Goucher fared well during the most recent college ranking season, particularly among classifications that measured such important factors as academic quality, environmental sustainability, and study abroad. Here is a brief compendium of Goucher’s inclusion in many of the most closely watched college ranking publications:
● Goucher once again has been included in the popular guide Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges. The book profiles 40 colleges that excel at developing potential, values, and initiative in a wide range of students.
Every profile includes details about admissions standards, distinguishing facts about the curriculum, extracurricular activities, and educational philosophies. The profiles also include information about the look and feel of the campus, percentage of students who study abroad, where the school ranks in post-graduate grants and fellowships, percentage of students who go to graduate school, average SAT/ACT scores, faculty impressions, quality of dining hall food, and what weekend activities are available to students.
According to the guidebook, the college is “rich with conversations about other places, thanks to Goucher’s distinctive requirement that every student go abroad for at least one term.” Goucher appeals to students who are looking for a “lively liberal arts college in a city and a campus where there’s room for all kinds of people,” says the book. It calls Goucher a “college of the first magnitude,” that is “a good spot to discover who you are, where you excel, and what you love to do.” In short: “A Goucher graduate has a solid liberal education — better than she’d get from a prestigious university in many ways.”
● The Princeton Review selectively chose just 15 percent of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges and three colleges outside the United States to profile in its annual college guide, The Best 377 Colleges. Not only did Goucher make this elite list, it was ranked as the No. 2 school for the “Most Popular Study Abroad Program,” and it was noted for being one of the best colleges in the Northeastern United States.
The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges in the book academically or numerically in any category. Instead, it includes ranking lists of “top 20” colleges in various categories. The lists are entirely based on The Princeton Review’s survey of 122,000 students (about 324 per campus on average) attending the colleges in the book.
Goucher students surveyed for the book note that the college is located on a “beautiful campus right outside a major city.” Others who were surveyed said the typical Goucher student is “socially, politically, emotionally, and internationally aware” and that Goucher is “a place where one feels comfortable to talk to anyone, even the president of the college.”
● Goucher College was included in The Princeton Review’s Guide to 322 Green Colleges: 2012 Edition for “establishing itself as a capital of sustainability.” The guide was compiled using data that were solicited from hundreds of colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. The survey asked administrators more than 50 questions about their institution’s sustainability-related policies, practices, and programs.
Additionally the Princeton Review’s annual guide included “Green Ratings” to measure how environmentally friendly the colleges and universities are on a scale of 60 to 99 based on several data points, including percentage of food expenditures on local and organic food, waste diversion rates, environmental literacy requirements, and sustainable transportation options. Goucher’s score of 99 — the highest given — won it a place among the 21 colleges listed in the publication’s Green Honor Roll.
Goucher was cited for conducting comprehensive inventories of all greenhouse gas emissions on campus; implementing an institutional action plan to combat its carbon footprint and become climate neutral, developing a climate action plan, completed in spring 2011, among other actions.
● Goucher has been included in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2013, which the editor calls a compendium of the 300 “best and most interesting colleges and universities” in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. Additionally, Goucher was among 41 institutions — 20 public and 21 private — that were designated a “Best Buy” for offering “outstanding academics with a relatively modest price.”
The featured colleges were selected based on a variety of principles, including academic quality, price, student body, social life, financial aid, campus setting, housing, food, and extracurricular activities. All of the “Best Buy” schools fall into the inexpensive or moderate price category, and most have four- or five-star ratings in academics.
In the subjective but systematic guide Goucher is cited for its “long-standing history of excellence,” and “rigorous general education program,” “trademark small classes and individual attention,” as well as for its study abroad requirement for all undergraduates.
● Goucher College has earned a place in Forbes’ annual ranking of the 650 best undergraduate institutions. Goucher was No. 159 in the overall rankings (up from No. 222 last year) and No. 131 among private colleges (up from No. 187 last year). Goucher’s full profile can be seen at http://www.forbes.com/colleges/goucher-college/.
These rankings of 650 schools — the top 20 percent of all undergraduate institutions — are exclusively prepared for Forbes by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, a Washington, DC, think tank.
● Goucher, like many liberal arts colleges around the country, does not participate in US News & World Report‘s reputational survey in which college and university presidents rate similar institutions. (These reputation surveys account for 15 percent of a college’s ranking in the National Universities and National Liberal Arts Colleges categories and 25 percent in the Regional Universities and Regional Colleges categories.) However, in this year’s rankings publication Goucher was No. 110, up from 121 last year. Additionally, the college was included in the list of “A+ Schools for B Students” and was one of 33 schools on the Notable Programs list for study abroad and was at the top of the online list of study abroad colleges and universities with 100 percent participation.