August 31, 2006 | Read Time: 2 minutes
For a second year, Washington Monthly seeks to turn the industry of college rankings on its head with its September guide to the top “patriotic” colleges. Instead of rating universities based on freshmen SAT scores or alumni giving, the magazine ranks institutions of higher education according to three factors: how well they promote an ethic of service, how effectively they undertake research that drives the economy, and how successfully they act to advance social equality by providing opportunities for low-income students.
Of the top 10 universities on U.S. News and World Report‘s much-read list, only two make an appearance in the Washington Monthly rankings: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. Harvard, ranked first by U.S. News, takes the 28th spot, in large part because the magazine says it falls short in the public-service category.
Four state universities, meanwhile, are ranked in the top five: the University of California at Berkeley, Pennsylvania State University at University Park, University of California at Los Angeles, and Texas A&M University.
Steering students into service programs like the Peace Corps is one way that universities can earn good scores in the Washington Monthly‘s ratings system.
In an article on Teach for America, a nonprofit group that provides recent college graduates with opportunities to teach at schools in poor neighborhoods, Avi Zenilman, a Columbia University senior, writes about how the program has become a status symbol for elite students.
Eighty percent of applicants to the program were rejected last year, meaning that its teachers are “prototypical overachievers,” he says. And its alumni network is as powerful as that of any top university: Yale University’s School of Management waives application fees for the program’s graduates and investment banks like Goldman Sachs recruit teachers after they complete their two-year stints.
The articles can be viewed online at http://www.washingtonmonthly.com.
