<p>God, how I hate these rankings. This one’s as flawed as the rest. For instance, it gives weight to the mid-career salaries of graduates but includes only graduates with a terminal bachelor’s degree. In other words, it penalizes schools where a high proportion of students go on to complete graduate degrees. If 80 percent of graduates of school A go to careers in medicine, law or another lucrative fields but only 20 percent of graduates of school B do so I think it’s germane to any discussion of a school’s economic value.</p>
<p>This ranking also gives heavy weighting to the demographics of the town in which the college/university is located. Is the cost of living in a college town plus the median age of residents really worth more in terms of the quality of a school than the overall academic quality (acceptance rate plus student/faculty ratio)? I’d hate to see someone telling prospective employers or graduate schools, “But my school was really great. The town residents were so YOUNG!”</p>