<p>bclintock, my point with PA was not with Middlebury but with Pomona and Williams, Amherst, and Swarthmore. Pomona matches if not beats many of these in several factor but the PA weighs it down, and it’s a huge(biggest?) factor. </p>
<p>Arcardia- Rankings are about objective measures of a school. The factors you mentioned are just one thing that measure the immediate quality of the school, but Pomona remains exceedingly strong, if not the strongest, in outputs, such as retention rate and graduation rate. Alumni giving rate can be so easily manipulated(not accusing Midd of doing it, but I know of schools who have done that), and what exactly does it mean for the immediate student looking for a measure of quality of schools? Also, Pomona receives the most alumni funds of any LAC after Williams- it shouldn’t be just a measure of how many alumni give, but how much they give. </p>
<p>I feel your analysis about what AG means is looking too far into it. </p>
<p>Pomona spends the most on faculty resources, but again- it’s marked down by Cost of Living. Stanford, the third richest school, has some amazing faculty resources, yet only ranks 12 because it apparently doesn’t pay its faculty enough, despite the fact that 99.5% of the faculty is full time. Please tell me how any of the 19 schools that are apparently ranked above it spend more in sheer, objective numbers. Pomona is the richest LAC in the US per capita, and anyone knows of how many resources the school has, not just stockpiled away but constantly used to fund student life and the like. Pomona has some of the most distinguished faculty of any LAC, and Pomona graduates perform exceedingly well- among the top 5 LACs for graduate school placement, highest LAC med school acceptance rate, one of the highest mean LSATs, top per capita Fulbright Scholars, I could go on and on. </p>
<p>My points are:
+Pomona’s richness and resources are undermined by US New’s arbitrary method of calculating faculty resources, even though it is very clear of how exceptional it is.
+Pomona’s reputation is hurt by PA, which confirms a self-fulfilling prophecy of what the best schools are. Pomona has been able to break away from being 7-9 to coming to 4-5 by objective measures like admission rates and graduation rates, but it can not be 1-3 unless its PA is matched.</p>