The US News & World Report College Rankings for 2005 lists Scripps College-the women’s college of the Claremont Colleges Consortium-as the 26th best liberal arts college in the nation, up from 34th place in 2004.
The publication bases its rankings on the following indicators: Peer assessment: 25% (presidents, provosts, and deans of admission were asked to rate peer schools’ academic programs on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being tops); Retention: 20%; Faculty resources: 20%; Student selectivity: 15%; Financial resources: 10%; Graduation rate performance: 5%; Alumni giving: 5%.
Scripps’ move from 34th place to 26th can be attributed, in part, to its peer assessment score increasing by .1 points, from 3.5 to 3.6; freshman retention rate increasing from 86% to 87%; the percentage of freshmen in the top 10% of their high school class increasing from 62% to 67%; acceptance rate decreasing from 58% to 54% (indicating increased selectivity); financial resources rank moving from 3rd to 2nd; and alumnae giving increasing from 54% to 55%.
Among The Claremont Colleges, Pomona was ranked 5th in the nation among liberal arts colleges; Claremont McKenna, 13th ; Harvey Mudd, 16th ; and Pitzer, 59th . Williams College in Massachusetts took top national honors, followed by Amherst and Swarthmore.
In a separate publication, the Princeton Review’s Best 357 Colleges lists Scripps as #16 in “Best Overall Academic Experience For Undergraduates,” #19 in “Class Discussions Encouraged,” #12 for “Beautiful Campus,” and #4 for “Dorms Like Palaces.” Results were based on campus surveys among students conducted at selected colleges and universities.
According to the Annapolis Group, a coalition of leading private liberal arts colleges, most college administrators take a “dim view” of the various college rankings, but recognize that their many consumers purchase the ratings and use them in the college-search process.