Knox College's national ranking source of pride

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Knox College is right to be proud of its ranking on the annual U.S. News and World Report "America's Best Colleges" list. But the school is also correct to point out that meeting the needs of individual students is more important than what a national magazine says.

College administrators across the country nervously anticipated the unveiling of the U.S. News rankings last week. Schools that do well issue news releases to make sure prospective students, their parents, alumni and donors know. Schools that don't make the list, downplay its significance. College administrators have been fired for not submitting the data required by the magazine.

Knox College was ranked 73 out of 215 schools in the "Best Liberal Arts Colleges" category, four places higher than a year ago. The magazine only numerically ranks the top 100 schools, although there are 104 listed this year because of ties. Monmouth College was listed in the next group of 50, which are in no particular order.

The rankings are based on a number of factors, including class sizes, the academic degrees of faculty, the high school class ranking of incoming students and how many students return after their first year.

Knox scored well on all counts. Two-thirds of the school's classes have fewer than 20 students and there are no classes with more than 50 students, according to the Knox news release on the ranking. Ninety percent of the Knox faculty have the top academic degree in their field and 88 percent of first-year students returned in 2004, the year the U.S. News survey was taken.

Critics say the rankings are based on reputation more than any other factor. That's not necessarily bad. Colleges with the best reputations attract the top faculty and students.

Lawrence Breitborde, the vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college, cited the "quality and diversity of the faculty and students, and the reputation of the college among its peers and alumni" as factors in the ranking. "Knox is proud of its reputation as a selective, top-notch college," he said.

Earlier this year, Taylor decided to make standardized test scores optional on the application, saying they don't necessarily predict how well a student will do in college.

Knox has every reason to celebrate its ranking on the U.S. News and World Report list. But it also realizes that how it ranks with students is more important. - Don Cooper, publisher