@pittsburghscribe Finally, someone who as actually gone to an Ivy commenting. Thanks for your opinion. Yeah, I can’t imagine someone getting in with what your SAT score must have been - I mean, can you imagine someone getting in with a <=1600 score? (Joke) 
I thought I was hot stuff because my SAT was 1530, but then the valedictorian of the class got a 1600 (back when people took the SAT once and just about nobody got a perfect score). Of course, he went to Harvard
Keep in mind that five out of the top ten USNWR national universities are NOT Ivy League schools.
Still, traditionally strong schools are difficult to dethrone because, in part, of the methodology. The ranking formula weights “undergraduate academic reputation” pretty heavily (22.5%)—higher ranking means better “word on the street” and better “word on the street” means higher rankings And because higher USNWR ranking means more applications, selectivity is likely to go up as well (another 12.5%). So high ranking becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy to some extent.
That also helps to explain why excellent newcomers and specialized schools like Olin remain unranked.
Go look at the top 20 colleges before you make that comment. Many of the other schools people have been mentioning in this thread that aren’t Ivies are above some of the Ivies. That is the point that has been made over and over… the Ivies are not monolithic, and there are quite a few schools that can provide a better education for SOME students than that particular student would get at SOME Ivies. U of Chicago, MIT, Duke, Stanford, Caltech, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, and Wash U all rank higher than at least one Ivy. And there is no direct comparison rankings in USNWR between the top universities and top LACs (so schools like Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Wellesley, Pomona, that are not slacker schools of any kind). If you think the USNWR rankings are the final word (which I don’t). But you brought it up.
So the only reason people want to go to Ivies is because they are rated highly by USN&WR?
Wow, I thought it was being around for a few hundred years and being the place where presidents and movers and shakers tend to go. And here it was only a magazine.
Please indicate which “traditional schools” should be “unthroned” as it were.
Okay, here’s a wild theory - USNWR is just a company that sells ranking to the highest bidder! Maybe all the colleges submit amounts and they rank them by order of how much $$$ they are willing to pay. And the Ivies have a certain stipend added to whatever amount the put up, so that’s why at least some of them are always in the top 10-20.
(I’m just being silly right now, don’t take me seriously.)
Whoa…I was just answering a question about the USNWR rankings, not throwing shade at any school or set of schools. My only point is that USNWR methodology supports the status quo to a large extent. I always think it’s wise to look behind the rankings and figure out how they’re determined rather than taking the numbers at face-value.
And Intparent’s point about LACs is a key problem with those rankings IMO. I’ve heard people say things like, “Williams must not be a very good school, they’re not even in US News’ top 100.” (It’s at that point that I sometimes feel like pounding my head against the nearest wall.)
A list of the colleges presidents who served in the past 100 years first attended for undergrad is below. It does not look like just a bunch of ivies to me.
Amherst
Davidson
Eureka
Georgetown
Georgia Southwestern
Harvard
London School of Economics
Occidental
Ohio Central
Southwest Texas State
Spalding’s Commercial College (dropped out after 1 semester, no college degree)
Stanford
University of Michigan
West Point
Whittier
Yale (2x)
Because they are all excellent schools? But they are just 8 of the nation’s top schools.
“So the only reason people want to go to Ivies is because they are rated highly by USN&WR?”
No one said that. Chill.
Have you looked at the metrics used by USNWR?
Another 35% of the ranking correlates with wealth of the school. Wealthier schools will do well on these criteri, much better than public universities which have been facing shrinking support from state governments.
Faculty resources (20 percent):
Financial resources (10 percent):
Alumni giving rate (5 percent):
One last thing - I haven’t seen the scores used in the ranking. So what is the difference in score between #1 and #10 and #20? These score differences could be very small or very large. Maybe the difference between #1 and #20 is tiny, relative to the total possible score.
I think that question was answered.
You could do the math.
I think the Forbes formula uses your 1 and 3, at least.
Because they continue to attract top students, have money and prestige? I’m not an ivy hater or lover, but do think there are lots of great schools, some of the best being the lacs you removed from the list.
Alapin…why do you care?
But you could also make a pseudo group of 8 schools and ask what they’re doing to be in the top 20 all the time. Why always Stanford, MIT, northwestern, Chicago, Caltech, etc?
Yeah, I’ve got to ask the same question thumper has…who cares? Why not ask why more schools in that list start with “C” than another letter, or some other equally meaningless question?
There is College Ranking by SAT scores from Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/schifrin/2014/08/04/top-100-sat-scores-ranking-which-colleges-have-the-brightest-kids/