Which are the Best Colleges and Why?

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Criticism in recent years has been mounting by some educators, who say U.S. News & World Report ranks wealth and prestige, but not where one gets a good education. Last summer, some 63 college presidents of liberal arts colleges announced they would no longer participate in providing the information that the U.S. News & World Report requires.

U.S. News & World Report publishes by far the most popular college ranking system used by parents and students as well as college and university administrations and alumni. Over 1,400 colleges and universities fill out the voluminous paperwork each year. Princeton, Harvard, and Yale usually wind up as the top three in the national universities category as they did this year.

To discuss the alleged flaws of U.S. News' "America's Best Colleges" and replacing it with different information, the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C., held a panel discussion, Oct 16. All were agreed, even the spokesperson from U.S. News , that the U.S. News rankings would be better if they were able to incorporate more direct measures of the quality of teaching.

"In your whole life, there's probably nothing that you will spend more money on and know less about than your college education," said Kevin Carey, from the Education Sector, an independent education think tank in Washington, D.C. The quality of education a student will receive, whether he or she will go on to graduate school, law school or medical school, and be successful—for these kinds of concerns, Carey said, "nobody knows." The information is just not out there.

"What the U.S. News rankings do… is confirm the status of colleges and universities that by virtue of their prestige are valuable to students irrespective of the quality of the education they provide," says Carey.

"It literally doesn't tell you what you need to know about whether… the college you hope to go to is going to give you a good education. It is imperative in our democracy that we break that phony ranking system," said Paul Glastris, editor-in-chief of The Washington Monthly and former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton.

Practically no one, however, wants to return to the days prior to 1983 when U.S. News first published its rankings. "In those days, when I was applying, each college presented its numbers in its own way, and making comparisons was very difficult. U.S. News forced everyone to present their data in the same way, once again helping us parents and our children make informed choices," said Jay Mathews, writing for the Washington Post (Oct 5, 2005).

The U.S. News rankings are only useful, in Carey's view, for a distinct minority of students, who go to "selective" colleges and universities, i.e., where more than half the students are turned away as in the Ivy League schools. However, the vast majority of students, almost 90%, don't attend selective colleges and universities. Most students have a need to know where students are taught the best, where they have the best chance of earning a degree, and where they are best prepared to succeed, according to Carey. This kind of information has not been available, although that is starting to change, Carey says.

One measure that Carey would like to see used in rankings is based on a research instrument, the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE).

"To measure how much students are challenged academically, a sample of freshmen and seniors are asked about things like the number of books assigned, lengthy papers written, and time spent for preparing for class," says Carey. Other questions pertain to thinking and applying theories to practical problems, and how students work with other students and on community projects. By contrast, the U.S. News metrics used in its rankings, though more precise, don't directly measure the learning environment.

In fairness to U.S. News , Carey pointed out that less than 15% of colleges ranked by U.S. News provided NSSE data to them, and none of the top tier national universities released their school's results. So, U.S. News can't incorporate this information into their formulas. Carey praised the magazine for being one of the best sources for the NSSE data.

"NSSE, we would love to get," said Kenneth Terrell, who represents U.S. News and World Report , and defended its ranking system. In order to objectively compare and rank over 1,400 colleges and universities, Terrell explained they are limited to methods that can extract comparable data from such a large and diverse number.

U.S. News' method is to weigh 75% by statistical data (e.g., percentage of students in the top 10% of high school class, SAT scores, acceptance rate, alumni giving rate, student faculty ratio, average faculty salary, percentage of classes with fewer than 20 students). And 25% of the college or university's score is based on college administrators' subjective ratings of their "peer" schools (e.g., categories like "liberal arts colleges").

"We've been doing this for 20 years and refine it every year," said Terrell. "We believe, it's the best system out there."

A Different Kind of College Ranking

The Washington Monthly College Rankings uses entirely different criteria for rating colleges. Its aim is to rate a college's service to the country. So, it measures a school's performance in recruiting poorer students and graduating them. It computes a measure of enhancing the nation's intellectual attainment by the number of Ph.Ds produced and awarded research grants. It looks at public service by using the percent attracted to the Peace Corps and the ROTC programs, and the schools' use of work study money for community service.

All of the Ivy League schools don't allow ROTC on campus, except for three: Princeton, Cornell, and the University of Pennsylvania. So, the Ivy's are mostly penalized in this ranking system.

Texas A&M University, which ranks 60 by U.S. News, is ranked the number one school in the country, according to this rating system. It achieved this position largely by its high level of ROTC enrollment and generous work-study funds devoted to community service, according to the Washington Monthly (Sep 2007).

By comparison, the Ivy League schools of Princeton and Yale did not make the top 30 list and Harvard was rated only 27th. Only Cornell, ranked 12th in U.S. News, made it in the top 10, largely due to its large number of graduates who earn Ph.D.'s or join the Peace Corps.

Like the U.S. News , the Washington Monthly ranks schools in tiers. For example, the top 30 liberal arts colleges are ranked. Swarthmore College is ranked 29th when it holds the 3rd position in the U.S. News ratings. Williams College and Amherst College, ranking 1 and 2, respectively, by U.S. News, are also ranked high in the Washington Monthly (8th and 9th, respectively).

College guides like U.S. News , devote little if any space to community colleges. One reason for the lack of comparisons is that most students don't shop for a community college, but simply attend the one nearest their home, according to Carey. They are typically not difficult to get into as well. Nevertheless, the Washington Monthly ranked the top 30. Georgia's Atlanta Technical College tops the list. It is a largely African-American urban college.

Carey says there is a need, usually even a stronger need, for students attending a community college than those attending more prestigious colleges, for good teaching. Students with financial woes and/or poor academic preparation are going to be more sensitive to their learning environment, Carey says.

The best community colleges do not disappoint and compare favorably to many 4-year colleges. For example, two-thirds of the students in top 30 community colleges often asked questions in class compared to half in a representative sample of 4-year research-intensive doctoral universities. Students from community colleges were more likely to get prompt feedback from instructors on their performance (59% vs. 49%). While the research university is more prestigious, the community college is far more focused on teaching, says Carey.