Hillsdale returns to top rankings for 2008
U.S. News and World Report places college 97th among liberal arts schools
Katherine Poythress
Issue date: 9/6/07 Section: News
After a yearlong hiatus, Hillsdale College has once again regained placement on U.S. News and World Report's annual list of top liberal arts colleges in America.
According to USNWR, a combination of peer assessment and statistical achievements (such as freshman retention) placed
Hillsdale in 97th place among the top 122 best liberal arts colleges of 2008. This tied Hillsdale with eight other liberal arts institutions, including Cornell College in Iowa and Lake Forest College in Illinois.
There are 266 liberal arts colleges in the United States, and to be classified as such, "[C]olleges must award at least 50 percent of their degrees in liberal arts disciplines, such as language and literature," states the Frequently Asked Questions section on USNWR's America's Best Colleges 2008 Web site.
"I'm very proud of the way the college gets better every year," Vice President of Administration Richard Péwé said.
Péwé said acceptance rate is a significant factor in the USNWR rankings. He said he thinks Hillsdale's dropping acceptance rate due to a dramatic growth in number of applicants is probably one of the reasons the college was placed on the list again.
Because the college's acceptance rate for this year was approximately 61 percent, from last year's estimated 73 percent figure used for the rankings, Péwé said he would not be surprised to see Hillsdale placed even higher on the 2009 list. And he gave credit to those working in the office of admissions for continuing to do their job well.
Péwé said the ranking tends to be overrated since it is weighted by peer review, which is often subjective since presidents at other colleges "don't have the respect for Hillsdale that they should," he said.
Péwé said he doesn't place a lot of stock in the ranking for that reason, and said Hillsdale has never made it a priority to make the Top 100 list.
College President Larry Arnn wrote a piece in the fall 2006 parent newsletter that discounted the value of lists produced by publications purporting to rank the relative merits of colleges.
"In their efforts to define the quality of a college based on statistical measures such as peer ranking, retention, student/teacher ratio or alumni participation, they have unwittingly elevated statistical achievement above educational mission," he wrote.
Associate Vice President for Strategic Marketing Chris Bachelder said the ranking will be used to reassure people that Hillsdale is unique while still doing many things right by others' standards.
"We refer to it and we use it to kind of amplify or confirm our message, but it really isn't central to what we do in terms of marketing the college," Bachelder said. "We're pleased to be recognized and we use it, not in an integral way, to augment what is distinctive about our school."
According to USNWR, a combination of peer assessment and statistical achievements (such as freshman retention) placed
Hillsdale in 97th place among the top 122 best liberal arts colleges of 2008. This tied Hillsdale with eight other liberal arts institutions, including Cornell College in Iowa and Lake Forest College in Illinois.
There are 266 liberal arts colleges in the United States, and to be classified as such, "[C]olleges must award at least 50 percent of their degrees in liberal arts disciplines, such as language and literature," states the Frequently Asked Questions section on USNWR's America's Best Colleges 2008 Web site.
"I'm very proud of the way the college gets better every year," Vice President of Administration Richard Péwé said.
Péwé said acceptance rate is a significant factor in the USNWR rankings. He said he thinks Hillsdale's dropping acceptance rate due to a dramatic growth in number of applicants is probably one of the reasons the college was placed on the list again.
Because the college's acceptance rate for this year was approximately 61 percent, from last year's estimated 73 percent figure used for the rankings, Péwé said he would not be surprised to see Hillsdale placed even higher on the 2009 list. And he gave credit to those working in the office of admissions for continuing to do their job well.
Péwé said the ranking tends to be overrated since it is weighted by peer review, which is often subjective since presidents at other colleges "don't have the respect for Hillsdale that they should," he said.
Péwé said he doesn't place a lot of stock in the ranking for that reason, and said Hillsdale has never made it a priority to make the Top 100 list.
College President Larry Arnn wrote a piece in the fall 2006 parent newsletter that discounted the value of lists produced by publications purporting to rank the relative merits of colleges.
"In their efforts to define the quality of a college based on statistical measures such as peer ranking, retention, student/teacher ratio or alumni participation, they have unwittingly elevated statistical achievement above educational mission," he wrote.
Associate Vice President for Strategic Marketing Chris Bachelder said the ranking will be used to reassure people that Hillsdale is unique while still doing many things right by others' standards.
"We refer to it and we use it to kind of amplify or confirm our message, but it really isn't central to what we do in terms of marketing the college," Bachelder said. "We're pleased to be recognized and we use it, not in an integral way, to augment what is distinctive about our school."
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