2016年7月5日,福布斯公布了2016年美国最佳大学排名。此次榜单引来不少哗然,哈佛位列第四,但事实上去年的福布斯榜单中哈佛仅位于第六,去年的榜首Pomona College下跌到了第七。斯坦福大学从去年的第三升至第一,而威廉姆斯学院则维持住了第二的地位,紧随其后的去年排在第四的普林斯顿大学。
福布斯将研究型大学和文理学院放在一起进行排名。前50的院校中,包含26个综合性大学和24个文理学院;前10的院校中,包含6个综合性大学和4个文理学院。而前50中,公立学校仅占9席。而且西岸大学慢慢超越东北部大学、文理学院竞争力加强。
福布斯排名将视角聚焦在了投资回报率 Return of Investment 上,“值不值”的问题。主要根据以下因素,对全美660所大学进行排名:
学生满意度:25%
毕业生成就(收入、影响力等方面):32.5%
学生债务:25%毕业率:7.5%
学术成就比重:10%
我们看到毕业生成就占了很大的比重。根据福布斯官方消息,本次排名主要呈现了三个趋势:
1.The emerging clout-flip from the Northeast Establishment to new guard West Coast schools;
西海岸学校崛起。众所周知美国东北部是教育重地,一些老牌名校比如哈佛耶鲁普林斯顿等都坐落于此。
但随着西海岸硅谷的崛起,西岸的学校排名迅速崛起。当年前加州州长、铁路大亨利兰·斯坦福和他的妻子在拜访了各大学校长、听取了他们的建议后,决定捐款建一所大学、一座博物馆。经过6年的建设,1891年斯坦福大学正式开学,第一年共有555名学生以及15名教职员。经过一百多年的岁月流淌,斯坦福大学早已成为首屈一指的名校,被称为“西岸的哈佛大学”,并在硅谷创立和繁荣至今起着举足轻重的作用。
2.The contest between small student-centric liberal arts colleges and juggernaut STEM-oriented research universities;
小型文理学院和以STEM教育为导向的综合大学之间的竞争激烈。今年前10的院校中,包含6个综合性大学和4个文理学院。
对于我们中国人来说,大都只知道综合性大学和理工学院(institute),这些国的大学相似,通常是大型的,拥有几万学生。大学里除了有本科的院系之外,也设有各个研究院和商学院等职业性学院。该类大学是以培养研究人才为目的的高等教育机构,设有硕士、博士课程等研究生类课程。
文理学院Liberal Arts College是相对于具体的职业教育而言的,其目标不在于教会学生某些具体的谋生的技能,而是从多方面对学生进行教育,使其成为一个高素质,有教养的文化人。文理学院往往代表着经典、小规模、高质量的本科教育。许多文理学院的学术声誉往往不亚于哈佛耶鲁等名校,因而成为很多美国贵族教育子女的首选。例如,我们耳熟能详的宋氏三姐妹、美国前国务卿奥尔布赖特、美国华人劳工部长赵晓岚、美国前总统肯尼迪的夫人杰奎琳都毕业于美国的文理学院。
根据美国新闻周刊的统计,美国的著名文理学院,例如Williams College,Wellesley College的毕业生就读研究生的比例在美国甚至高于哈佛耶鲁这样的名校。
3.The disproportionately high number of old, private schools as the best return on investment.
