| Topic Name: |
Wesleyan--the "little three" nobody talks about |
| Message Name: |
I totally agree |
| Date Posted: |
10/20/2001 |
| In Reply To: |
Ok, well, let me first start out by saying that US News rankings are hardly gospel in terms of evaluating schools. They have to change their rankings every year just in order to sell more magazines. I remember one year davidson went from 22 to 11. Now realistically, how much could a school possibly change in one year?
I think Wesleyan gets a bum rap from US News because of a few things:
1)alumni giving. Wesleyan alums don't tend to give a whole lot of money. I think this is largely because so many alums go into public service-type jobs, which really don't pay well enough to enable the alums to give huge donations.
2)US News stopped using student evaluations and quality of teaching as ranking criteria a few years ago. When those were criteria Wesleyan was consistently in the top 5.
3)smaller per-student endowment. When Wesleyan co-educated, the "old boy" alums told the school they would withhold their alumni giving if freshman space were given to women instead of men. The school responded by doubling the class size. So, the old boys gave their money, but it had to be stretched farther.
At any rate, it boils down to the fact that US news places a greater value on money than student happiness, quality of teaching, or any other qualitative criteria. |
| Message: |
with your comments. I too feel that Wesleyan is for flaming indidviduals with the ability to make accurate qualitative analysis. Who needs quantitative abilities anyways? numbers, counting, money. none of this is important. what matters is that college provides you with the skill to effectively join hippy communities for underachievers that disrupt meetings attempting to further capitalism, the cause and effect of sanity.
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