P
pthakur
Guest
In conjunction with Dr. Richard Vedder, an economist at Ohio
University, and the Center for College Affordability and
Productivity,
Forbes.com inaugurates its first ranking of America's Best Colleges,
an annual list. In this report, the CCAP ranks 569 undergraduate
institutions based on the quality of the education they provide, and
how much their students achieve.
The best school in the nation? Princeton University, followed closely
by the California Institute of Technology, Harvard, Swarthmore and
Williams. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point came in sixth on
our
rankings, spearheading a generally strong showing by all the service
academies.
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CCAP's methodology attempts to put itself in a student's shoes. How
good will my professors be? Will the school help me achieve notable
career success? If I have to borrow to pay for college, how deeply
will I go into debt? What are the chances I will graduate in four
years? Are students and faculty recognized nationally, or even
globally?
To answer these questions, the staff at CCAP (mostly college students
themselves) gathered data from a variety of sources. They based 25%
of
the rankings on 7 million student evaluations of courses and
instructors, as recorded on the Web site RateMyProfessors.com.
Another
25% depends on how many of the school's alumni, adjusted for
enrollment, are listed among the notable people in Who's Who in
America.
The other half of the ranking is based equally on three factors: the
average amount of student debt at graduation held by those who
borrowed; the percentage of students graduating in four years; and
the
number of students or faculty, adjusted for enrollment, who have won
nationally competitive awards like Rhodes Scholarships or Nobel
Prizes. (Click here for complete methodology.)
The data show that students strongly prefer smaller schools to big
ones. The median undergraduate enrollment in the top-50-ranked
schools
is just 2,285, and only one of the top 50 ( the University of
Virginia) has more than 10,000 undergraduate students.
Generally speaking, big state schools performed poorly: the
University
of Wisconsin, Madison, ranked 335th; the University of Texas, Austin,
215th; and the University of Minnesota 524th. California public
schools scored relatively well, with the flagship Berkeley campus
coming in 73rd place.
Small liberal arts schools shine in our rankings, probably due to
both
the quality of their faculty and the personal attention they can
provide. Williams and Swarthmore both rank in the top five, while
Pomona, Smith, Middlebury and Amherst all come in the top 20, ahead
of
such schools as Stanford (23rd) and Brown (27th).
Several relatively unknown schools do surprisingly well in our
rankings. Wabash College, a tiny, all-male school located in
Crawfordsville, Ind., ranks 12th on our list, and Centre College, a
highly regarded liberal arts school in Danville, Ky., ranks 13th.
With
an entering class of just 250 freshmen, Wabash benefits from both
high
student satisfaction with their courses and lots of graduates who
received distinctions in their post-collegiate careers. Centre was in
the top 10% of schools on all criteria.
There were some interesting regional surprises. In North Carolina,
Duke University ranked in 80th place, behind both the University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill, (66th) and Wake Forest (69th).
Northwestern (11th) was the top school in the Midwest, beating out
regional powerhouses like the University of Chicago (18th), Notre
Dame
(77th) and Washington University in St. Louis (146th).
The list also suggests that some schools--the University of
Pennsylvania (61st), Georgetown (76th), Cornell (121st) and Dartmouth
(127th)--may be living a bit off of their reputations. Graduates of
these schools typically ran up large debts; at most of them, notably
Dartmouth, students are not particularly happy with the quality of
instruction. (CCAP did take perceived course rigor into account while
determining student assessment of instructors and courses.)
It is important to remember that if a school appears on this list at
all, that indicates it meets a certain level of quality. In other
words, the Milwaukee School of Engineering (569th) is by no means the
worst school in the nation. According to the U.S. Department of
Education, there are more than 4,000 college campuses in the U.S. The
CCAP ranks only the top 15% or so of all undergraduate institutions.
Some schools refuse to cooperate with any publication ranking
colleges. CCAP ranked them anyway. Sarah Lawrence, which
traditionally
has remained "unranked," comes in 25th on the list.
Unlike other lists, the CCAP doesn't subdivide its rankings into
categories like "National Research Institution" or "Liberal Arts
Colleges." When choosing a college, prospective students ultimately
select only one, meaning that all undergraduate institutions are
competing with one another for students. It is not as though a high
school senior selects one large, public school and one small, private
school. The senior picks only one, and our ranking reflects that
decision process.
Admittedly, there is an inherent absurdity in ranking colleges and
universities with mock precision from first to 569th. The sort of
student who will thrive at Williams might drown at Caltech, to say
nothing of West Point. And it is possible to get a "Harvard"
education
at the University of Minnesota, just as it possible to get a
"University of Minnesota" education at Harvard. When choosing a
school, it is important to match the student to the school.
Read more: http://infoclickindia.com/article.php?art_id=1543
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KEEP ON READING...HAVE A NICE DAY, SWEET NIGHT AND BETTER INFORMED
LIFE!
Register for absolutly FREE on www.infoclickindia.com and have a
better reading delight!
