The 2009 ranking of the 368 best colleges in North America - "based on...outstanding academics and the opportunities provided to students" - came out today. Each year, colleges are ranked in various categories that relate to all aspects of the student experience, from the quality of professors to the taste of cafeteria food. (Right now, the website is REALLY slow...a lot of eager high school students are probably checking).
In what might not come as a surprise (or an affont) to U of C students, the ranking reinforced the school's bookish rep, ranking it ninth for Best College Library, ninth for Students Study the Most, and 14th for Intercollegiate Sports Unpopular or Nonexistant. The U of C was ranked in these same categories last year, but came in at 11th, fourth, and 15th, respectively.
The "Best Overall Academic Experience" ranking - a category which UChicago topped twice in recent years - was absent this year, as it was last year.
College rankings are often criticized for taking complex institutions like the U of C and boiling them down into a few numbers or oversimplified traits. (How do you think A.C. Slater felt when friends described him as "a wrestler"? He was quarterback, as well!)
US News & World Report rankings should be out in the new few weeks. That ranking is simpler, if potentially even more problematic: colleges and universities are ranked according to a single overall score.
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