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This should be interesting... please give your honest opinon.

I tam going to go with:

1) Amherst
2) Williams
3) Wesleyan
4) Bowdoin
5) Middlebury
6) Tufts
7) Colby
8) Bates
9) Hamilton
10) Trinity
11) Connecticut


According to US News (by peer assesment rating (prestige, sort of)):

1) Amherst (4.7)
1) Williams (4.7)

3) Bowdoin (4.4)

4) Middlebury (4.3)
4) Wesleyan (4.3)

5) Colby (4.0)
5) Bates (4.0)

6) Trinity (3.8)
6) Hamilton (3.8)

7) Connecticut (3.6)


*Tufts is a comprehensive university and is ranked a 3.7 among the universities.

So, what's your order? Let's hear em.

By Ehsc (Ehsc) on Sunday, February 22, 2004 - 02:36 pm: Edit

1)Williams (GO EPHS)
2)Amherst
3)Wesleyan
4)Middlebury
5)Bowdoin
6)Tufts
7)Trinity
8)Colby
9)Bates
10)Hamilton
11)Connecicut

Trinity's better than it gets credit for

By Usnewsranker (Usnewsranker) on Sunday, February 22, 2004 - 02:39 pm: Edit

B18c1cx: your list is numbered incorrectly. It should be 1,1,3,4,4,6,6,8,8,10. Please post correctly in the future, like a true US News Ranker.

By B18c1cx (B18c1cx) on Sunday, February 22, 2004 - 10:38 pm: Edit

yea wow. srry... wasn't thinking.

By Buratino (Buratino) on Monday, February 23, 2004 - 03:17 am: Edit

all i gotta say is T-U-F-T-S! Go Jumbos! even though we kinda got schooled in the playoffs this year, we are still awesome. And out of all those schools, Tufts is the with the best location and not in the middle of nowhere.

Vlad

By Arcadia (Arcadia) on Monday, February 23, 2004 - 09:23 am: Edit

1. (tie) Amherst/Williams
3. Middlebury
4. Bowdoin
5. Wesleyan
6. Tufts
7. Bates
8. Colby
9. Hamilton
10. Trinity
11. Conn College

By Source (Source) on Wednesday, February 25, 2004 - 04:52 pm: Edit

First Tier: Amherst, Williams

Second Tier: Middlebury, Bowdoin

Third Tier: Wesleyan, Tufts

Fourth Tier: Colby, Bates, Hamilton

Fifth Tier: Trinity, Conn.

By Happykid (Happykid) on Wednesday, February 25, 2004 - 07:50 pm: Edit

I agree with you, Source.

By B18c1cx (B18c1cx) on Wednesday, February 25, 2004 - 09:48 pm: Edit

Source, I think that is a good list, except many people prefer Wesleyan to Middlebury.

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Friday, February 27, 2004 - 04:16 pm: Edit

Source:

I would put Tufts as higher than Wesleyan and Middlebury, and roughly equivalent to Bowdoin. Regardless, I do think that evaluating Tufts with the other NESCACs is tough - it is a very strong liberal arts school, but it's about two or three times the size of Williams and Amherst. It's also the only one with significant grad programmes, and one of the few suburban/urban ones.

Hey, where's Colgate on this list? There are 12 NESCAC schools, people!

By Arcadia (Arcadia) on Friday, February 27, 2004 - 05:44 pm: Edit

Arisathena,
There are only 11 NESCAC schools--Colgate is Division I. Get your facts straight!

By Ariesathena (Ariesathena) on Friday, February 27, 2004 - 06:00 pm: Edit

Mea culpa... and calm down.

By Njjunior (Njjunior) on Saturday, February 28, 2004 - 01:37 pm: Edit

1. Amherst
2. Williams
3. Middlebury
4. Bowdoin
5. Wesleyan
6. Tufts
7. Colby
8. Trinity
9. Hamilton
10. Bates
11. Connecticut

By B18c1cx (B18c1cx) on Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 02:50 pm: Edit

NJjuinor...very solid list.

By Dmitrypetrovna (Dmitrypetrovna) on Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 04:32 pm: Edit

1. Williams
2 Amherst
3. Middlebury
4. Bowdoin
5. Tufts
6. Wesleyan
7. Colby
8. Bates
9. Trinity
10. Connecticut
11. Hamilton

So basically what everyone else has said.