老牌私立学校有着较高的投资回报率(94%以上),排名前25的学校,有11所投资回报率为98%,MIT和芝加哥大学的投资回报率高达99%。
| Rank |
Name |
State |
Cost |
Total Student Population |
| #1 |
Stanford University |
California |
$64,477 |
16,963 |
| #2 |
Williams College |
Massachusetts |
$66,240 |
2,126 |
| #3 |
Princeton University |
New Jersey |
$61,160 |
8,088 |
| #4 |
Harvard University |
Massachusetts |
$64,400 |
28,791 |
| #5 |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Massachusetts |
$63,250 |
11,319 |
| #6 |
Yale University |
Connecticut |
$66,445 |
12,336 |
| #7 |
Pomona College |
California |
$64,870 |
1,650 |
| #8 |
Brown University |
Rhode Island |
$65,380 |
9,181 |
| #9 |
Wesleyan University |
Connecticut |
$65,443 |
3,224 |
| #10 |
Swarthmore College |
Pennsylvania |
$64,363 |
1,542 |
| #11 |
University of Pennsylvania |
Pennsylvania |
$66,800 |
24,806 |
| #12 |
Amherst College |
Massachusetts |
$66,572 |
1,792 |
| #13 |
University of Notre Dame |
Indiana |
$64,775 |
12,179 |
| #14 |
United States Military Academy |
New York |
$0 |
4,414 |
| #15 |
Northwestern University |
Illinois |
$68,060 |
21,554 |
| #16 |
Columbia University |
New York |
$69,084 |
27,589 |
| #17 |
Dartmouth College |
New Hampshire |
$67,044 |
6,298 |
| #18 |
Tufts University |
Massachusetts |
$65,900 |
10,907 |
| #19 |
Bowdoin College |
Maine |
$63,440 |
1,805 |
| #20 |
University of Chicago |
Illinois |
$70,100 |
15,097 |
| #21 |
Georgetown University |
District of Columbia |
$66,971 |
17,858 |
| #22 |
Boston College |
Massachusetts |
$65,620 |
14,317 |
| #23 |
Haverford College |
Pennsylvania |
$66,648 |
1,194 |
| #24 |
United States Naval Academy |
Maryland |
$0 |
4,511 |
| #25 |
Davidson College |
North Carolina |
$62,894 |
1,770 |
| #26 |
Duke University |
North Carolina |
$66,739 |
15,856 |
| #27 |
Carleton College |
Minnesota |
$64,420 |
2,057 |
| #28 |
Washington and Lee University |
Virginia |
$61,235 |
2,264 |
| #29 |
Cornell University |
New York |
$65,494 |
21,679 |
| #30 |
Rice University |
Texas |
$58,253 |
6,621 |
| #31 |
Claremont McKenna College |
California |
$66,325 |
1,324 |
| #32 |
Wellesley College |
Massachusetts |
$63,390 |
2,323 |
| #33 |
Vassar College |
New York |
$65,480 |
2,421 |
| #34 |
Middlebury College |
Vermont |
$63,456 |
2,533 |
| #35 |
United States Air Force Academy |
Colorado |
$0 |
3,952 |
| #36 |
University of Virginia |
Virginia |
$58,745 |
23,732 |
| #37 |
Barnard College |
New York |
$65,261 |
2,573 |
| #38 |
College of William & Mary |
Virginia |
$55,330 |
8,437 |
| #39 |
California Institute of Technology |
California |
$63,471 |
2,209 |
| #40 |
University of California, Berkeley |
California |
$59,963 |
37,565 |
| #41 |
Colby College |
Maine |
$63,330 |
1,847 |
| #42 |
Colgate University |
New York |
$64,800 |
2,888 |
| #43 |
Oberlin College |
Ohio |
$66,870 |
2,978 |
| #44 |
University of Michigan |
Michigan |
$57,432 |
43,625 |
| #45 |
Vanderbilt University |
Tennessee |
$63,532 |
12,686 |
| #46 |
University of California, Los Angeles |
California |
$58,099 |
41,845 |
| #47 |
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill |
North Carolina |
$49,431 |
29,135 |
| #48 |
Kenyon College |
Ohio |
$64,360 |
1,662 |
| #49 |
Bucknell University |
