I teach at a college prep school; a place with driven, ambitious students. Happily, these rankings are well-received by my students because the rankings y'all provide reflect their values. Here's to leaving the US News rankings in the dustbin.

While I agree that USN&WR's methods for ranking colleges are fairly ridiculous, I cannot take seriously any ranking system that puts Orangeburg's SC State University as the 14th best university in the country.

SC State does have a high graduation rate given their student population. However, their students are less prepared for things like board certification than the graduates of Orangeburg's community college (Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College). *This* is top 20 material?

(Perhaps that's the point - no one should take *any* of these ranking systems seriously. :) )

My retort is the same I offer every year: When Washington Monthly's top brass start sending their kids to South Carolina State and hiring their writers from UCSD and Spelman to the exclusion of the top USNWR schools, I'll take the rankings more seriously.

benen, are you ok?! haven't seen a new post in couple hours - hope you're all right!

I second JJ.

An unheralded and oft-ignored college - Berea College in Berea KY. A saving grace of liberal arts study combined with a strong work ethic - students who are unable to pay tuition go to college for free. Scholarships available for room & board. Work study consists of typical campus jobs but also includes community outreach, tutoring, sports assistants, etc. . .to the surrounding communities in this lower income KY region. It's truly a remarkable college - not only do they teach a liberal arts education but they provide students with a true sense of worth and dignity.

My retort is the same I offer every year: When Washington Monthly's top brass start sending their kids to South Carolina State and hiring their writers from UCSD and Spelman to the exclusion of the top USNWR schools, I'll take the rankings more seriously.
Posted by: James Joyner

charlie peters i believe addressed in detail the issue of where the monthly hires its reporters not very long ago. while there was a sprinkling of ivy leaguers, there was also a good representation of state schools. taylor branch, if i recall correctly attended either north carolina or north carolina state -- on a football scholarship. paul glastris, the current editor, has degrees from northwestern. steve benen is a graduate of florida international university and george washington.

btw, ucsd has pretty high standards. it also attracts a lot of research money from the nih and is one of the main engines behind san diego's incredible biotech industry.

Mudwall: I took a look at the masthead here. Almost everyone went to an elite school -- mostly Columbia, oddly. Northwest is an elite private school. GW, too.

Well done WA Monthly!

While I never take US News seriously, I do know that when you go to an Ivy School you are surrounded by high achieving cohorts. I realize that you have to find a new way of ranking to compete. But really your rankings are as subjective as theirs.
Back in the day many of my fellow graduates went into the Peace Corp to avoid the draft. I guess my alma mater would be number 1 with a bullet.

As a UCSD alumni, I wholeheartedly agree with the ranking :-).

This UCSD grad('81)knows that there is absolutely no way I could get accepted there, if I were to apply now. I took my daughter to check out the campus as part of her college tour. She didn't think it was her type of place What? Too much sun? Too close to the beach?
She's starting at Whitman in Walla Walla (#16 on the WM liberal arts college list). We're very happy for her.
When I went to UCSD, I paid $720/year tuition. If my daughter were to have gone there as an out of state student, the tuition/room and board would have cost us more than we're paying for her to go to Whitman(~ 45K @ Whitman).

> COLLEGE RANKINGS THAT AREN'T RIDICULOUS.

Except for your ridiculous insistence on using ROTC participation as a factor. If US citizens want to join the army, great, but we well and truly do not need any more nominally reality-based institutions (such as the Washington Monthly) supporting the push to transform our society into Sparta.

Cranky

> paul glastris, the current editor, has degrees
> from northwestern.

I realize Northwestern is in flyover country which I realize makes it a cow college from the perspective of DC., but Princeton, Northwestern, and Stanford are essentially equivalent schools. You'll have to try again for a non-elite employee source.

Cranky

Taylor Branch came from a well-off Atlanta background. A colleague went to prep school with him.

USN&WR has a category for everything. Very uneven and second rate places do well with them. Departments vary widely across even the most competitive institutions. It's easier to identify who isn't great (few books, few graduates) than to put together a definitive list of the best.

In defense of Princeton, it has given us two new, superb female Supreme Court members, which strikes me as commendable.

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