Academics | Admissions Selectivity | Financial Aid
Fire Safety | Quality of Life | Green
Other Statistics
Total Enrollment | Middle ACT scores | Middle SAT Critical Reading
Middle SAT Math | Middle SAT Writing
Academics
How hard students work and how much they get back for their efforts, on a scale of 60–99. This rating is calculated from student survey results and statistical information reported by administrators. Factors weighed include how many hours students study outside of the classroom and the quality of students the school attracts. We also considered students' assessments of their professors, class size, student–teacher ratio, use of teaching assistants, amount of class discussion, registration, and resources. Please note that if a school has an Academic Rating of 60* (sixty with an asterisk), it means that the school did not report to us a sufficient number of the statistics that go into the rating by our deadline.
Admissions Selectivity
This rating measures how competitive admissions are at the school. This rating is determined by several institutionally reported factors, including: the class rank, average standardized test scores, and average high school GPA of entering freshmen; the percentage of students who hail from out-of-state; and the percentage of applicants accepted. This rating is given on a scale of 60–99. Please note that if a school has an Admissions Selectivity Rating of 60* (sixty with an asterisk), it means that the school did not report to us enough of the statistics that go into the rating in order for us to accurately measure its admissions selectivity.
Financial Aid
This rating measures how much financial aid a school awards and how satisfied students are with that aid, on a scale of 60–99. This rating is based on school-reported data on the percentage of students who were determined to have need and received aid, the percentage of need met for those students, and the percentage of students whose need was fully met. Student survey data that measures students' satisfaction with the financial aid they receive is also considered. Please note that if a school has a Financial Aid Rating of 60* (sixty with an asterisk), it means that the school did not report to us all of the statistics that go into the rating by our deadline.
Fire Safety
This rating measures how well prepared a school is to prevent or respond to campus fires, on a scale of 60–99.
We asked all the schools we annually collect data from to answer several questions about their efforts to ensure fire safety for campus residents. We developed the questions in consultation with the Center for Campus Fire Safety (www.campusfiresafety.org), a nonprofit organization devoted to reducing the loss of life from fire at our nation's campuses. The questions cover:
1) The percentage of student housing sleeping rooms protected by an automatic fire sprinkler system with a fire sprinkler head located in the individual sleeping rooms.
2) The percentage of student housing sleeping rooms equipped with a smoke detector connected to a supervised fire alarm system.
3) The number of malicious fire alarms that occur in student housing per year.
4) The number of unwanted fire alarms that occur in student housing per year.
5) The banning of certain hazardous items and activities in residence halls, like candles, smoking, halogen lamps, etc.
6) The percentage of student housing building fire alarm systems that, if activated, result in a signal being transmitted to a monitored location on campus or the fire department.
Colleges that did not supply answers to a sufficient number of these safety questions for us to fairly compare them to other colleges receive a Fire Safety Rating of 60* (sixty with an asterisk). The schools have an opportunity to update their fire safety data every year and will have their fire safety ratings recalculated and published annually.
Quality of Life
This rating is a measure of how happy students are with their lives outside the classroom, on a scale of 60–99. We weighed several factors, including students' assessments of their overall happiness; the beauty, safety, and location of the campus; the comfort of dorms; the quality of food; the ease of getting around campus and dealing with administrators; the friendliness of fellow students; the interaction of different student types; and the quality of the school's relationship with the local community. Please note that if a school has a Quality of Life Rating of 60* (sixty with an asterisk), it means that the school did not report to us all of the statistics that go into the rating by our deadline.
Green
The Green Rating is a measure of a school's performance as an environmentally aware and responsible institution on a scale of 60–99. Specifically, it considers: 1) whether students have a campus quality of life that is both healthy and sustainable; 2) how well a school is preparing students not only for employment in the clean energy economy of the 21st century, but also for citizenship in a world now defined by environmental challenges; and 3) how environmentally responsible a school's policies are. We developed the criteria and questions for this rating with ecoAmerica (www.ecoamerica.org), a research and partnership-based environmental nonprofit organization in 2008.
In conducting our research, we asked all the schools we annually collect data from to answer questions about their efforts to provide and continually develop an environmentally responsible student experience. Their corresponding Green Rating is on a scale of 60–99. Colleges that did not supply answers to a sufficient number of the sustainability questions for us to fairly compare them to other colleges receive a Green Rating of 60* (sixty with an asterisk).
Some of the questions asked include:
- What percentage of food expenditures goes toward local, organic or otherwise environmentally preferable food?
- Does the school offer programs including free bus passes, universal access transit passes, bike sharing/renting, car sharing, carpool parking, vanpooling or guaranteed rides home to encourage alternatives to single-passenger automobile use for students?
- Does the school have a formal committee with participation from students that is devoted to advancing sustainability on campus?
- Are new buildings required to be LEED Silver certified or comparable?
- What is the school's overall waste diversion rate?
- Does the school have an environmental studies major, minor or concentration?
- Has the school produced a publicly available greenhouse gas emissions inventory and adopted a climate action plan consistent with 80 percent greenhouse gas reductions by 2050 targets?
- What percentage of the school's energy consumption, including heating/cooling and electrical, is derived from renewable resources (including "green tags", but not including nuclear or large scale hydro power)?
- Does the school employ a full-time (or full-time equivalent) sustainability officer?
Total Enrollment
Total number of degree–seeking undergraduate students. Colleges and universities often enroll students who are not necessarily accumulating credits toward a specific degree. Such a student may be returning to school for professional development, for example, or for their own desire to learn. While non-degree-seeking students add elements of diversity to a college or university, their experiences are often different in many ways from degree-seeking undergraduate students, and they are usually fewer in number.
ACT Composite Middle 50%
The 25th percentile is the score that 25 percent scored at or below; the 75th percentile score is the one that 25 percent scored at or above. The middle 50 is the range between the 25th and 75th percentile.
SAT–Critical Reading Middle 50%
The 25th percentile is the score that 25 percent scored at or below; the 75th percentile score is the one that 25 percent scored at or above. The middle 50 is the range between the 25th and 75th percentile.
SAT–Math Middle 50%
The 25th percentile is the score that 25 percent scored at or below; the 75th percentile score is the one that 25 percent scored at or above. The middle 50 is the range between the 25th and 75th percentile.
SAT–Writing Middle 50%
The 25th percentile is the score that 25 percent scored at or below; the 75th percentile score is the one that 25 percent scored at or above. The middle 50 is the range between the 25th and 75th percentile. |