US News and World Report has traditionally cornered the market on ranking and reviewing four-year colleges, but now an Ohio University professor has teamed up with Forbes.com to offer an alternative.
Dr. Richard Vedder, a professor of economics and the founder of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity,created rankings that are based largely on alumni success, calculated by how many alumni appear in Who's Who in America, and student satisfaction, based on student ratings on Ratemyprofessors.com.
It also accounts for the average amount of debt a student will incur, predicted and actual graduation rates and nationally competitive awards won by students and faculty.
U.S. News' rankings is based largely on peer assessment ' in which presidents, deans and provosts rate a college ' and indicators such as faculty and financial resources and student selectivity.
Out of 560 undergraduate institutions included in the rankings, Princeton University came out on top. California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Swarthmore and Williams rounded out the top five, with The US Military Academy at West Point coming in at a close sixth.
Vedder said the rankings showed a preference for smaller schools as only one of the top 50 schools, The University of Virginia, had enrollment over 10,000. Students also preferred schools with certain specializations, such as the California Institute of Technology. -
Vedder said. We have a lot of good schools but not great.
OU ranked 16 in the state and 348 overall, and while it performed highly on nationally competitive awards and graduation rates, it struggled on alumni success and student satisfaction.
- he said.
17
Archives
Jessica Holbrook
