Washington College Magazine
College Guides Offer Good News, Bad News
The Princeton Review's 2006 Best Northeastern Colleges featured Washington College.
For the third year in a row, Washington College is featured as one of a select group of colleges and universities profiled in The Princeton Review's Best Northeastern Colleges. Students surveyed cited "individualized attention," a "well-respected creative writing program" and professors who "are wonderful at helping students advance their careers in their chosen fields" as some of the reasons they love the College.
They also applauded the College's "great psych program and excellent record of placement into medical schools," opportunities and funding for independent study and self-designed majors, collaborative scientific research with professors, and a student body in which "all of the groups easily intermingle and are friendly across campus."
"The students' own comments confirm that we are achieving what we set out to do," notes College President Baird Tipson, "to give our students an intimate learning environment where our professors truly mentor them and where they will find the people, the facilities and the experiences to support their personal growth and highest achievement."
Princeton's recognition took some of the sting out of the recent fall in U.S. News rankings. When the 2007 edition of college rankings appeared in August, Washington College had fallen from the listing of top-ranked national liberal arts schools, achieved in 2003. College officials blame a drop in the six-year average graduation rate (a student retention indicator) and a 0.1 drop in the peer assessment score.
"Although many fault U.S. News for its reliance on subjective impressions," Tipson noted, "its rankings also reflect objective factors—factors that, in fact, do measure an institution's quality: freshmen retention, faculty salaries, the percent of instruction delivered by full-time faculty members, financial resources and alumni giving. As we sustain or improve our performance in these areas, we will improve the educational experience of our students, and improvements in the rankings will follow."
With the Board's recent affirmation of the Strategic Plan, faculty salaries (7% of the ranking) and financial resources per student (10% of the ranking) have increased. The six-year average graduation rate (16% of the ranking) will increase each year for the next four years as the highest six-year graduation rates in this College's history are factored into the average.
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