Education

There are two primary goals to our methodology. First, we considered no single category to be more important than any other. Second, the final rankings needed to reflect excellence across the full breadth of our measures, rather than reward an exceptionally high focus on, say, research. All categories were weighted equally when calculating the final […]

The history of higher ed is littered with big ideas that never quite took off.

How America’s mania for college rankings went global.

What happened when a billionaire pizza mogul tried to build an elite Catholic law school.

A Q & A with Southern New Hampshire University President Paul LeBlanc.

The next generation of online education could be great for students—and catastrophic for universities.

In its 2006 college guide, the Washington Monthly reported on the incredible growth of Teach for America, the program that recruits top graduating seniors for two-year stints in low-income, low-performing schools across the country. With an acceptance rate so low that it rivals the most competitive colleges, the organization had made TFA a coveted credential—and […]

In the space of a little more than a week this past June, two university presidents revealed just how cynical they’re willing to be. First, Clemson University President James F. Barker admitted to rating Clemson as the single greatest university in America—better than Harvard, Yale, or any other—when he filled out the reputational survey that […]

In this issue we proudly present the Washington Monthly’s annual College Guide, including our very own College Rankings. As in previous years, our intent is to offer an alternative to U.S. News & World Report’s rankings, which we find objectionable for a number of reasons (see “A Different Kind of College Ranking”). Our approach is […]