This is a guide to books and articles available
in the Meriam Library. Some contain rankings and others provide
information that allows you to make an informed choice about
which school is best for you. Some internet sites are included,
but no attempt has been made to be comprehensive. For an extensive,
annotated list of school ranking websites, consult College
and University Rankings <http://www.library.uiuc.edu/edx/rankings.htm>
| Ranking
Criteria |
| Some of the criteria
commonly used to measure an institution's academic quality,
especially for undergraduate education, are average SAT
scores of incoming freshmen, acceptance rates, number
of students continuing with postgraduate study, size of
the library, and number of PhD's on the faculty. For graduate
schools, the record of faculty research and publication
and a program's reputation among academics are frequently
cited as indicators of quality. In selecting a school,
students should define for themselves the factors that
are most important and which school is the "best" for
them.
|
Undergraduate Educational Rankings & Guides |
America's Best Colleges
...........................................LA226 A44
Reference
Compiled annually by U.S.
News and World Report, this book ranks the top schools
in various categories of size and type of school. The
California State Universities are usually included under
Masters' Level Universities or Top Publics. Reputation,
acceptance rate, SAT scores, class size, graduation
rate, financial resources, and costs are some of the
criteria considered in creating the rankings. Selected
results, related articles and methodology also appear
in a fall issue of the magazine and are available
on the US
News website.
<http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/cohome.htm>
Barron's Best Buys in College Education..........................................................L901
S56 Reference
This directory is self-described as covering schools that
provide a first-rate education at a reasonable price.
The highest tuition bracket is about $20,000 annually
but most schools listed are considerably less expensive.
Barron's Profiles of American Colleges.............................................................L
901 B27.5 Reference
Rates schools on academic competitiveness on a scale from
"noncompetitive" to "most competitive."
Provide details on admission requirements, library and
computer facilities, athletic facilities, extracurricular
activities and campus environment for over 1600 schools.
Campus
Squirrel Listings
Find a squirrel friendly school. Rate the size, health
and behavior of squirrel populations on your own campus.
<http://www.gottshall.com/squirrels/campsq.htm>
College
Rankings (Princeton Review)
Students report on their colleges and pull no punches.
Categories include Academics (including toughest schools
to get into), extracurricular activities, quality of life,
demographics (diversity vs homogeneity) and parties. The
"Administrative" category includes "best
academic bang for the buck." You can select schools
from a list and compare a range of data about them. Over
100,000 students were surveyed, but little more is reported
about the survey methodology.
<http://www.review.com/college/rankings.cfm>
College
Source (College Catalogs Online)
Requires a current CSU Chico ID card to use
View the full text of recent college catalogs from U.S.
undergraduate and graduate schools. Search for schools
meeting criteria of size (under 1000 to over 25,000),
location, tuition (under $1000 to over $15,000) and offering
particular undergraduate majors or graduate programs of
study. Access available only to those currently affiliated
with CSU, Chico.
<http://mantis.csuchico.edu:2048/login?url=http://www.cgf.org/home.asp>
Dancer's Resource................................................................................................................GV
1589 J65 Reference
Descriptions of academic and professional dance programs
and studio schools
Multicultural Student's Guide to Colleges
....................................................................L901 M58 1993 Reference
Provides narrative and tabular data relevant to students
of color about enrollment, retention, graduation, financial
aid, student organizations, and campus life, at more than
200 "prominent institutions of higher learning" which
have "traditionally appealed to the country's top students."
.National Directory of Scholarships,
internships, fellowships for Latino Youth............LB
2338 D57 Main
The appendix includes "Top 25 Colleges and Universities,"
"Top 10 Business Schools" and "Top 10 Law
Schools" for Hispanics - based on size of Hispanic
enrollment, number graduating, number of Hispanic faculty
and student organizations.
Peterson's Guide to Two Year Colleges..........................................................................................L
901 P48 Reference
Descriptions of over 1700 U.S. and Canadian two year schools.
Indexed by degree programs
Peterson's Guide to Four Year Colleges..........................................................................................L
901 P47 Reference
Descriptions of nearly 1000 accredited U.S. and Canadian
colleges. Indexed by major and geographic location.
Petersons.com
This website from the publisher of printed guides like
those listed above, doesn't rank, but you can search for
schools by location, majors and cost. Includes information
on selecting a school.
<http://www.petersons.com>
Peterson's Top Colleges for Science.....................L
901 P4 1996 Reference
The 190 schools briefly profiled were chosen from a field
of 1442. Defining criteria were the percentage of graduates
majoring in basic science and math programs, the percentage
of graduates who subsequently earned PhD.s in science
or math, and the percentage of graduates awarded NSF fellowships.
StudentsReview
Uncensored student opinions of undergraduate and graduate
schools. Take the online survey and register your opinion.
