There are ever more rankings of colleges, and of hospitals, graduate schools, law schools, cities and towns. Now Forbes magazine joins Newsweek in the college ranking scene. And Saint Michael's College has landed at number 88 nationwide out of 650 institutions. Forbes says their methodology provides families the best guidance for making one of the most important decisions they will make’choosing the right college for their student.
Forbes describes their approach this way:
‘Our annual ranking of the 650 best undergraduate institutions focuses on the things that matter the most to students: quality of teaching, great career prospects, graduation rates and low levels of debt. Unlike other lists, we pointedly ignore ephemeral measures such as school ‘reputation’ and ill-conceived metrics that reward wasteful spending.’
And they explain further: ‘We try and evaluate the college purchase as a consumer would: Is it worth spending as much as a quarter of a million dollars for this degree?’
To see the story click here: http://blogs.forbes.com/michaelnoer/2011/08/03/americas-top-colleges/
The magazine writes that they base the rankings on five categories:
Post Graduate success (30%), which evaluates alumni pay and prominence,
Student Satisfaction (27.5%), which includes professor evaluations and freshman to sophomore year retention rates,
Debt (17.5%), which penalizes schools for high student debt loads and default rates,
Four Year Graduation Rate (17.5%) and
Competitive Awards (7.5%), which rewards schools whose students win prestigious scholarships and fellowships like the Rhodes, the Marshall and the Fulbright.’
To see Saint Michael’s listing click here: http://www.forbes.com/colleges/saint-michaels-college/
Other Vermont institutions that were ranked include Middlebury College (40th), Bennington College (223rd ), University of Vermont (247th), and Marlboro College (257th).
As of August 9, the Forbes article on college rankings had received 259,325 views.
We agree with Forbes that Saint Michael’s focuses on the things that matter most. We are pleased to receive the magazine’s endorsement.
Learn What Matters at Saint Michael's College, The Edmundite Catholic liberal arts college, www.smcvt.edu . Saint Michael's provides education with a social conscience, producing graduates with the intellectual tools to lead successful, purposeful lives that will contribute to peace and justice in our world. Founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, Saint Michael's College is located three miles from Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns. Identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nations Best 373 Colleges, and included in the 2011 Fiske Guide to Colleges, Saint Michael's has 1,900 undergraduate students and 500 graduate students. Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Pickering, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and other grants. The college is one of the nation's top-100, Best Liberal Arts Colleges as listed in the 2011 U.S. News & World Report rankings.