<p>Ranking schools is such an inexact science anyways. Although the US News rankings are probably the most widely-used, other independent guides rank W&L much more towards opposite ends of the spectrum. College ******* alleged that W&L’s academics were second only to Princeton, Harvard, and Williams and superior to Penn, Northwestern, Cornell, Middlebury, and the like. The Fiske Guide to Colleges, however, never seems to resist the chance to vilify every aspect of the school. </p>
<p>There is obviously no magic formula for ranking schools, but I do believe that many schools located in the South do not receive recognition commensurate with their excellence (i.e., Duke, Davidson, GA Tech, Vanderbilt, W&L, W&M, etc…).</p>