<http://www.studentsreview.com/>
"Top 100" Degree Producers
Black Issues in Higher Education annually identifies
the colleges and universities which grant the most undergraduate,
graduate and professional degrees to minority candidates.
There are separate lists for degrees awarded to Hispanic,
Asian, Native American and Afro-American candidates, as
well as a combined list. The Afro-American list includes
both "traditionally white" and "historically
black" institutions. Meriam Library does not subscribe
to this journal, but the article may be available online.
Black issues is indexed in Ethnic News Watch
and Academic Search which are available to
currently enrolled CSU Chico students and faculty from
the ReSEARCH Station/Articles and Databases page.
|
Graduate
Educational Rankings & Guides |
Best Graduate Schools.................................................................................................L901
A546 Reference
U.S. News & World Report's annual ranking of schools
of business, law, medicine, nursing, engineering and education.
Dates when other disciplines were ranked appear in Older
Rankings below and on the U.S. News Best
Graduate Schools website
<http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/rankindex_brief.php>
For comments on the
U.S. News rankings see the Caution & Controversy section
of the College
and University Rankings guide <http://www.library.uiuc.edu/edx/rankings.htm>
National
Doctoral Program Survey
Over 32,000 graduate students and recent PhD's were surveyed
over the web by the National Association of Graduate-Professional
Students in order to assess graduate schools' implementation
of recommended educational best practices. The survey
is self-described as "observational" rather
than a "controlled experiment." Respondents
were self-selected and report their perceptions. Topics
of interest to prospective graduate students such as curriculum
and teaching, professional development, mentoring, time
to degree completion, program climate and overall student
satisfaction were graded by the respondents for their
own programs. You can view program rankings based on one
or more of these topics or see a basic overall ranking
and read students' actual comments about their programs.
<http://survey.nagps.org/>
Peterson's Graduate and Professional
Programs......................................L 901 P46 Reference
Describes programs in arts & humanities, social sciences,
sciences, and professions.
Petersons.com/
Graduate Programs
Select programs from a menu and refine your list to geographic
location. Use Advanced Search to search the full text
of program descriptions - useful in locating unique programs
and specific criteria.
<http://www.petersons.com/GradChannel/Search.asp>
StudentsReview
Uncensored student opinions of undergraduate and graduate
schools. Take the online survey and register your opinion.
<http://www.studentsreview.com/>
|
|
There is a selection
of books on Business Services Table 3B. Among them are:
Barron's Guide to graduate Business
Schools .........................................................................................HF 1131 B375 (BST 3B #34)
Peterson's Guide to MBA Programs....................................................HF
1131 P4 (BST 3B # 35)
Jobs,
Graduate Schools, Careers
a Meriam Library website for Business.
Provides a selection of links about graduate business
schools and MBA programs.
<http://www.csuchico.edu/~wd6/webguides/employ.html>
Scholarships, Fellowships, and Loans........................................................... ref LB 2338 F4
|
|
Law Schools |
|
The Official Guide to ABA-Approved
Law Schools..........KF273 A85 Reference
Published by the Law School Admissions Council and the
American Bar Association, this book provides for each
school, data such as the number applying and admitted,
the percentage of minority students and faculty, bar
passage rate, and number of full and part-time classes
offered. The introduction states that the ABA and LSAC
"disapprove of any and all rankings. " Data
is presented in a format that facilitates comparisons
among schools and encourages applicants to investigate
various schools.
Barron's Guide to Law Schools..................................................KF
266 B3 Reference
Provides information for 180 ABA approved schools
|
| Other
Disciplines |
Many professional associations publish
directories of graduate education. They generally list
faculty areas of specialization and may provide information
such as admission requirements, number enrolled or number
of degrees awarded in the previous year. Inclusion in
one of these directories does not necessarily mean endorsement
or accreditation by the sponsoring association.
Several graduate directories are listed below.
Directory of Colleges & Universities
with Accredited Social Work Programs Council on Social
Work Education...........................................................................................................................HV11 D585 Reference
Directory of History Departments &
Organizations in the United States & Canada American
Historical Association.......................................................................................................................D16.3 G83
Reference
Graduate Study in Psychology &
Associated Fields .................................BF77 A44 Reference
American Psychological Association. Lists programs at
schools accredited by the APA
|
| |
Rankings
Caution & Controversy
provides a wealth of information about the usefulness
of rankings, how they have been challenged and what
schools have declined to participate in certain ranking
surveys.
<http://www.library.uiuc.edu/edx/rankoversy.htm>
The Center for Measuring University Performance
<http://mup.asu.edu/>
The Center's primary research focus is on measuring university
performance. Reports and publications discuss the measures
and methodology used in the U.S. News rankings and other
aspects of ranking and quality measure in education. The Center
also publishes an annual ranking of the Top
American Research Universities. <http://mup.asu.edu/research2006.html>
1997, December: Levin, Shirley. "Ignore College Rankings-become an Educated Consumer" <http://www.washingtonparent.com/articles/9712/rankings.htm >
1995: Walleri, R.D. and M.K. Moss, eds. Evaluating
& Responding to College Guidebooks & Rankings.
