ND ranked #18

[DomeX2 eNVy]

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum (feel free to move it), but this is a consistent topic that comes up, especially in recruiting. Anyway, Forbes came out with their ranking of top colleges. They used what I believe (and argued in another thread) is a more modern day realistic approach to their rankings - though it did cause some bias. The 4 primary factors are a) quality of teaching; b) great career prospects; c) graduation rates; and d) (the point I mentioned) low levels of debt afterwards.

This low level of debt is huge in today's society with average salaries, competition, and cost. The one thing is that it gave a huge favorable to the ratings of the military academies - which is fair because there is no debt, and pretty much a guaranteed career.

The top college was Williams College; but pertinent to this site (D1 football) here were the rankings out of 650 schools that were in the top 25.

#3 - Army
#5 - Stanford (ouch!)
#10 - Air Force
#11 - Northwestern
#17 - Navy
#18 - Notre Dame
#22 - Duke

This puts ND in the top 3 percent of schools - and ahead of Duke and Vanderbilt; and only 3 Ivy schools (Princeton, Harvard, and Yale) were higher.

We all know this, but it is always good to see it again.

America's top colleges for 2011 - best universities - MSN Money

 

[IrishLax]

I totally buy these rankings. In fact way more than USN&WR which is hella biased towards California schools and schools in the AAU (because of the peer review that counts for like 20 or 25%... ND is like #12 on objective criteria only).

The academies always get left off... why? I have scarce met a grad from one of the service academies that didn't have a great career (either in or outside of the military). Two of my HS teammates also went to Williams... and it totally set them up for life.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

I don't put much stock in any ranking that uses subjective criteria.

I much prefer Business Week's 30-year-ROI. College is an investment, and some investments are objectively better than others.

ND comes in at #9. Of BCS caliber schools, only Stanford is ranked higher at #6 (and we'll see how long they remain BCS caliber). No one else is even close (Cal comes in at #23).