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College and University Rankings

There is a bunch of college and university rankings featured in a lot of places.

Most colleges and universities either love or hate these rankings, basically loving them when they rank them well and looking away when they rank them poorly.

Here are some reports and rankings that recently been released this month.

– The U.S. News & World Report of “America’s Best Colleges,” this was one of the first rankings on colleges and was hated by many educators. It is still now very controversial but many students and parents consider this as the “bible” (or something very important of college rankings). It is often criticized for favoring richer private schools. The U.S. News & World Report placed Harvard and Princeton as tied for the number 1 spot this year. – The Washington Monthly, which has always been a critic of the “U.S. News report,” did their own rankings. They placed Iowa State over Princeton, the rankings emphasizes on what the colleges do for our nation (US). – Kaplan’s “America’s Hottest Colleges,” a more laid back version of U.S. News. This year Kaplan singled out Macalester College as the U.S.’s “hottest” liberal art college. – Princeton Review surveys 110,000 students at 361 colleges and with the surveys they produce a list which frustrates many college officials. They rank the nations top “party schools” which earns much national publicity. Other category of ranking they do include “everyone plays intramural sports” and “stone cold sober.”

Keep in mind that surveys and rankings on colleges and universities should not be taken very seriously as their accuracy are hard if not impossible to prove.