Value for the Money (A BCR response to Washington Monthly’s Bang for the Buck) | Beyond College Rankings

Value for the Money (A BCR response to Washington Monthly’s Bang for the Buck)

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I’m a big fan of Washington Monthly’s new Bang for the Buck ranking, but when I saw some critiques of it in the comments, I decided to offer a version of what some of these critics sought. First, critics found WaMo’s “bang” part of the ranking lacking. I’ve used several proxies that highlight the value (“bang”) of a school for the following ranking.

  1. 1. Amherst College
  2. 2. Williams College
  3. 3. Grinnell College
  4. 4. University of California, Berkeley
  5. 5. Vassar College
  6. 6. University of California, San Diego
  7. 7. Occidental College
  8. 8. University of California, Davis
  9. 9. University of California, Los Angeles
  10. 10. Case Western Reserve University
  11. 11. Gustavus Adolphus College
  12. 12. Lawrence Univeristy
  13. 13. Illinois Institute of Technology
  14. 14. Barnard College
  15. 15. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  16. 16. Howard University
  17. 17. Knox College
  18. 18. Smith College
  19. 19. University of California, Santa Barbara
  20. 20. Hendrix College
  21. 21. University of Massachusetts, Lowell
  22. 22. University of California, Irvine
  23. 23. College of the Holy Cross
  24. 24. Michigan Technological University
  25. 25. Wheaton College (IL)
  26. 26. Pepperdine University
  27. 27. Wheaton College (MA)
  28. 28. Allegheny College
  29. 29. Emory University
  30. 30. University of California, Santa Cruz
  31. 31. Willamette University
  32. 32. New Jersey Institute of Technology
  33. 33. Agnes Scott College
  34. 34. Seattle Pacific University
  35. 35. San Jose St. University
  36. 36. Rutgers University
  37. 37. University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
  38. 38. Arizona St. University
  39. 39. Beloit College
  40. 40. University of Texas, Austin
  41. 41. Cornell College
  42. 42. University of Portland
  43. 43. Milwaukee School of Engineering
  44. 44. Drew University
  45. 45. Marlboro College
  46. 46. Texas A&M University
  47. 47. Florida Institute of Technology
  48. 48. Mount Holyoke College
  49. 49. University of Washington, Seattle
  50. 50. California Polytechnic Institute, Pomona
  51. 51. St. John’s University (NY)
  52. 52. University of Florida, Gainesville
  53. 53. Calvin College
  54. 54. University of Arizona, Tucson
  55. 55. Westmont College
  56. 56. Dowling College
  57. 57. George Mason University
  58. 58. Wabash College
  59. 59. Purdue University
  60. 60. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
  61. 61. Bennington College
  62. 62. Syracuse University
  63. 63. Drexel University
  64. 64. Hofstra University
  65. 65. St. John’s College (MD)
  66. 66. St. John’s College (NM)
  67. 67. Fairfield University
  68. 68. Hampshire College
  69. 69. Lewis and Clark College
  70. 70. University of Miami
  71. 71. Hollins University
  72. 72. New College of Florida
  73. 73. San Diego St. University
  74. 74. University of Massachusetts, Amherst
  75. 75. New York University
  76. 76. University of Nebraska, Lincoln
  77. 77. Creighton University
  78. 78. Ohio St. University
  79. 79. Southwestern University
  80. 80. Seattle University
  81. 81. Fisk University
  82. 82. University of San Francisco
  83. 83. University of Georgia
  84. 84. Illinois Wesleyan University
  85. 85. University of Puget Sound
  86. 86. Indiana University, Bloomington
  87. 87. Kansas University, Lawrence
  88. 88. Ohio University
  89. 89. University of Louisville
  90. 90. Earlham College
  91. 91. Michigan St. University
  92. 92. Bard College
  93. 93. University of South Carolina, Columbia
  94. 94. Florida St. University
  95. 95. Luther College
  96. 96. University of Oregon, Eugene
  97. 97. Berea College
  98. 98. Hope College
  99. 99. Spelman College
  100. 100. New School

However, another critic disapproved of the requirement that schools, to be included in the ranking, have at least twenty percent of incoming freshmen be recipients of Pell Grants. I included that requirement in the above ranking. If I remove that requirement, and include all schools, there is a new top twenty (and more, but I’ll just list the top twenty here).

  1. 1. Harvard University
  2. 2. Amherst College
  3. 3. Williams College
  4. 4. Grinnell College
  5. 5. University of California, Berkeley
  6. 6. Vassar College
  7. 7. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  8. 8. Princeton University
  9. 9. Swarthmore College
  10. 10. Yale University
  11. 11. Macalester College
  12. 12. Wellesley College
  13. 13. University of California, San Diego
  14. 14. Stanford University
  15. 15. Brown University
  16. 16. California Institute of Technology
  17. 17. Duke University
  18. 18. Rice University
  19. 19. Cornell University
  20. 20. Wesleyan University
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