Okay, I’ve had a chance to dig a bit deeper into the learning environment portion.
Here’s the roll-up for those same southeastern states + Pennsylvania that I did above for Student Experience. For ease of reference, I’m reposting the definitions that WSJ used for these categories:
Learning environment (20%):
Learning opportunities (5%): The quality and frequency of learning opportunities at the college, based on our student survey. This includes questions about interactions with faculty, feedback and the overall quality of teaching.
Preparation for career (5%): The quality and frequency of opportunities for students to prepare for their future careers, based on our student survey. This includes questions about networking opportunities, career advice and support, and applied learning.
Learning facilities (5%): Student satisfaction with the college’s learning-related facilities, based on our student survey. This includes questions about library facilities, internet reliability, and classrooms and teaching facilities.
Recommendation score (5%): The extent to which students would recommend their college, based on our student survey. This includes questions about whether students would recommend the college to a friend, whether students would choose the same college again if they could start over, and satisfaction with the value for money their college provides.
| State | # of Schools Included | Learning Opportunities Range | Learning Opportunities Average | Preparation for Career Range | Preparation for Career Average | Learning Facilities Range | Learning Facilities Average | Recommendation Score Range | Recommendation Score Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AL | 8 | 62-80 | 67.4 | 62-84 | 70.1 | 53-88 | 76.3 | 57-88 | 73.5 |
| GA | 20 | 63-80 | 69.7 | 60-82 | 70.6 | 72-87 | 78.4 | 59-90 | 73.9 |
| LA | 10 | 62-76 | 67.5 | 64-83 | 69.6 | 63-86 | 73 | 59-88 | 69.7 |
| MS | 5 | 63-74 | 67.4 | 62-74 | 69.4 | 74-80 | 76.2 | 67-76 | 72 |
| NC | 16 | 65-77 | 70.6 | 64-77 | 71.4 | 71-87 | 79.7 | 61-85 | 74.2 |
| PA | 36 | 63-79 | 80 | 62-78 | 71.1 | 70-90 | 79.6 | 54-82 | 71.2 |
| SC | 7 | 65-78 | 70.9 | 65-77 | 70.4 | 72-88 | 80.6 | 57-81 | 73.1 |
| TN | 16 | 65-80 | 71 | 66-79 | 70.9 | 74-89 | 80.9 | 69-83 | 76.1 |
| VA | 14 | 61-84 | 71.7 | 59-85 | 71.6 | 72-95 | 82.6 | 64-89 | 77.3 |
| WV | 2 | 63-66 | 64.5 | 58-68 | 63 | 67-76 | 71.5 | 72-74 | 73 |
The spread between the different categories were all much closer, with no big outliers:
| Learning Opportunities Average | Preparation for Career Average | Learning Facilities Average | Recommendation Score Average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spread from Top to Bottom | 15.5 | 8.6 | 11.1 | 7.6 |
For people who want to see some specific schools, here are the data for…
Pennsylvania
| School | Learning Opportunities Score | Preparation for Career | Learning Facilities | Recommendation Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allegheny | 77 | 72 | 81 | 77 |
| Bucknell | 79 | 78 | 90 | 80 |
| Carnegie Mellon | 68 | 69 | 78 | 72 |
| Chatham | 67 | 62 | 70 | 54 |
| Dickinson | 74 | 71 | 85 | 71 |
| Drexel | 66 | 72 | 71 | 64 |
| Duquesne | 68 | 70 | 79 | 71 |
| Elizabethtown | 73 | 71 | 80 | 70 |
| Franklin & Marshall | 71 | 67 | 78 | 60 |
| Gettysburg | 75 | 73 | 83 | 74 |
| Haverford | 73 | 66 | 85 | 74 |
| Indiana U. of PA | 63 | 64 | 77 | 67 |
| Juniata | 74 | 74 | 77 | 76 |
| Kutztown | 71 | 71 | 74 | 67 |
| Lafayette | 73 | 75 | 87 | 80 |
| Lebanon Valley | 71 | 71 | 74 | 67 |
| Lehigh | 73 | 75 | 87 | 80 |
| Lycoming | 69 | 65 | 80 | 57 |
| Messiah | 72 | 73 | 79 | 67 |
| Muhlenberg | 71 | 68 | 78 | 65 |
| Penn State | 69 | 72 | 79 | 74 |
| Pennsylvania College of Technology | 72 | 76 | 77 | 74 |
| Slippery Rock | 71 | 74 | 81 | 78 |
| St. Francis | 74 | 73 | 76 | 67 |
| St. Joseph’s | 68 | 68 | 73 | 65 |
| Susquehanna | 76 | 78 | 81 | 74 |
| Swarthmore | 71 | 66 | 87 | 74 |
| Temple | 65 | 69 | 78 | 69 |
| Thomas Jefferson | 70 | 71 | 74 | 68 |
| U. of Pennsylvania | 70 | 77 | 83 | 79 |
| U. of Pennsylvania | 70 | 77 | 83 | 79 |
| U. of Pittsburgh | 66 | 68 | 74 | 76 |
| U. of Scranton | 75 | 75 | 87 | 82 |
| Ursinus | 72 | 65 | 79 | 63 |
| Villanova | 73 | 78 | 77 | 77 |
| Washington & Jefferson | 71 | 68 | 82 | 66 |
| West Chester | 65 | 67 | 80 | 75 |
And Virginia
| School | Learning Opportunities Score | Preparation for Career | Learning Facilities | Recommendation Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christopher Newport | 69 | 70 | 85 | 73 |
| George Mason | 61 | 59 | 73 | 64 |
| Hampden-Sydney | 82 | 83 | 92 | 88 |
| James Madison | 74 | 76 | 86 | 87 |
| Liberty U. | 73 | 76 | 79 | 81 |
| Old Dominion | 62 | 60 | 72 | 67 |
| Randolph-Macon | 76 | 76 | 82 | 78 |
| U. of Mary Washington | 71 | 67 | 82 | 72 |
| U. of Richmond | 78 | 74 | 93 | 81 |
| U. of Virginia | 68 | 68 | 81 | 80 |
| Virginia Commonwealth | 65 | 66 | 73 | 65 |
| Virginia Tech | 69 | 71 | 81 | 78 |
| Washington & Lee | 84 | 85 | 95 | 89 |
| William & Mary | 72 | 72 | 82 | 79 |
Since WSJ’s definition of Learning Opportunities is best-aligned to what I consider a quality education, I’ll highlight the three highest scoring schools in each of those states for that metric:
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Alabama: Samford (80), Jacksonville State (71), Auburn (69)
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Georgia: Savannah College of Art & Design (80), Dalton State (76), Morehouse (75)
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Louisiana: Louisiana Tech (76), Southeastern Louisiana (72), U. of Louisiana-Monroe (70)
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Mississippi: Mississippi College (74), Jackson State (71), U. of Mississippi (65)
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North Carolina: Davidson (77), Elon (76), Wake Forest (76)
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Pennsylvania: Bucknell (79), Allegheny (77), Susquehanna (76)
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South Carolina: Wofford (78), Bob Jones (75), Furman (75)
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Tennessee: Sewanee: The U. of the South (80), Lipscomb (77), Rhodes (75-tie), Belmont (75-tie), Trevecca Nazarene (75-tie)
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Virginia: Washington & Lee (84), Hampden-Sydney (82), U. of Richmond (78)
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West Virginia: West Virginia U. (66), Marshall (63)
Once again, are there are any surprises on here? Scores that you think would be higher or lower than they are? Or are these a confirmation of what you’re familiar with?