdoin, when Bowdoin is every bit as good as those

Bowdoin bounces around. I believe it’s been in the top 4 before, but then bumped up around in the 6-7 range. USNews didn’t change the methodology much this year after Morse retired. Wait until a year when they mix things up again.

No, it hasn't. It wouldn't surprise me if that changes in the coming years, but that's why it's never been WASP-B before. Now I think it's up for debate!

Bowdoin was 5 last year. No change. Others moved up or down quite significantly.

Pomona was tied with Bowdoin last year but it moved down to the group tied at 7 this year. These are very small meaningless changes.

Why is Pomona dropping? It is more competitive than ever, endowment is performing on par with everyone else, financial aid is as generous as ever…is it simply just a quirk of USNEWs this year?

+1, there’s something going on at the school. Maybe financial?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a category that really shows how silly it is to rank universities at all.

+100 careful with that crazy talk, you’ll upset a lot of moms who have to accept that Larla really isn’t that special.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many tied at #13. Kind of random?

anything in the #13 belongs to the second tier right below t10.
Harvey Mudd seems to have a good year.

Yeah, seemed to move to tiers this year. Very clear what they are now, at least according to this list.

Yep, 4 tiers: 1-10, the 13s, the 20s, the 30s. Can't say I disagree, not that it matters that much in the end.

Some quibbles on the edges but that is about right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's always been weird to me that people say WASP with the exclusion of Bowdoin, when Bowdoin is every bit as good as those

There are a dozen or so schools which are all every bit as good as any of the others and another group that has little if any real difference. Bowdoin and WASP aren’t at all special in this group and they never have been.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think having the ties makes sense in some ways because those who think there is truly a lot of difference between 14 and 15 are morons. Is there a difference between 2 and 29? Probably. Between schools that are one or two notches apart. No.

2 and the 13s already are very different.

No they aren’t. There is virtually zero difference except maybe the cafeteria food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's always been weird to me that people say WASP with the exclusion of Bowdoin, when Bowdoin is every bit as good as those

Bowdoin has lower average sat scores and worse outcomes.

No it doesn’t

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good to see Annapolis and Air Force in the top 5. Not sure why West Point dropped all the way to 10. Should be higher.

One of them should be ranked, they don’t fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's always been weird to me that people say WASP with the exclusion of Bowdoin, when Bowdoin is every bit as good as those

There are a dozen or so schools which are all every bit as good as any of the others and another group that has little if any real difference. Bowdoin and WASP aren’t at all special in this group and they never have been.

WASP-B + Grinnell + Wellesley all have over a million per capita endowment per student. None of the other usual suspects are even close, except for CMC and Smith. So there’s that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good to see Annapolis and Air Force in the top 5. Not sure why West Point dropped all the way to 10. Should be higher.

One of them should be ranked, they don’t fit.

None

[Anonymous]

[img]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's always been weird to me that people say WASP with the exclusion of Bowdoin, when Bowdoin is every bit as good as those

Bowdoin has lower average sat scores and worse outcomes.

No it doesn’t

Yes it does. Go before the test optional craze, Bowdoin had the following test scores (1290, 1510)- source: https://www.bowdoin.edu/ir/pdf/common-data-elements-2017-2018.pdf
Bowdoin ranks 204th for grad school per capita admission, and it isn’t a significant finance feeder: https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/top-feeders-phd-programs

There’s absolutely no reason anyone would believe it’s a top LAC other than craving USNews’s attention

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WASP is now WASB!

or SWAB!