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Volume CXXXIII, Number 4 |
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Bowdoin ranked 19th best "feeder" college
SETH GUITERMAN
STAFF WRITER
With seniors starting to realize that the sun is setting on their Bowdoin careers, a recent survey by The Wall Street Journal may allow those with grad school hopes in their future to breathe a little easier.
Journalists ranked the nation's best feeder schools by examining students admitted at the nation's best law, medical, and business programs, including Wharton MBA and Harvard Law School. The study sought to determine which undergraduate degrees result in the best graduate school admissions.
Topping the list were the usual suspects-Harvard, Yale, and Princeton-however Bowdoin was ranked number 19, ahead of Ivies such as Brown and The University of Pennsylvania as well as some of its NESCAC counterparts.
In order to gauge the best schools in the nation, The Wall Street Journal "examined the backgrounds of more than 5,000 students" entering top graduate schools this fall. They also spoke to admissions officers at more than 50 colleges and even utilized college face book directories to determine where students' undergraduate degrees were getting them.
When asked about this new way of ranking colleges, Ian Trask '05 said, "Ultimately when you're looking at the success of an institution, why not use a system that determines where the students end up."
Williams College, which ranked number five and Amherst College, number nine, were the only small liberal arts schools to crack the top 10. Haverford College, Wellesley College, Pomona College and Swarthmore College were the only other small liberal arts schools to beat out Bowdoin. Maine rival Bates College was placed at number 40, while Waterville rival, Colby College, didn't make the top 40.
Perennial NESCAC competitor Middlebury, which placed ahead of Bowdoin in the US News and World Report, was ranked 23, while the only state schools to crack the top 40 were the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia.
With countless high school seniors pouring over the rankings of undergraduate institutions like Bowdoin, this new set of data is sure to allow many college graduates to relax while some at other schools will likely be disappointed in the results of the survey.
Senior Cy Moulton said that he thought the rankings, "would help
a lot of my friends relax a little, but at the same time I hope people
realize that you still have to work hard and perform to the best of your
ability to get into quality graduate programs." Kristina Powell '06
said, "It's really exciting to know I'm at a well-respected institution."
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