Carleton tops Forbes college rankings in MN

 

Calebrw via Wikimedia Commons

Checkin' out those stellar rankings

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Summer means more rankings, so here's this year's installation of Forbes magazine's annual list of Best Colleges in America.

Take this all with a grain of salt, of course. One can debate the soundness of the methodology. The kicker for me is the volatility of the results.

What has the University of Minnesota - Morris done to rocket from 496 to 143 in two years? Or Bethel to drop from 224 to 424?

That alone makes the rankings less than useful to me -- but it's still fun to look.

So consider this cotton candy for the weekend. The number in bold is this year's rank, followed by the one in 2009 and 2008.

  • Carleton College (21/23/54) 

  • Macalester College (55/82/126)

  • Gustavus Adolphus College (98/194/103)

  • St. Olaf College (111/139/87)

  • University of Minnesota, Morris (143/448/496)

  • Saint John's University (261/442/353)

  • Hamline University (262/255/198)

  • Northwestern College (280/291/271)

  • Concordia College - Moorhead (288/450/381)

  • College of St. Benedict (375/512/475)

  • University of St. Thomas (412/523/506)

  • University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (418/543/524)

  • Bethel University (424/229/224)

  • St. Mary's University of Minnesota (457/230/267)

  • St. Catherine University (578/563/540)

  • Minnesota State University, Mankato (595/595/552)

  • St. Cloud State University (605/599/562)

University of Minnesota - Morris ranked 82nd on the List of 100 Best College Buys, which factored price into the education quality equation.

Forbes's list makes up about 9% of the 6,600 accredited institutions of higher education in the United States. Data includes the quality of the education they provide, the experiences of the students and how much they "achieve" after graduation.