Comments | effani: (без темы)

effani

(Untitled)

Aug 23, 2006 20:40

The front page of yesterday's Star Tribune contained an article about college rankings featuring the Northfield colleges. I feel vaguely insulted by it and can't define why, since I do believe the rankings are mostly bunk (and think Carleton went a bit downhill when it hit the top 5). Nonetheless, how about this choice excerpt ( Read more... )

carleton

Comments 5

brewergnome August 24 2006, 04:02:24 UTC

That's quite a group to be compared with. Four super rich schools, and two well endowed ones... odd.

buirechain August 24 2006, 05:13:57 UTC

Since US News and World Report gives the endowment figures online, I have to do this:

Harvard: $25,853,048,000
Princeton: $11,762,502,000
Yale: $15,091,021,000
Williams: $1,348,373,291
Amherst: $115,456,952
Carleton: $540,039,151
St. Olaf: $225,657,900

And then, sit back and laugh. I don't know how the endowment compares to overall figures, but I think the numbers speak sufficiently well for themselves.

buirechain August 24 2006, 04:26:00 UTC

That quote seems to be paraphrasing something out of the mouth of Olaf administrators. Hmm - not biased.

I'm also amused that Olaf talks about the fact that their low Alumni giving is what drags them down. That may be; but I think Carleton's Alumni giving is probably the one part of that ranking to be proud of because it indicates the feeling of past students towards their college. Maybe not the best reflection of that, but its a lot better than seeing how good students did in the ACT/SAT before they even got there.

I don't think I know anyone who went to Carleton who wished they went to Olaf (though I'm sure some people aren't glad of having gone to Carleton), but I can think of two Olies who would've preferred Carleton (Chris Raschka and one of my colleagues at the UW[in whose case I think the critical issue was more the community]), and I don't even know that many Olies.

(The comment has been removed)

buirechain August 24 2006, 05:04:03 UTC

12th in national universities. Thats on a diffirent scale from the Liberal Arts Colleges ranking which Carleton and Olaf et al. are on.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/t1natudoc_brief.php

effani August 24 2006, 23:45:09 UTC

No, it's Stephen's family's turn for Christmas. I'm not sure about Thanksgiving, though. Are you going to be there then?