Anonymous wrote:Only slight changes over the years:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/apps/g/page/local/us-news-college-ranking-trends-2014/1292/

Interesting, thanks for this. Just a quick glance shows:
* Rice has increased considerably from 17-19 to 14 this year
* UCLA and USC have risen from 23-26 to 21 year
* Boston U has gone from 56 to 37 this year
* Tulane has gone from 54 to 40
* UF has gone from 58 to 42
* Villanova went from being regionally ranked to 46
* Haverford has fallen to 18 after consistently ranking in the top 10
* Washington and Lee is now in the top 10 after being 14 for several years
* Colby is now 12, up from 23
* Colgate has gone from 22 to 12
* Wesleyan has gone from 12 down to 21
* Smith has gone up from 20 to 12
* Colorado College has gone from 31 to 22
* Barnard and Kenyon have gone from 32 to 26
* Pitzer has gone from 46 to 33

Only slight changes over the years:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/apps/g/page/local/us-news-college-ranking-trends-2014/1292/

Anyone focused on starting salary out of college rather than life long earning potential is a fool.

Sorry I meant HLS - autocorrect made it "his"

Starting salaries are useless because it punishes those who want to self actualize or pursue public service.

I'm sure his median income is higher than yls but that doesn't mean his is better

Government data is based off those who get federal scholarships in college.

For the elite schools, that's often less than 10% of the student body.

Hardly an indicative source.

PayScale has its limitations but it targets everyone, not just the lowest income alums.

Anonymous wrote:PayScale updated its salary report: https://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/all-bachelors

If one wants a ranking that accounts for similar factors as US News as well as salary data, look into the Forbes ranking. They updated their methodology this year to heavily weigh salary data and took out the questionable aspects like Rate My Professors. Unlike US News, they also look into the schools which lead for students winning competitive fellowships, and the schools which produce the most leaders. Unsurprisingly, HYPSM are at the top.

Isn't payscale bullsh*t because they just use surveys? Gov report card actually pulls tax returns.

https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weight
75% SAT Scores
25% starting salaries

Would be a good measure.

I'd add in 4 year graduation rate

What about people who go on to higher ed? Seems like an indicator of a good college, but would actually negatively affect salaries.

Anonymous wrote:Everyone wants to reinvent the wheel. Take time to understand the evolution of the USNEWS metrics and you'll appreciate why USNEWS is the only ranking that matters.

Hahahahaha!!!

Everyone wants to reinvent the wheel. Take time to understand the evolution of the USNEWS metrics and you'll appreciate why USNEWS is the only ranking that matters.

Anonymous wrote:Weight
75% SAT Scores
25% starting salaries

Would be a good measure.

I'd add in 4 year graduation rate

Weight
75% SAT Scores
25% starting salaries

Would be a good measure.

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, college salary analysis are meaningless unless accounted for by interests and fields.

Mudd tends to have the highest starting salaries of any of the LACs due to its STEM focus.

Colgate, W&L, CMC, and Williams generally round up the next five, largely because they heavily send graduates into business and finance.

Schools like Oberlin and Vassar do poorly overall since a lot of their students go to public service, community engagement, and non-profit work. But I'd be willing to bet those who're working in finance or the tech industry are earning similar amounts of money.

The best way to land a job working in finance is to play lacrosse in college.

Yeah, college salary analysis are meaningless unless accounted for by interests and fields.

Mudd tends to have the highest starting salaries of any of the LACs due to its STEM focus.

Colgate, W&L, CMC, and Williams generally round up the next five, largely because they heavily send graduates into business and finance.

Schools like Oberlin and Vassar do poorly overall since a lot of their students go to public service, community engagement, and non-profit work. But I'd be willing to bet those who're working in finance or the tech industry are earning similar amounts of money.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I'd like to see a ranking of schools based on SAT scores, selectivity and starting salaries of students .


Outside the top ten I bet the list would be vastly different. Much more objective and accurate.

I think Forbes does this. Check it out. Many names from the USNWR list, but some surprising other names as well.

Starting salaries are irrelevant - start comparing about 10 years out. In my school. engineers made at least 50% more than anyone else at graduation. That changed a great deal over time.

B.S. These are the best reflection of the college you went to. After that it is up to the individual to get promoted based on individual effort, talent, etc.

Not B.S. - I guarantee you the average computer science from Maryland has a higher starting salary upon graduation than the average history major from Harvard. The degree is more important than the institution at graduation.

does Harvard have computer science majors? If not, you're comparing apples and oranges

Ya, I think this is the issue with comparing institution vs. institution instead of taking majors into consideration. JUST going off the institution gives you a list of almost entirely engineering/STEM heavy schools i.e. Rose Hulman, Colorado School of Mines, Purdue, Georgia Tech. But that doesn't really tell you anything if you want to be say, a history major or an political science major. For that, you'd need to look at "what is the starting salary of a history major at Purdue vs a history major at Williams"? Purdue overall has a MUCH higher starting salary than Williams because their most popular majors are in fields like engineering and business whose starting salaries are obviously higher than a school whose most popular majors are fields are in the humanities/social sciences. But if you compared a history major at Purdue vs. a history major at Williams, I bet Williams compares favorably.

(History might not be the best example because a lot of majors tend to head straight into grad school, but I digress).