I really don’t mind different outlets doing different rankings with different values, but I will admit Forbes is probably not the outlet I would choose to rate LACs for me. Not that no one might, but the way they think about liberal arts and sciences college value is fairly different from how I do.
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Well, the new rankings have come and gone, and the surprise is how few surprises there really were, given the build-up. Still speaks to the value of subjective, anecdotal-driven, content:
U.S. News & World Report Rankings 2027 - College Search & Lists - College Confidential Forums
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I will say I did not love what the new earnings measure apparently did to the LAC rankings.
That said, I also think it is reasonable to hope most LAC kids and parents simply won’t care.
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Spelman, discussed earlier, tied at #34 among national liberal arts colleges with Colorado College, Franklin & Marshall, and Mount Holyoke.
Morehouse tied at #83 amongst national liberal arts colleges with Earlham. For additional context, Whitman was #78, St. John’s College (MD) #81, Wheaton (MA) #81, and many ties at #85 with Allegheny, Drew, Knox, Randolph-Macon, Stonehill, and Susquehanna. (College of Wooster, a CC favorite, was #91.)
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Let’s name all the top 40 LACs (cut and paste from web)
Top 40 National Liberal Arts Colleges (2027 U.S. News & World Report)
- No. 1: Williams College (MA)
- No. 2: Amherst College (MA)
- No. 3 (tie): Bowdoin College (ME), Claremont McKenna College (CA), Pomona College (CA), Swarthmore College ¶, U.S. Naval Academy (MD)
- No. 8: Harvey Mudd College (CA)
- No. 9: U.S. Military Academy / West Point (NY)
- No. 10: Wellesley College (MA)
- No. 11: U.S. Air Force Academy (CO)
- No. 12 (tie): Vassar College (NY), Washington and Lee University (VA)
- No. 14 (tie): Hamilton College (NY), Wesleyan University (CT)
- No. 16 (tie): Carleton College (MN), Davidson College (NC), Grinnell College (IA)
- No. 19 (tie): Barnard College (NY), Middlebury College (VT)
- No. 21: University of Richmond (VA)
- No. 22 (tie): Colby College (ME), Colgate University (NY), College of the Holy Cross (MA), Smith College (MA)
- 26 Bates, Haveford
- 28 Macalester
- 29 Bucknell
- 30 Lafayette
- 31 Bryn Mawr, Denison, Trinity Ct
- 34 Colorado College, Franklin snd Marshall, Mount Holyoke, Spellman
- 38 Occidental, Scrpps, Trinity Tx
- 41 Kenyon, Skidmore, Soka
Edited to fix what was obviously wrong from web…
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W&L switched places with the more academicky Davidson. That one crept up on me despite all the omens preceding it.
Bates is 26.
This may not be a totally correct list -ai slop…
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I did not love all of Wellesley, Barnard, and Smith dropping. Maybe predictable in retrospect, but not my cup of tea.
Same deal with Carleton. It isn’t hard to understand why an Upper Midwest PhD Factory would suffer in this new formula, but to me this is like basically the opposite of how I personally would value LACs.
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Yeah, the LACs seem to have been more greatly affected by the methodology update than the universities.
Smith, Haverford, Carleton, Oberlin, and Reed are academic giants that are underrated in this iteration, imo. (Oberlin and Reed have been vastly underrated for a long time…).
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The one that surprises me is Swat staying in a top spot. Given the methodology, I would have suspected a similar fate to Carleton.
And at some level, I think you could probably just do a correlation of the number of students in the economics department and the number of those that go into the job market versus grad school. That’s what it seems like the changed ranking methodology is looking at.
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Or Swat students staying in the Boston-NYC-Philly corridor with higher starting salaries (and corresponding costs of living) than the Carleton students staying in the Minneapolis-Milwaukee-Chicago-St. Louis region.
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Yep, but then I wouldn’t have expected Haverford to fall.
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Could it be that relatively more Haverford kids are getting degrees in English, Biology, and Chemistry? (not rhetorical – just wondering, as that would make sense…)
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Possibly. Also Swat has engineering, so that probably helps too.
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Agreed, the changes just don’t make a lot of sense from the POV of what I would consider important. For 35 years most of the top SLAC rankings were quite stable with relatively small variance which makes sense because barring some serious stressor nothing changes quickly in this section of academia… But now we are seeing whipsawing in the rankings which really highlight that the methodology is driving the rankings, not any changes in the schools themselves.
Wellesley has been a top 5 school for over 35 years with very little variance and now it makes a huge move downward? They haven’t ranked lower than 8 in 40 years. A move to 10 without the methodology change would be a six sigma event! Middlebury now moves like a yo yo after 35 years of stability? Middlebury and Carleton are both far below their stable 35 plus year averages. Same for Smith.
CMC took a wild ride upward, good for them but again far outside of what would be considered normal.
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Yes, Swarthmore has Engineering, and also Econ was 12.5% of primary majors in the latest NCES cohort, versus 10.5% at Haverford and 5.2% at Carleton.
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156 posts and no mention of Trinity despite it being on lists that were referenced.
The CC disrespect continues…
Trinity appears to have broken out of a seven-way tie for 37th place last year to leapfrog over Spelman, Occidental, Franklin&Marshal, Scripps, Colorado, Mt. Holyoke and Trinity University.
Holyoke and Colorado were among the LACs to take the biggest hits.
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I stand corrected, according to US News, my kid’s school Occidental is a “national” LAC. Pretty sure I was unwilling to put it in the national as opposed to regional conversation up thread. Regardless, we’re very happy with her choice so far. Liberal arts college in Los Angeles is pretty attractive and unique. And I have no idea what it was ranked by US News last year.
I will also jump in on the Wellesley bandwagon, that place is fantastic. Not sure I’ve been more impressed by any college.
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When Holy Cross landed in the top 45 position in the Time Best Colleges and Universities list as one of the very few LACs, I knew they were going to do well in USNews ranking. The +5 spot rise to #22 National LAC and #19 Private College, puts them in the good company of Smith, Colby and Colgate. Good for HC.
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