Forbes Ranks JMU #37 Public School In Nation

A rankings list released last week by Forbes.com listed James Madison University as the #37 public school in the nation and #234 overall. Now, let's look at how Forbes decided on this list, as it's a bit different than most other college rankings. Seven factors determine a school's rank:

• Student Evaluations from RateMyProfessors.com (25%)

• Four-year Debt Load for Typical Student Borrowers (20%)

• Four-Year Graduation Rates (16.66%)

• Listings of Alumni in the 2008 edition of Who's Who in America (12.5%)

• Salaries of Alumni from PayScale.com (12.5%)

• Students Receiving Nationally Competitive Awards (8.33%)

• Faculty Receiving Awards for Scholarship and Creative Pursuits (5%)

As you can see by the fact that faculty rating site RateMyProfessors.com is given the most weight, this is not a traditional rankings list, but tries to take in an array of factors. This is opposed to most lists that will focus only on academics. The full methodology behind the rankings can be found here.

Agree or disagree with how it's setup, it's time to look at the rest of the list. We've seen where JMU ranks, so let's check out some other rankings from the area and CAA. Top 100 Public schools have their rankings from that list in parentheses.

#34	Washington & Lee
#48	William & Mary (4)
#54	Hampden-Sydney
#64	Virginia (6)
#68	UNC (7)
#69	Sweet Briar
#79	VMI (10)
#95	Hollins
#102	Emory & Henry
#121	Mary Washington (13)
#146	Richmond
#34	Randolph
#217	Delaware (31)
#234	JMU (37)
#256	VT (44)
#257	Randolph-Macon
#263	Villanova
#289	Roanoke
#338	George Mason (75)
#368	Towson (89)
#387	Maryland (99)
#410	ODU
#465	CNU
#529	VCU
#564	Liberty

Complete list of overall rankings