A year after President Douglas Bennet criticized the national preoccupation with college rankings, Wesleyan fell three spots to earn twelfth place in the U.S. News and World Report’s annual listing of liberal arts colleges.
“Most of our individual scores rose or stayed the same, yet we dropped in the rankings,” said Justin Harmon, Director of Communications for the University. He argued that the schools at the top of the list are so closely scored that relatively minor statistical changes can yield disproportionately dramatic movements in the rankings.
“It is easy to overstate the value [of this list],” Senior Associate Dean of Admission Greg Pyke said. “The same few schools are on the top each year. The next dozen move up or down slightly, but with scores that are very compressed. This creates a false precision in the ranking.”
According to the report, one specific factor that hurt Wesleyan’s standings was the relatively low ranking of faculty resources. This category is closely tied to the percentage of classes with less than 20 students, which fell to 62 percent from last year’s 67 percent.
“Would it help our ranking if we capped all classes at 19 students?” Harmon asked. “Maybe…but our priority is that students have access to courses. Our philosophy is to do well in the rankings but not at the price of diminishing a Wesleyan education.”
In a prepared statement, Harmon pointed to Middlebury and Claremont McKenna, two colleges that increased their percentages of classes with fewer than 20 students. Both schools rose above Wesleyan in the list this year.
“I think measuring based on the number of classes with [less than 20] students reveals just what a blunt instrument this survey is,” said Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology Lynn Owens. “While smaller classes can be better, it is a bit of a myth to believe that they will always be better. Not that I support huge classes, but I think a skilled teacher can create a much more intimate and interactive classroom with 30 students than a less-skilled teacher can with 15.”
Many noticed that Wesleyan had a much larger enrollment, and smaller endowment, than many of is peer schools.
“I think what’s going on is the items listed on the right side of the chart, the financial factors,” said Professor of Sociology Charles Lemert. “Look at the top of the list: Williams, Swarthmore. Wesleyan has barely half the endowment of these schools. In relative terms we’re not as well off. The fact is, the more white people from the suburbs [at your school], the more the endowment grows. Wesleyan has made a commitment to welcoming students from poorer socioeconomic levels, which is expensive.”
Lemert also explained that many students from Wesleyan pursue careers in the arts, social services, or politics. Traditionally, these jobs do not yield huge salaries, which leads to smaller alumni contributions.
The career paths of Wesleyan graduates were highlighted in another recent college ranking list released by the Washington Monthly magazine, the magazine’s first stab at the college ranking game.
“While other guides ask what colleges can do for students, we ask what colleges are doing for the country,” stated the article, which rated the research, community service, and social mobility encouraged by colleges. The report rated Wesleyan as the nation’s number two liberal arts college.
Still, the U.S. News and World Report list is considered by many to the nation’s most watched, and most influential, guide. Across campus, however, opinions remain mixed on what the rankings mean, or if they mean anything at all.
“The raw stats do very little to really capture what kind of student Wesleyan attracts or what it is like sitting outside of the campus center surrounded by these people,” said Senior Interviewer Kevin Lohela ’06. “I had one father…come into the [admissions] office with the actual magazine and grill me on why Wesleyan was ranked higher than the other institution his son had been accepted to.”
According to Associate Dean of Admission Terri Overton, college rankings and lists play an even larger role in molding the perceptions of international students.
“Generally [international students] have less access to the finer details and nuances of U.S. university options and may also be more concerned about the recognition and prestige factor back at home,” Overton said.
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