Student Loan Blog : Top Colleges and Universities

Student-Ranked Top Colleges and Other Tools to Help You Find the Right Fit

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 20:38:00 GMT

If you’re in high school and looking ahead to college, you probably already know all about U.S. News & World Report’s annual “America’s Best Colleges,” which ranks colleges and universities around the country. These rankings can give you a great place to start, but if your college search revolves entirely around this list, you’re throwing yourself at the mercy of only one corporation’s definition of “best.”

The “best” school for a potential geneticist may have a stellar biosciences faculty but no intramural sports—if you’re an aspiring genetic engineer who unwinds with regular competitive basketball games, you might want to ask yourself if you would be happy there for four or more years.

If rankings are important to you in making your college decision, consider expanding your search to include other “best” lists that go beyond just academics, that might be able to give you a sense of the campus, the town, the personality of the students, and of whether or not you’ll fit in and enjoy your life there.

The Princeton Review Best Colleges: Students Rate Their Own Campuses

Find out what current students think about their own schools and get various bests (and worsts) for every personality type with The Princeton Review’s Best 366 Colleges. The 2008 edition of The Princeton Review’s annual rankings surveys more than 120,000 students on 366 campuses.

You won’t find any “top schools” overall here. As The Princeton Review explains in one of their answers to an FAQ, “We don’t believe that any one school is the best overall. … Some colleges in our book may be ideal for some students but wrong for others, depending on their interests and needs.”

Instead, the survey results serve up the top 20 schools in each of 62 categories like:

Best Campus Food: Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA)
Is It Food?: U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (Kings Point, NY)
Dorms Like Palaces: Smith College (Northampton, MA)
Dorms Like Dungeons: U.S. Coast Guard Academy (New London, CT)
Best Classroom Experience: Reed College (Portland, OR)
Most Long Lines and Red Tape: Tuskegee University (Tuskegee, AL)
Biggest Frat & Sorority Scene: DePauw University (Greencastle, IN)
Students Most Nostalgic for Ronald Reagan: Warren Wilson College (Asheville, NC)
Students Most Nostalgic for Bill Clinton: Thomas Aquinas College (Santa Paula, CA)
Most Diverse Student Body: Temple University (Philadelphia)
Most Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking Vegetarians: Hampshire College (Amherst, MA)
Best College Radio Station: St. Bonaventure University (St. Bonaventure, NY)
Where Intercollegiate Sports Are Unpopular or Nonexistent: New College of Florida (Sarasota, FL)
Where Students Pack the Stadiums: University of Maryland (College Park, MD)

You can find the complete Princeton Review student rankings free online, or buy a copy of the book (list price $21.95). In addition to the rankings and two-page profiles on each of the 366 schools, the book version has a new section with lists of “Great Colleges for 15 of the Most Popular College Majors.”

Other Online Resources and Rankings

For more student rankings and other “best” categories, check out these sites:

Campus Dirt’s Top Ten Lists: Toughest Classes, Easiest Freshman Parking, Most “Wired” Campus, Most Options for Late-Night Food, Where Lectures Are Related to the “Real World,” …
Students Review: University & College Rankings: Top Engineering Schools, Top Schools for Smart People, Top Creative Schools, Top Ivies, Biggest Reputation, …
College Rankings by College Prowler: Grades schools A through F on things like parking, nightlife, weather, guys, girls, campus strictness, and local atmosphere
The Templeton Guide to Colleges That Encourage Character Development: 405 exemplary programs in 10 categories like Volunteer Service, Academic Honesty, Spiritual Growth, and Civic Education

First-Hand Accounts and Campus Tours

Besides doing your reading and online research, ask around. Your friends may know former students who can give you a first-hand opinion of the school you’re interested in.

One of the best ways to get a feel for a campus and the student life is to visit. If you can’t afford the travel costs to check out the campus for yourself, try a virtual campus visit at CampusTours.com or College-Visits.com to get a better feel for what your college life might actually be like once you’re on campus.

Share this post: email this | del.icio.us | reddit

America’s “Best” Colleges of 2008: Strategies for College-Bound Students to Compose Their Own List

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 16:00:00 GMT

Once again, U.S. News & World Report’s latest ranking of colleges and universities received hordes of criticism and its yearly flogging from university presidents and officials who take issue with the magazine’s grading system. Even despite the effort of a small group of college presidents to initiate a boycott of the magazine’s survey, school participation only diminished by seven percent this year.

Touted as having the most sought-after lists of academic rankings, U.S. News compiles 25 percent (the largest portion) of its survey from college officials’ ratings of their fellow institutions. The legitimacy of these rankings, particularly those of colleges and universities, comes under fire every year, with some administrators arguing that the ranking methods lead to distorted or spurious evaluations among competing schools attempting to vault themselves up in the standings.

As more and more students graduate high school with their eyes set on higher education, the notion of what makes a college the “best” or the “right” school for a larger and increasingly diverse pool of applicants becomes all the more complicated.

While the U.S. News listings carry a certain authority after having been around for 24 years, rank-watchers should bear in mind that the rating methodology only accounts for a few, measurable dimensions of college “quality.” There are plenty of intangibles that go into defining a total college experience, and parents and students should consider expanding the criteria for their search beyond just a ranking to get at what the numbers in a magazine can’t tell you.

· First-hand accounts. Your parents and siblings are probably more than willing to talk about their alma mater, so sit them down to get the inside scoop. Use your Facebook and MySpace time to scour groups and photos from the schools on your list and to chat with current students about their school’s programs and social activities.

· See for yourself. If you can, visit the schools on your list. Those pretty pictures on the brochure won’t give you the feel of what the midday rush is like on the quad. Explore on your own in addition to guided tours, to get a sense of the general vibe of the campus and surrounding areas. Pick up a copy of the college newspaper or check it out online. Read what other students are reading, writing, debating and thinking, and ask yourself—would you fit in here?

· No one school is good at everything. Top-50 NYU is a terrific choice if you’re an aspiring actor that wants in to their nationally renowned Tisch School of the Arts. But if you see yourself joining the Peace Corps or traveling all over the world as a service volunteer, your perfect path may be the Pre-Peace Corps, International, and Non-Governmental Service concentration offered at Tier 3 Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C.

If you’re interested in a particular major or career track, you can search schools by field of study at Petersons.com. Browse school websites to get a feel for how certain departments operate, what kinds of classes are offered, and contact professors within the department to see what kind of research is being done.

Other Sources of Information

The U.S. News rankings provide a decent starting point for getting a general idea of how big-name schools compare in certain areas, but they don’t offer in-depth information or the insider’s view that would give you an idea of what day-to-day life is like on campus.

Sites like CollegeBoard.com let you search schools by location, major and cost, just to name a few, and they offer tips for planning your college career and preparing for admissions. These sites are easy to navigate and will allow you to compare your schools across specific categories..

For your parents, we recommend The Thinking Parent’s Guide to College Admissions: The Step-by-Step Program to Get Kids Into the Schools of Their Dreams.

Talk to the education finance advisors at NextStudent. They have all the information and advice you need on student loans. Check out www.nextstudent.com.

Student Loan Girl

Share this post: email this | del.icio.us | reddit