Academic rigor, baby.

[DWH]

So, here's a fun one I was recently alerted to. Newsweek decided to rank colleges not by their usual system, or by how hard they are to get into, to create a list of the most academically rigorous colleges in the US. This piqued my interest, because I went to a very academically rigorous college, but Ivy League types tended to turn up their nose at us, because we were easier to get into. Never mind there are a lot of reasons for this that have nothing to do with our academics, and everything to do with name recognition. Also, we produce hippies, and that impacts the student base that applies.

ANYWAY. The list: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/f ... s.all.html

I was pretty gratified to see that Oberlin came in ahead of both Harvard and Yale. Also, if anyone remembers Zorp, she applied to (and was rejected from) Oberlin, but ended up at St. John's, which is ranked ahead of Oberlin in academic rigor.

I quite like this list. A lot of the ones on there, especially the ones ahead of Oberlin, are ones I looked at and really liked, but are not necessarily well known. I think it's great for small, awesome colleges to get the props they deserve. Also, I appreciate it when schools are ranked on something other than the usual ranking, because a large chunk of that ranking is based on the reputation of the school, and ever since the rankings have been published, the reputation of the school is tied to its ranking, and if the ranking falls for some reason, more people start thinking, "Huh, X school must be slipping." So the ranking falls again, because their ranking fell last year, and more people notice, and it's this never ending cycle.

Also, my roommate is in Oberlin right now and it's making me homesick for my alma mater. I'm just going to go read why the fuck should I choose Oberlin for a while now...

[kelsa]

They didn't list my particular school, but they did list our parent school so I'm down with it. Small liberal arts colleges sort of get the shove in traditional rankings, so this is a good list to produce.

[Sonic#]

Good list! Neither of my schools are on there (not surprised), but I was delighted to see St. Johns at #1 (I eyed that school very hard) and Furman at #2 (a friend of mine went there, and she's the definition of academically rigorous).

[LunchBox]

I am kind of glad that my school isn't on there. The ABET certified computer engineering program I'm going through is rigorous enough by itself.

[Neko]

The university I'm planning to transfer to isn't up there and I'm also glad. The program I'm going for is harder to get into than the school itself.

[Meperidine]

Bard came two behind Oberlin to narrowly edge out Harvard. Fuck yeah.

[helium]

I'm a little bit surprised my school isn't on there but also very glad, haha. This is a really cool way to rank schools though.

[drunken dragon]

Go figure, my tiny west Texas university isn't on the list.

[rowan]

Huh I'm surprised my school* isn't on there; from what I saw at Harvard (I actually TA'd there a semester, can you believe it) our school definitely had them beat out.

*the one I did my undergrad at - not the one I'm teaching at now

but yeah. I like to see how few Research-1 schools are on there. Heh.

[ladyhawk]

None of those schools are the school I will be finishing at, and none of them are the school I've been attending, but Franklin and Marshal is located in the town I will be moving to in three months. Hm.