University, and the Center for College Affordability and
Productivity,
Forbes.com inaugurates its first ranking of America's Best Colleges,
an annual list. In this report, the CCAP ranks 569 undergraduate
institutions based on the quality of the education they provide, and
how much their students achieve.
The best school in the nation? Princeton University, followed closely
by the California Institute of Technology, Harvard, Swarthmore and
Williams. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point came in sixth on
our
rankings, spearheading a generally strong showing by all the service
academies.
--------------------------------------------------
KEEP ON READING...HAVE A NICE DAY, SWEET NIGHT AND BETTER INFORMED
LIFE!
Register for absolutly FREE on www.infoclickindia.com and have a
better reading delight
--------------------------------------------------
CCAP's methodology attempts to put itself in a student's shoes. How
good will my professors be? Will the school help me achieve notable
career success? If I have to borrow to pay for college, how deeply
will I go into debt? What are the chances I will graduate in four
years? Are students and faculty recognized nationally, or even
globally?
To answer these questions, the staff at CCAP (mostly college students
themselves) gathered data from a variety of sources. They based 25%
of
the rankings on 7 million student evaluations of courses and
instructors, as recorded on the Web site RateMyProfessors.com.
Another
25% depends on how many of the school's alumni, adjusted for
enrollment, are listed among the notable people in Who's Who in
America.
The other half of the ranking is based equally on three factors: the
average amount of student debt at graduation held by those who
borrowed; the percentage of students graduating in four years; and
the
number of students or faculty, adjusted for enrollment, who have won
nationally competitive awards like Rhodes Scholarships or Nobel
Prizes. (Click here for complete methodology.)
The data show that students strongly prefer smaller schools to big
ones. The median undergraduate enrollment in the top-50-ranked
schools
is just 2,285, and only one of the top 50 ( the University of
Virginia) has more than 10,000 undergraduate students.
Generally speaking, big state schools performed poorly: the
University
of Wisconsin, Madison, ranked 335th; the University of Texas, Austin,
215th; and the University of Minnesota 524th. California public
schools scored relatively well, with the flagship Berkeley campus
coming in 73rd place.
Small liberal arts schools shine in our rankings, probably due to
both
the quality of their faculty and the personal attention they can
provide. Williams and Swarthmore both rank in the top five, while
Pomona, Smith, Middlebury and Amherst all come in the top 20, ahead
of
such schools as Stanford (23rd) and Brown (27th).
Several relatively unknown schools do surprisingly well in our
rankings. Wabash College, a tiny, all-male school located in
Crawfordsville, Ind., ranks 12th on our list, and Centre College, a
highly regarded liberal arts school in Danville, Ky., ranks 13th.
With
an entering class of just 250 freshmen, Wabash benefits from both
high
student satisfaction with their courses and lots of graduates who
received distinctions in their post-collegiate careers. Centre was in
the top 10% of schools on all criteria.
There were some interesting regional surprises. In North Carolina,
Duke University ranked in 80th place, behind both the University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill, (66th) and Wake Forest (69th).
Northwestern (11th) was the top school in the Midwest, beating out
regional powerhouses like the University of Chicago (18th), Notre
Dame
(77th) and Washington University in St. Louis (146th).
The list also suggests that some schools--the University of
Pennsylvania (61st), Georgetown (76th), Cornell (121st) and Dartmouth
(127th)--may be living a bit off of their reputations. Graduates of
these schools typically ran up large debts; at most of them, notably
Dartmouth, students are not particularly happy with the quality of
instruction. (CCAP did take perceived course rigor into account while
determining student assessment of instructors and courses.)
It is important to remember that if a school appears on this list at
all, that indicates it meets a certain level of quality. In other
words, the Milwaukee School of Engineering (569th) is by no means the
worst school in the nation. According to the U.S. Department of
Education, there are more than 4,000 college campuses in the U.S. The
CCAP ranks only the top 15% or so of all undergraduate institutions.
Some schools refuse to cooperate with any publication ranking
colleges. CCAP ranked them anyway. Sarah Lawrence, which
traditionally
has remained "unranked," comes in 25th on the list.
Unlike other lists, the CCAP doesn't subdivide its rankings into
categories like "National Research Institution" or "Liberal Arts
Colleges." When choosing a college, prospective students ultimately
select only one, meaning that all undergraduate institutions are
competing with one another for students. It is not as though a high
school senior selects one large, public school and one small, private
school. The senior picks only one, and our ranking reflects that
decision process.
Admittedly, there is an inherent absurdity in ranking colleges and
universities with mock precision from first to 569th. The sort of
student who will thrive at Williams might drown at Caltech, to say
nothing of West Point. And it is possible to get a "Harvard"
education
at the University of Minnesota, just as it possible to get a
"University of Minnesota" education at Harvard. When choosing a
school, it is important to match the student to the school.
Read more: http://infoclickindia.com/article.php?art_id=1543
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KEEP ON READING...HAVE A NICE DAY, SWEET NIGHT AND BETTER INFORMED
LIFE!
Register for absolutly FREE on www.infoclickindia.com and have a
better reading delight!