<p>I actually have a method for calculating academic rigor. </p>
<p>Rigor = (SAT 75th percentile)/(Sophomore Year Retention) * 1/10000</p>
<p>One flaw with this formula is that it discriminates against smaller schools. For example, a student at WPI who decides that engineering is not for them will likely transfer and thus not graduate in 4 years. But a student at Ohio State who decides they don’t like engineering will just change majors and graduate in 4 years. </p>
<p>So, using that formula, the rigor for each school is: </p>
<p>BU: 0.15
WPI: 0.15
Tufts: 0.15
NEU: 0.14</p>
<p>A few extra reference points: </p>
<p>MIT: 0.16
Harvard: 0.16
RIT: 0.15
Rose: 0.15
Columbia: 0.16
Hopkins: 0.15</p>
<p>Imaginary School with SATs of 800 combined and 100% retention: 0.08</p>
<p>Imaginary School with SATs of 1600 combined and 50% retention: 0.32</p>
<p>So in other words a school that scores a 0.08 has no rigor, and a school with a .32 is virtually impossible. As you can see, these schools have about the same rigor.</p>