San Francisco, Ca., Jossey-Bass.............................................................................LB
2350.5 E92 1995 Main Collection
Includes essays on the validity of reputational studies
and a discussion of the US News and World Report and Money
Magazine rankings.
1993, Sept.-Oct: Schmitz, Constance C. "Assessing
the Validity of Higher Education Indicators"
Journal
of Higher Education, v. 64, no. 5, pp. 5-3-521............................................L11
J78 (Periodicals)
Examines eight criteria commonly used to assess quality
and rank schools. Finds that they accurately predict reputation
and prestige for research universities but may have little
relevance for nonselective, regional schools at the undergraduate
level.
1992, March/April: Webster, David S. "Rankings
of Undergraduate Education in U.S. News & World Report
and Money: Are they any good?"
Change (March/April 1992) v. 24, no. 1, pgs. 19-31 .............................................LB2300
C4 Periodicals
1986, Academic Quality Rankings of
American Colleges and Universities
..................................................LB2331.63
W34 1986 Main Collection
Discusses ranking studies done since 1925. Of special
interest are chapters 15 and 16 which compare the rankings
of certain institutions on seven major surveys done 1925-1982.
|
|
| Research-Doctorate
Programs in the U.S...........................................LB 2377.3 R47 1995 Reference
This study by the National Research Council was begun
in 1992. It includes more than 3,600 programs in 41 fields
at over 270 institutions. Programs are ranked in broad
disciplinary areas (e.g., arts and humanities, social
and behavioral sciences, etc.) according to the "average
rating of the scholarly quality of program faculty." For
individual subjects (e.g., art history, chemistry, etc.),
there are rankings according to scholarly quality of faculty,
number of "Distinguished" ratings, total number of awards
and honors to program faculty, citation density for program
faculty and visibility of the program among scholars.
This source emphasizes reputational measures which tend
to show the strongest and weakest programs most clearly,
but which provide less agreement on programs in the middle
range. The editors state that "there is no single agreed
index of a unitary attribute called 'quality'. There are
several 'qualities' and the importance of them is largely
a function of the needs of the reader." (p. ix)
The Executive
Summary
Research Doctorate Programs in the United States: Continuity
and Change, is available online.
<http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/researchdoc/summary.html>
Best
Graduate Schools
(U.S. News & World Report) has ranked programs in
the following disciplines in the years indicated. These
rankings are in addition to annual rankings of business,
law, medicine, engineering and education schools.
<http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/rankindex_brief.php>
| Publication Year |
Edition |
Programs ranked |
2002 |
2003 |
PhD programs in the sciences |
2001 |
2001 |
Health, public affairs and PhD programs
in social sciences & humanities |
2000 |
|
Health disciplines |
1999 |
|
Library science |
1998 |
|
Health specialties, nursing, public
affairs; top 25 rankings for programs in arts, humanities
and sciences |
1997 |
|
Architecture, drama, film, fine arts,
music, creative writing, public health, pharmacy and
social work |
1996 |
|
Journalism and mass communications,
library science, health and liberal arts |
|
Locating
Additional Information |
Locating Books
Use the "Books" link on the ReSEARCH
Station <http://www.csuchico.edu/library/> to
search the library catalog. Enter keywords like: colleges
directories, undergraduate rankings, graduate rankings,
universities rankings, graduate education biology, social
sciences graduate evaluation, etc. If you are a current
CSU Chico student, faculty or staff member, try these same
search strategies in PHAROS,
the California State Universities library catalog search
engine. Pharos is available on the ReSEARCH Station under
Library Catalog. |
Locating Articles
Use the "articles & databases" link on the
ReSEARCH Station
<http://www.csuchico.edu/library> Select Academic
Search or a database in your major or discipline. You must
be a current CSU Chico student, faculty or staff member
to do this. Enter keywords and combine with "and,"
for example: universities and ranking*, undergraduate and
ranking*, colleges and evaluation, graduate schools and
ranking*, etc. |
Locating Information on
the Internet
Consult College
and University Rankings for an extensive, annotated
list of Web sites.
<http://www.library.uiuc.edu/edx/rankings.htm>
|
Browse an online directory under higher education.
Two good ones are:
Yahoo
/ Higher Education <http://dir.yahoo.com/Education/Higher_Education/>
Choosing
a College from the Librarians' Internet Index
<http://lii.org/>
Search in Google
or Altavista
or your favorite search engine. Read the "search
tips" to make your search as precise as possible.
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