Wall Street Journal Ranks New College among Nation’s Best (Special Re-release)

Which colleges and universities send the most students to elite grad schools like Yale Medical School, Harvard Law and the Wharton School of Business? That’s the question The Wall Street Journal asked in a special one-time-only look at the country’s top undergraduate schools and their success in graduate school placement. The article was called “Want to Go to Harvard Law,” and it appeared in the September 26, 2003, Weekend Edition of the Journal.
After all the number-crunching was done, the Journal found that New College of Florida, the state’s Honors College for the Liberal Arts and Sciences, produces one of the nation’s highest per-capita percentages of graduates bound for premier law, business, and medical schools.

New College was ranked #2 in the country among the Top 30 public colleges and universities and #31 overall among all public and private institutions. New College was also noted for its use of narrative evaluations of student work instead of traditional letter grades.
“It’s not surprising that so many New College students enter top graduate and professional schools,” said President Donal O’Shea, an internationally recognized mathematician and longtime student of higher education institutions. “Most New College faculty earned their PhDs at the elite schools monitored by the Journal and thus train their students to take the same rigorous academic approach to their research and studies. The small size of New College also ensures that students will always be taught by professors, not by teaching assistants. While liberal arts colleges in general are known for producing top scientists, artists, academics, entrepreneurs, surgeons, and Fortune 500 CEOs, it is our emphasis on mentorship, quality research and academic achievement that really sets New College apart.”
Here is how The Wall Street Journal ranked the nation’s Top 30 Public Feeder Schools:
1) University of Michigan
2) New College of Florida
3) University of Virginia
4) University of Calif., Berkeley
5) Univ. of Calif., Los Angeles
6) Georgia Institute of Technology
7) College of William & Mary
8) Stony Brook (SUNY)
9) University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
10) University of Texas, Austin
11) Florida A&M University
12) University of Illinois, (Urbana)
13 Concord College
14) Indiana University
15) University of Wisconsin
16) University of Calif., San Diego
17) University of Calif., Irvine
18) University of Vermont
19) University of Calif., Davis
20) Rutgers University
21) University of Washington
22) Miami University
23) University of Maryland
24) University of Oklahoma
25) University of Utah
26) University of Florida
27) University Of Md., Eastern Shore
28) Purdue University
29) Pennsylvania State University
30) University of Louisville
Source: “Want to go to Harvard Law?,” The Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition, September 26, 2003