By Geowill (Geowill) on Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 08:10 pm: Edit

What are you guys ranking? I recently graduated from one of these schools and spent time at another as part of the 12 College Exchange. The school I attended as an exchange is more prestigious than my alma mater, yet I didn't find the students or the academics there any "better." I was actually surprised that the workload was relatively lighter than at my alma mater and that the students there were less engaging. also, two of my siblings graduated from two of these schools, so i have their insights on their schools. So . . . are we ranking prestige . . . "quality" based on all the other rankings out there . . . or quality based on students and alumni of the schools that we know . . . placement in graduate programs . . . or what?

By Happystudent (Happystudent) on Sunday, February 29, 2004 - 09:25 pm: Edit

Don't be a killjoy. Rank Dammit!

By B18c1cx (B18c1cx) on Monday, March 01, 2004 - 02:45 pm: Edit

All of those are factors, Geowill.

By Jrpar (Jrpar) on Friday, March 05, 2004 - 06:30 pm: Edit

1. Williams (I'm a little biased)
2. Amherst
3. Middlebury
4. Bowdoin
5. Tufts
6. Wesleyan
7. Trinity
8. Hamilton
9. Colby
10. Bates
11. Connecticut

By Annakat (Annakat) on Friday, March 05, 2004 - 10:04 pm: Edit

1. Amherst
2. Williams
3. Wesleyan
4. Bowdoin
5. Middlebury
6. Tufts
7. Colby
8. Bates
9. Hamilton
10. Trinity
11. Connecticut

I'm one of those that prefer Wesleyan to Middlebury and Bowdoin. Do you agree that Amherst and Bowdoin are similar in character, student bodies, etc.? Just as Williams and Middlebury are similar?

By Arcadia (Arcadia) on Friday, March 05, 2004 - 10:40 pm: Edit

no way. Bowdoin is much preppier than Wesleyan.

By Annakat (Annakat) on Friday, March 05, 2004 - 10:45 pm: Edit

I was comparing Bowdoin to Amherst, not Wesleyan. Is more preppy a good thing? I thought preppy was an 80's thing.

By Iska (Iska) on Friday, March 05, 2004 - 11:48 pm: Edit

When are you guys going to stop this?

By Annakat (Annakat) on Monday, March 08, 2004 - 03:11 am: Edit

hey, let's rank the schools based on most favorable weather. oops, what i really mean is climate, which, i think, would affect preppy fashion decisions. okay, i'll go first:

1. Connecticut (warming coastal winds)
2. Bowdoin (coastal winds up there, too)
3. Colby
4. Bates
5. Trinity
6. Tufts
7. Middlebury ( brrrrr, perfect for that unused Williams sweatshirt)
8. Amherst (for that Harvard or Yale scarf)
9. Wesleyan (for that Brown or Yale hat)
10. Williams (for that Harvard, Yale, or Princeton schoolboy muffler)
11. Hamilton (freezing from October to May)

By Jrpar (Jrpar) on Monday, March 08, 2004 - 07:03 am: Edit

There's no way Middlebury is #7 on a weather ranking! It belongs below Williams (Middlebury is further NORTH), but ahead of Hamilton. And the Maine schools are near the top of the list?! They should be ranked alongside Middlebury.

By Annakat (Annakat) on Monday, March 08, 2004 - 02:35 pm: Edit

Gosh, I understand your concerns, but I used a highly sophisticated ranking system devised by former USNWR college rankers, experts from the HYP/AWS College Climate Coalition, the Weather Channel, and the Fab Five. The Maine schools got bumped up, because of proximity to Freeport (factory outlet nirvana, including the LL Bean Store), so those students are better equipped to deal with the harsh weather, oops, I mean climate. As for Middlebury . . . they have a ski resort, so they like the snow. Liking the weather, horrible or not, counts for 23% of the total score. Wesleyan would have been higher since it’s further south than most of the schools and Wesleyan students tend to be artsy and good dancers thus generating a lot of heat, but the students were just not happy (protesting) with the weather. See how that works? As for Williams, I think the peer weather assessment portion (29%) of the scoring was negatively affected by the recent release of The Human Stain. Didn’t Nicole Kidman and Anthony Hopkins look really cold up there?

By Jrpar (Jrpar) on Monday, March 08, 2004 - 02:53 pm: Edit

Thank you for your detailed explanation of your ranking methodology - that was really helpful. It made me think twice about my list.
I find these alternate ranking systems so helpful in differentiating among all of these excellent schools. Have you ever looked at the campus squirrel rankings? http://www.gottshall.com/squirrels/campsq.htm

By Annakat (Annakat) on Monday, March 08, 2004 - 03:12 pm: Edit

informative indeed. where would we be without this help? i have more rankings to post. i just have to check my "rankings, rankings, and more rankings" and "rank me, baby, rank me" files.