The Foreign Service Journal, December 2005

D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 77 S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT A New Kind of College Guide U.S. News & World Report ’s annual ranking of colleges, and others like it, have become very influential in the choices parents and their children make about schools. Understandably, parents want to be assured that the considerable financial outlay for their child’s higher education is “worth it,” and existing college rankings aim at identifying the “best” schools in terms of academic excellence. By contrast, the Washington Monthly College Guide that debuted this fall sorts schools according to what the schools give to society. “Other guides ask what colleges can do for you,” says Washington Monthly . “We ask what colleges are doing for the country.” In the new college guide, schools are ranked by how well they perform three vital socioeconomic functions: how well they serve as engines of social mobility; how well they serve as producers of the scientific minds and research that develops new knowledge and drives economic growth; and how well they promote an ethic of service. Not surprisingly, the headline schools routinely found at the top of the U.S. News list did not necessarily finish at the top of the Washington Monthly list. In fact, only three schools in the 2006 U.S. News top ten are in its highest ranks: MIT, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania. Among the Ivy League schools, only Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania made Washington Monthly ’s top ten. Princeton, tied with Harvard for first place in U.S. News ’ 2005 list, ranks 44 on the Washington Monthly list. Interestingly, MIT earned its overall number-one ranking in the Washington Monthly guide not so much because of its ground-breaking research. What made the school number one was its commitment to national service, where it ranked 7, far better than most of its elite peers. Similarly, UCLA, which finished second on the overall list, excelled in research and came in first in the social mobility rating because of its astound- ingly high graduation rate given its large number of lower-income students. Overall, the Washington Monthly list contains many more first-rate state schools than the U.S. News list, which has no public universities within its top ten. The rankings have had a growing impact on schools, too. College administrators scramble to increase the amount of money given by their alumni or raise the SAT scores of their incoming freshmen to improve their score in the ranking. Competition to improve rankings in the Washington Monthly guide could have far-reaching effects as schools start enrolling greater numbers of lower-income students and making sure that they graduate, encourage more of their students to join the Peace Corps or the military, and intensify their focus on producing more Ph.D. graduates in science and engineering. The Washington Monthly College Guide , including an explanation of the methodology behind it, is available online at http://www.washington monthly.com/features/2005/0509.collegeguide.html. — Susan Maitra, Senior Editor