Undergraduate Rankism

The US News and World Report college issue came out just in time to put those new freshmen into a state of apprehension over choosing the wrong school as they head off to campus at the end of this month. Thanks guys.

Anyway, I took the time this morning (while putting off editing some contract language) to sift through the data and give you a ranking of major schools in the West (Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, & Utah). I haven't ranked every school and if I didn't get to yours, tough.
Anyway, I have created a ranking based on the nat'l ranking and where school tied, I used selectivity (on the assumption that the more selective a school is the larger the applicant pool it has and therefore the market has endorsed it) and endowment size (as a larger endowment = more resources per student and a better ability to invest in the core mission of the school.) So, without further adieu, here are the rankings:

Group 1 - Nat'l Universities or the school that have a national research impact and produce Doctoral degrees. The only surprises in this group was the size of UW's endowment, over a billion, wow; and that Portland State is the biggest school in Oregon surpassing both U of O and OSU.

Forge Rankings School Enrollment Selectivity Endowment (M) Student Body Endowment/Student Ranking
1 U of Wash. More Selective  $ 1,786.594        27,836   $  64,182.86  Nat'l - #42
2 BYU         More Selective       -        30,480                    Nat'l - #79
3 U of Colorado More Selective  $    290.700        26,165   $  11,110.26  Nat'l - #79
4 U of Ore. Selective  $    454.873        16,529   $  27,519.69  Nat'l - #112
5 Wash. State More Selective  $    351.162        19,554   $  17,958.58  Nat'l  - #118
6 Colorado State Selective  $    161.316        21,283   $    7,579.57  Nat'l - #124
7 Ore. State Selective  $    440.042        15,829   $  27,799.73  Nat'l - 3rd Tier
8 U of Utah More Selective  $    425.319        22,155   $  19,197.43  Nat'l - 3rd Tier
9 U of Idaho Selective  $    177.774          9,127   $  19,477.81  Nat'l - 3rd Tier
10 U of Hawaii Selective  $    142.000        14,037   $  10,116.12  Nat'l - 3rd Tier
11 Utah State More Selective  $    110.072        12,779   $    8,613.51  Nat'l - 3rd Tier
12 Montana State Selective  $      72.893        10,832   $    6,729.41  Nat'l - 3rd Tier
13 U of Montana Selective  $      17.134        10,357   $    1,654.34  Nat'l - 3rd Tier
14 Idaho State Selective  $      28.306        10,640   $    2,660.34  Nat'l - 4th Tier
15 Portland State Less Selective  $      34.508        17,998   $    1,917.32  Nat'l - 4th Tier

The next group is of Master's School, these are school that provide, for the most part, education that is regionally based with limited research and doctoral programs. (yes, despite BSU's prowess on the fball field, this is still where it lives). The surprise here, who knew BSU would be tied with EWU, probably not all those Broncos down in Boise. Also, I thought U of Alaska would be higher.

Forge Rankings School Enrollment Selectivity Endowment (M) Student Body Endowment/Student Ranking
1 Gonzaga U.  More Selective  $    128.881          4,275   $  30,147.60  Master's West - #3
2 U of Portland More Selective  $      81.212          2,907   $  27,936.70  Master's West - #5
3 Seattle U. More Selective  $    182.290          4,160   $  43,819.71  Master's West - #6
4 Boise State Selective  $      64.763          17,042   $  3,800.20  Master's West - #43
5 E. Wash.  Less Selective  $        6.376   9,838   $  648.10  Master's West - #43
6 U. Of Alaska Less Selective  $      14.880        16,242   $   916.14  Master's West - 3rd Tier

Finally, is Whitman, in the lonely liberal arts group. What was surprising here is the size of the endowment for this tiny school, over 200K per student!!! Makes you wonder why they have to charge 40K+ a year?

Forge Rankings School Enrollment Selectivity Endowment (M) Student Body Endowment/Student Ranking
1 Whitman More    Selective         $    340.802 1,455   $ 234,228.18         Liberal Arts - #37

BTW - I'm heading off for vacation to see the fam in Pocatello Idaho so I might be posting some pics of our trip or I might not post at all, I guess you have to wait and see. Thanks.