百大最佳学府中，23间同时跻身物有所值榜，包括知名度较低的瓦巴士学院(WabashCollege)。有趣的是，最佳大学一般集中于东部，而超值大学集中于南部地区。作者: 顾汉现 时间: 2009-8-7 12:40 标题: America's Best Colleges 2009 Special Report
America's Best Colleges 2009
By Richard Vedder and David M. Ewalt,
08.05.09, 06:00 PM EDT
The best public and private colleges and universities--from the student's point of view.
The best college in America has an 11:30 p.m. curfew. It doesn't allow alcohol in the dorms, which must be kept meticulously clean. Students have to keep their hair neat, their shoes shined, their clothes crisply pressed. They also receive a world-class education, at no cost, and incur no debt--except for a duty to their country.
The college, of course, is the U.S. Military Academy, or West Point, and it tops our second-annual ranking of America's Best Colleges, compiled by Forbes and the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. In this report, the CCAP ranks 600 undergraduate institutions based on the quality of the education they provide, the experience of the students and how much they achieve.
West Point rose to the top spot on our rankings after placing sixth in 2008. (For more on West Point, see "How West Point Beat The Ivy League.") The move illustrates strong performances on the part of all the service academies, including the U.S. Air Force Academy, which came in seventh, and the U.S. Naval Academy, which came in 30th place. Last year's No. 1 school, Princeton University, moved to No. 2 in the rankings, followed by the California Institute of Technology, Williams College, Harvard and Wellesley.
Other schools generally considered to be America's best still rank high--Amherst (No. 8), Yale (No. 9), Stanford (No. 10) and MIT (No. 11). But our approach to evaluating performance also yields some hidden jewels. Among liberal arts colleges, Centre (No. 14) and Union (No. 26) rank in the top 30 of all institutions. Boston College (No. 16) far outperforms Dartmouth (No. 98), Duke (No. 104) and Cornell (No. 105). And among flagship state universities, Illinois (No. 132) outranks Big Ten Conference rival (No. 200) Michigan.
To our way of thinking, a good college is one that meets student needs. While some college rankings are based partly on school reputation as evaluated by college administrators and on the amount of money spent, we focus on things which directly concern incoming students: Will my courses be interesting and rewarding? Will I get a good job after I graduate? Is it likely I will graduate in four years? Will I incur a ton of debt getting my degree?
To answer these questions, the staff at CCAP gathered data from a variety of sources. They based 25% of the rankings on 4 million student evaluations of courses and instructors, as recorded on the Web site RateMyProfessors.com. Another 25% is based on post-graduate success, equally determined by enrollment-adjusted entries in Who's Who in America, and by a new metric, the average salaries of graduates reported by Payscale.com. An additional 20% is based on the estimated average student debt after four years. One-sixth of the rankings are based on four-year college graduation rates--half of that is the actual graduation rate, the other half the gap between the average rate and a predicted rate based on characteristics of the school. The last component is based on the number of students or faculty, adjusted for enrollment, who have won nationally competitive awards like Rhodes Scholarships or Nobel Prizes.
作者: 顾汉现 时间: 2009-8-7 12:45 标题: America's Best Colleges Methodology America's Best Colleges
Methodology
By Center for College Affordability and Productivity Staff, 08.05.09, 06:00 PM EDT
The complete methodology for America's Best Colleges 2009.
Table lists the top 50 schools in the official Forbes/CCAP rankings as compared to their rankings using the three other ranking schemes.
Top 50 Forbes/CCAP Schools and Their Ranks Using Various Weighting Schemes
Institution
State
Forbes/CCAP Rank
College as Investment Rank
College as Socialization Rank
College as Scholarship Rank
United States Military Academy
N.Y.
1
2
1
2
Princeton University
N.J.
2
3
2
1
California Institute of Technology
Calif.
3
4
6
3
Williams College
Mass.
4
1
5
6
Harvard University
Mass.
5
7
12
4
Wellesley College
Mass.
6
8
3
5
United States Air Force Academy
Colo.
7
15
4
7
Amherst College
Mass.
8
9
8
12
Yale University
Conn.
9
21
33
9
Stanford University
Calif.
10
22
20
10
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mass.
11
18
28
11
