University Benchmarks

Ranking the Top 100 Academic Universities

UniversityBenchmarks.com ranks the universities that attract and produce the best academic students.

There are many 'University Rankings' on the internet. Most rankings rely heavily on subjective metrics like 'reputation' and 'selectivity'. UniversityBenchmarks is purely an academic ranking model. The rankings are based on the reported academic and financial metrics of the colleges. There are no subjective factors like 'reputation' that are used. The calculations are performed using normal statistical models. All universities are considered equal and there is no weighting of the ranking categories.

The university 2014-2015 dataset is comprised of over 2400 US Universities & Colleges and comes from multiple sources using the most favorable reported metrics for a university.

The universities are ranked against each other in each filtered set. It is an iterative process whereby lower ranking universities are removed and the set is re-ranked until the final set of 100 is reached.

Selecting 'Rank Top 10 Only' will show the Top 10 for each filter category ranked against each other.

The academic rankings of the universities within the major conferences (ACC, Big12, Big10, Pac12, SEC) are available.

The 2017 rankings will be available in August.

Notes:
  • It is possible for universities to be ranked higher/lower than one another depending on the filter set.
  • Conference averages are based on the top 8 schools in the conference.
  • Public Schools are highlighted
  • Clicking on the university's seal icon will take you to the university's website.

Ranking Fields

Rank - Overall rank based on the average of the ranking fields (Scores, Difficulty, Smartest, Brainpower, Faculty and Research).

Scores - SAT & ACT scores. The university's test scores are corrected for dropout rate when score level is Good, Excellent or Elite. This will slightly boost scores for highly competitive schools.

Difficulty - Academic rigor is estimated based on how difficult it is to get an "A" at the university. An estimated GPA at the university is calculated for the average US Student. University grade inflation, average GPA, and STEM density are factors.

Smartest - University that can field the highest scoring students based on the average US University size. Higher Smartest Rank = "Smartest for the Average University"

Brainpower - The average "smartest" rank using 5 reference populations (CalTech, MIT, Stanford, GaTech and Berkeley). Higher Brainpower Rank = "Higher Density of Smart Students". The university ranked higher can mathematically field 'X' number of smarter students than universities ranked below them.

Faculty - Ranking based on number of % of faculty with awards and academy membership.

Research - Ranking is achieved by iteratively ranking the average of 3 research metrics (r-pop, r-stem, r-other ). The lowest ranked college is then removed and the new set is re-ranked. The result is the schools with potentially the strongest research environments per student bubble up to the top regardless of size or research budget.

  • r-pop - Average research spending for student population
  • r-stem - STEM research spending
  • r-other - Other/Medical/Health research spending

Salary ROI - "Salary Return on Investment" is not used in the overall ranking but is provided for additional information. Using the undergraduate average starting and mid-career salaries, the rank is based on a 20yr salary accumulation (with raises) minus the cost of a 4 year education at the university. Salaries are normalized across the country using the average COLA for the university's geo-economic region (7 regions total). The COLA effect is diminished by the level of the university. Elite, Excellent and Good universities have a greater distribution of graduates across the country and a diminishing COLA effect. The resultant value would be the graduate's spending potential over the 20yr period.

Overall ROI - "Overall Return on Investment" is not used in the overall ranking but is provided for additional information. The average of Overall Rank and Salary ROI. This would be the "Best academic bang for the buck". Colleges that produce the best education, at the best price, with the best return will be ranked higher.

Color Key - ranks are colorized as follows 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 50 100

The 2016 University Academic Rankings

Lewis & Clark College

2016 University Academic Rankings
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This article is about the private college in Oregon. For the public college in Idaho, see Lewis-Clark State College. For the public community college in Illinois, see Lewis and Clark Community College.

Lewis & Clark College is a private liberal arts college located in Portland, Oregon. It has an undergraduate College of Arts and Sciences, a School of Law, and a Graduate School of Education and Counseling. Lewis & Clark is a member of the Annapolis Group of colleges with athletic programs competing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division III Northwest Conference. Just over 2,000 students attend the undergraduate College of Arts and Sciences, with a student body from more than 50 countries across six continents as well as most U.S. states. The School of Law is best known for its environmental law program, while the Graduate School of Education & Counseling is active in community engagement and social justice.

Originally chartered as the Albany Collegiate Institute in 1867 in the town of Albany, the school moved to the Portland campus in 1938 and in 1942 adopted the name Lewis & Clark College after the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Today, the three schools and their supporting offices occupy a campus of 137 acres (554,000 m²), centered on the M. Lloyd Frank Estate on Palatine Hill in the Collins View neighborhood of Southwest Portland.

History

Like many modern universities, the institution that would eventually become Lewis & Clark was initially intended to provide secondary as well as higher education for a specific religious community, in this case Presbyterian pioneers in Oregon's Willamette Valley. To this end the Presbyterian church incorporated Albany Academy in 1858, making Lewis & Clark one of four Oregon colleges with foundations predating Oregon's statehood (along with Willamette University, Pacific University, and Linfield College). Within a decade of its founding, Albany Academy began to focus more exclusively on higher education, changing its official name to the Albany Collegiate Institution in 1866. Lewis & Clark's official founding date comes from the current charter, which has been legally valid since the Presbyterian church reincorporated the Albany Collegiate Institution as Albany College in 1867. Unlike most Oregon colleges of the pioneer-era, the college has been coeducational since the first class, which graduated in 1873. The early campus of 7 acres (28,000 m2) in Albany was situated on land donated by the Monteith family. In 1892, the original school building was enlarged, and in 1925 the school relocated south of Albany where it remained until 1937.

Albany College established a junior college to the north in Portland in 1934, with the entire school moving to Portland in 1939. The campus grounds later became home to the federal government's Albany Research Center. In 1942 the college trustees acquired the Lloyd Frank (of the historic Portland department store Meier & Frank) “Fir Acres" estate in southwest Portland, and the school name was changed to Lewis & Clark College. The original school mascot, the Pirates, was changed to the Pioneers in 1946.

Presidents | Academics

CAS departments include Art, Art History, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biology, Chemistry, Chinese, Classics, Computer Science, Dance, East Asian Studies, Economics, English, Environmental Studies, Ethnic Studies, Foreign Languages, French Studies, Gender Studies, German Studies, Hispanic Studies, History, International Affairs, Japanese, Latin American Studies, Mathematics, Music, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Physics, Political Economy, Political Science, Psychology, Religious Studies, Rhetoric and Media Studies, Russian, Sociology and Anthropology, and Theatre.

Lewis & Clark has nationally regarded programs in Biology, International Affairs, Psycholo ... [more on wikipedia]

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Lewis & Clark College", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0

Lewis & Clark College Details
Common Questions...

What are the academic rankings for Lewis & Clark College?

1. number 179 for Academics.

2. number 221 for ROI (Return on Investment).

What universities are similar to Lewis & Clark College?

1. Macalester College

2. Clark University

3. Colorado College

4. Occidental College

5. Rhodes College

6. Dickinson College

7. Gettysburg College


National Academic Rankings

(summary of all ranking placements)

Lewis & Clark College National Academic Rankings


Peer Universities / Similar Universities

(mathematically similar student body, size, academics, stem, salary... etc)

Lewis & Clark College Peer Universities, Similar Universities to Lewis & Clark College


Academic Peer Universities / Similar Academics

(mathematically similar academics)

Lewis & Clark College Academic Peer Universities, Similar Academic Universities to Lewis & Clark College