Pennsylvania |
$65,268 |
3,624 |
| #50 |
Hamilton College |
New York |
$63,870 |
1,904 |
| #51 |
College of the Holy Cross |
Massachusetts |
$61,524 |
2,787 |
| #52 |
Bates College |
Maine |
$64,590 |
1,773 |
| #53 |
Whitman College |
Washington |
$59,902 |
1,498 |
| #54 |
Smith College |
Massachusetts |
$64,486 |
2,989 |
| #55 |
Lafayette College |
Pennsylvania |
$63,680 |
2,503 |
| #56 |
Franklin and Marshall College |
Pennsylvania |
$65,640 |
2,209 |
| #57 |
Colorado College |
Colorado |
$63,600 |
2,067 |
| #58 |
University of Rochester |
New York |
$65,264 |
11,060 |
| #59 |
Harvey Mudd College |
California |
$69,355 |
804 |
| #60 |
Washington University in St. Louis |
Missouri |
$67,751 |
14,348 |
| #61 |
Wake Forest University |
North Carolina |
$64,478 |
7,788 |
| #62 |
Villanova University |
Pennsylvania |
$62,773 |
10,735 |
| #63 |
Carnegie Mellon University |
Pennsylvania |
$65,895 |
12,587 |
| #64 |
Reed College |
Oregon |
$64,480 |
1,394 |
| #65 |
University of Southern California |
California |
$67,212 |
42,453 |
| #66 |
Johns Hopkins University |
Maryland |
$65,496 |
21,372 |
| #67 |
Emory University |
Georgia |
$63,058 |
14,769 |
| #68 |
Macalester College |
Minnesota |
$61,853 |
2,073 |
| #69 |
University of Wisconsin, Madison |
Wisconsin |
$43,923 |
42,598 |
| #70 |
Bryn Mawr College |
Pennsylvania |
$63,990 |
1,709 |
| #71 |
Union College (NY) |
New York |
$64,245 |
2,242 |
| #72 |
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign |
Illinois |
$44,924 |
45,140 |
| #73 |
Grinnell College |
Iowa |
$61,498 |
1,734 |
| #74 |
Brandeis University |
Massachusetts |
$65,954 |
5,945 |
| #75 |
University of Washington |
Washington |
$49,338 |
44,784 |
| #76 |
Lehigh University |
Pennsylvania |
$60,575 |
7,119 |
| #77 |
New York University |
New York |
$68,400 |
49,274 |
| #78 |
University of Florida |
Florida |
$42,939 |
49,459 |
| #79 |
Boston University |
Massachusetts |
$65,906 |
32,112 |
| #80 |
Dickinson College |
Pennsylvania |
$64,541 |
2,364 |
| #81 |
Connecticut College |
Connecticut |
$64,965 |
1,900 |
| #82 |
University of Maryland |
Maryland |
$46,285 |
37,610 |
| #83 |
Scripps College |
California |
$66,060 |
988 |
| #84 |
Trinity College (CT) |
Connecticut |
$66,420 |
2,408 |
| #85 |
Skidmore College |
New York |
$64,850 |
2,646 |
| #86 |
Brigham Young University |
Utah |
$17,718 |
30,484 |
| #87 |
Wheaton College (IL) |
Illinois |
$45,260 |
2,914 |
| #88 |
Santa Clara University |
California |
$63,666 |
9,015 |
| #89 |
Georgia Institute of Technology |
Georgia |
$45,972 |
23,109 |
| #90 |
Kalamazoo College |
Michigan |
$54,766 |
1,461 |
| #91 |
DePauw University |
Indiana |
$58,478 |
2,215 |
| #92 |
Cooper Union |
New York |
$62,710 |
966 |
| #93 |
University of Texas, Austin |
Texas |
$51,192 |
51,313 |
| #94 |
Sewanee—University of the South |
Tennessee |
$51,950 |
1,714 |
| #95 |
University of Georgia |
Georgia |
$43,344 |
35,197 |
| #96 |
Trinity University (TX) |
Texas |
$52,618 |
2,432 |
| #97 |
Rhodes College |
Tennessee |
$57,714 |
2,054 |
| #98 |
Denison University |
Ohio |
$60,710 |
2,278 |
| #99 |
Occidental College |
California |
$67,046 |
2,040 |
| #100 |
Centre College |
Kentucky |
$51,030 |
1,387 |