Princeton Takes out Harvard... Finally
I'm terribly critical of the US News and World Report college rankings, but their results for 2007 are rather humorous, and feel substantially more accurate to me personally. Finally, Princeton is rated 1st in the nation, over Harvard, which now languishes at 2nd. My own personal institution, the University of Chicago finally moved up from an absurdly low position of 15th, to a more accurate space at 9th. UPenn, finally got shoved down from 4th to 7th (there is no way that it's better than Stanford, as last year's ratings showed. Caltech, while technically tied with MIT and Stanford for fourth, is placed higher on the list, which is about right too. I'm still quite surprised that Duke is even at 8th (Who's even heard of Duke anyway? What do they even do there?). Ahh, anyway. That's the latest roundup.
They kept records by hand???
http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/08/18/college.rankings.chicago.ap/index.html
Yeah they did. I have the sense that of the people that run Chicago, there is a really wide mix of the brilliant and the inane. Their financial aid office still hasn't sent me my aid package yet, for example. Granted, I won't receive any aid because of my scholarship, but still, you would think that they would at least tell me so.
By the way, who goes by the username Barack? You must be a Democrat.
34, baby!
And ya know what's really funny? My roommate's identical twin is going to NYU, which is also tied at 34. How coincidental.
As for Duke, practically every smart kid from the South wants to go there.
I love how they include alumni giving in their rankings.
Um, how else do you think Carleton made #6? It wasn't its admission rate, I'll tell you that. Top alumni giving rate in the country baby!
The latest rankings are out from the Princeton Review:
University of Chicago --
#3 Best College Library
#1 Best Overall Academic Experience for Undergraduates
#6 Their Students Never Stop Studying
#14 Intercollegiate Sports Unpopular or Nonexistent
#12 Most Politically Active;
Pomona --
#11 Best Overall Academic Experience for Undergraduates
#1 School Runs Like Butter
#2 Students Happy with Financial Aid
#13 The Toughest to Get Into
#19 Students Ignore God on a Regular Basis
#20 Most Politically Active
#10 Best Quality of Life
#6 Dorms Like Palaces;
Carleton --
#18 Professors Get High Marks
#16 School Runs Like Butter
#13 Best College Radio Station
#11 Everyone Plays Intramural
Ahhh... I'll have to hang "Best Overall Academic Experience for Undergraduates" over Jonathan's head next time he tells me that it's impossible to get a good and enjoyable undergraduate education anywhere besides small liberal arts colleges.
All I've got to say is that Pomona's #2 ranking in "Students Happy with Financial Aid" is a load of BS.
Colin, I understand that a lot of people, especially in the South, who want to go to Duke. What I'm trying to figure out is whether they really deserve such a high standing. Does anything of academic, social, or intellectual merit come out of Duke? Do you know if they offer some special educational opportunity? Chicago has economists, MIT has engineers, Caltech has physicists, Reed has the thesis--that sort of thing.
What you're forgetting Colin, is that only the students who were happy with their financial aid decided to go to the school, and only the students who go the school are surveyed. It's an inherently flawed system.