Back to school.

• Author: Reich, Robert B.
• Position: LETTERS - Letter to the editor

I read your new college rankings with absolute delight, and not just because the place I'm privileged to teach (the University of California, Berkeley) ranks number one. More importantly, it's because your ranking system uses criteria that are essential to higher education in today's world--the extent to which all talented young people gain admission regardless of family income, cutting-edge research by faculty, and encouragement of students to give back to society. May the Monthly's ranking system become the dominant guide for all college choices in the future!

Robert B. Reich

Former Secretary of Labor

Professor of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, Calif.

By focusing on research and PhDs to determine social contributions, you rather seriously distort the rankings of liberal arts colleges--some really wonderful, social-mobility-promoting schools like Pitzer and Warren Wilson are way down in the rankings. I'd look again at the weighting system. And another small ax to grind: my own institution, forbidden by the State of Washington to grant PhDs, disappears from your rankings entirely. We do a lot, however, in your other two categories.

Helena Meyer-Knapp

Professor Emeritus, Evergreen State College

Olympia, Wash.

Your college ranking are a refreshing change, but shouldn't some of the categories be given as a ratio of the student population? For instance, "Research expenditure" at Cal...