I believe that everyone has recently been brushed by the news of Columbia's withdrawal from U.S. News, and the debate over the authority of the ranking has been brought to the forefront. In fact, there are a considerable number of institutions in the United States that do not participate in the ranking, for different reasons, and as an applicant, if you ignore these "nameless" but powerful schools when choosing schools, it is likely that you will rub shoulders with your real dream school.
We have introduced in previous articles that do not participate in the ranking but have strong strength, and today Xiaobian continues to talk about those cattle schools that have been neglected for a long time, but their academic strength should not be underestimated.
Reed College
In the boycott of university rankings, Reed College is an industry pioneer. As early as 1995, Reed College withdrew from the U.S. News rankings because of dissatisfaction with the manipulation of the ranking system by some universities.
Reid has been at a low level on the list because of the U.S. News run, but that doesn't stop it from becoming a maverick liberal arts college with a reputation in academia.
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Hardcore humanities education is Reed's biggest feature. Hum101 is a compulsory course for Reed students, whether you like it or not, learn ancient Greek, Roman, Bible and ancient Jewish history, and improve oral expression and writing skills through extensive reading, discussion and debate.
By the senior year, Reed students are also required to complete a humanities-related thesis under the guidance of a professor as a prerequisite for graduation, and after completing the thesis, they also need to pass a 90-minute thesis defense.
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In Reed, professors and peers are more concerned with the process of your thinking about an idea or thing than the grades themselves. It is common for ordinary dinner parties to chat and chat into serious academic discussions, and it is this spirit of research and inclusive and diverse academic environment that makes Reed a paradise for liberal arts students. Reed has no fraternities and sororities, no varsity teams, and is simply too friendly to social terrorists and academic enthusiasts!
Reed, who focuses on high-quality liberal arts education, pursues spiritual life, and rigorously administers learning, has sent many talents to the frontline of american scientific research. Reed ranks fourth in the nation for the percentage of graduates who earned their Ph.D., isn't it too much to say "cradle of PhD students"?
St. John's College
If you want to say maverick, the school that must not be ignored is St. John's College. Rather than st. John's emphasis on liberal arts education, it is better to say that liberal arts education is the way of life of St. John's students.
In St. John's class, if you pull out your phone and look up an author's theory, you'll be stopped by the professor. St. John's students do not use any textbooks or syllabus proposals, do not rely on modern technology, and draw knowledge only from the most classic and outstanding works of Western civilization, following the thinking trajectory of the great wise men. Even if the theories of previous generations are no longer applicable to contemporary society, St. John wants you to draw your own conclusions through thinking, analysis, and discussion, rather than copying ready-made materials.
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Seminar is St. John's only classroom format. A dozen students sit with professors and can discuss an entire lesson around an academic issue. Here, the discussion is not about coming up with the only right answer, but about having every voice heard and the different ideas colliding to the fullest. It is through repeated arguments and critical thinking that we deeply realize our ignorance and intolerance and begin to learn truly.
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Utopian elite education also has obvious flaws: employment rates are low, and many realistically considered applicants are deterred. St. John is indeed not for everyone, but if you truly love to learn, are willing to think and explore, then St. John will not disappoint you.
St. John's two campuses are in Annapolis, Maryland, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, the former is a neat and orderly typical American town, the latter is a Spanish colonial southwest mountainous area, no matter which campus, you can get away from the hustle and bustle of the world, live a pure and beautiful study life.
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Emerson College
Also at a university in Boston, Emerson's popularity is painfully low compared to BU.
Emerson had only two faculties, Media and Humanities. Although the U.S. News rankings classify it as a liberal arts college, it is not a typical liberal arts college configuration. In addition to the 31 undergraduate programs in both colleges, Emerson offers 12 graduate degree programs.
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Public media, film, visual arts, writing, publishing, etc. are emerson's strong majors. Thanks to its specialized discipline, Emerson's academic resources are both powerful and concentrated. Film students have access to first-class equipment and professional equipment, and professors in various subjects are also practitioners active in various fields, bringing students sufficient cutting-edge information, not only book knowledge without practical experience.
At Emerson you will have a wealth of study abroad opportunities. Film, for example, was founded in collaboration with parisian colleges of art, where students travel back and forth between Boston, Paris and the Netherlands. Being experimental and creative in the direction of teaching will give students plenty of room for self-expression, so you rarely see Emerson's students immersed in reading, and they will spend a lot of time designing and polishing their own works.
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As the cultural center of the United States and the birthplace of journalism, Boston is a perfect place to study media. The city's rich historical and cultural atmosphere and just the right prosperity provide sufficient soil and resources for media students. Like NYU, Emerson is located downtown, with no separate campus, and Boston Common is just around the corner. You can either gaze out over the Boston skyline from a central school building or retreat to Boston Common.
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Cooper Union College
The Cooper Alliance was named by Newsweek as the most desirable small school in the United States.
There are many schools that claim to value education, and the Cooper Alliance is investing real money in practicing its own philosophy: higher education should be as free as air and water. It is one of the few institutions in the United States that offers half-scholarships for all students. When founder Cooper founded the school, in order to achieve the goal of providing higher education to all talented young people, courses were provided free of charge to all applicants.
The current Cooper Union features its architecture, fine arts, and engineering majors, and there are only three colleges. In the U.S. News Northern Region University Rankings, the Cooper Alliance has been at the top of the list for many years. In the undergraduate engineering program ranking, its various engineering majors can be ranked in the top ten. As for the academic difficulty, you can take a look at urban Dictionary's explanation of the Cooper Union, which you can taste:
A large part of the reason why the Cooper Union has become an "ideal on earth" in primary schools is due to its superior geographical location. The campus is located in the East Village of Lower Manhattan, New York, with milk tea shops, Sichuan cuisine, and ramen shops, and the nearby Japan Street, Chinatown, and Koreatown are no more than 15 minutes away by car. For students who are tormented by schoolwork, the convenience and prosperity of the metropolis can also become a comfort.
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Of course, the difficulty of admission to this kind of fairy school is also second to none. The school is small in size and has a small number of students, with an acceptance rate of 4% and 8% in the School of Architecture and Art, and the difficulty of admission in the School of Architecture is higher than that of the Ivy League! However, in addition to the three main majors of the Cooper Alliance, the courses of other subjects are pitifully small, and the difficulty of changing majors has been criticized by many people, unless you have made up your mind to study architecture/art/engineering, or it is prudent to enter.
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Finally, I would like to nag a few more words. The schools described in this article all have outstanding strengths in their respective fields, but they also have unavoidable shortcomings.
When choosing a school, it is more important to rationally look at the ranking data, take the initiative to understand and study a school, and combine the suggestions of people to judge whether the school is really suitable for itself. I hope that students can live a wonderful life in the school that suits them best!