U.S. colleges with the best professors

(CBS Moneywatch) Many people assume that the country's most elite colleges and universities must naturally employ the best teachers. 

The latest list of institutions with the best professors, which was compiled by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, demonstrates that this just isn't so. The center generated its list by looking at the composite teaching scores that schools received via RateMyProfessors. The website has captured more than 15 million student ratings of college professors from schools across the country.  

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While there are some familiar names on the list, such as two service academies, U.S. Military Academy (No. 3) and U.S. Air Force Academy (No. 6), most of the schools with the best professors are hardly household names. 

25 colleges with the best professors

- Oklahoma Wesleyan University
- North Greenville University (S.C.)
- U.S. Military Academy (N.Y.)
- Carleton College (Minn.)
- Northwestern College (Iowa)
- U.S. Air Force Academy (Colo.)
- Wellesley College (Mass.)
- Master's College and Seminary (Calif.)
- Bryn Mawr College (Pa.)
- Whitman College (Wash.)
- Whitworth University (Wash.)
- Wisconsin Lutheran University
- Randolph College (Va.)
- Doane College (Neb.)
- Marlboro College (Vt.)
- Centenary College of Louisiana
- Pacific University (Ore.)
- College of the Ozarks (Mo.)
- Sewanee - University of the South (Tenn.)
- Emory & Henry College (Va.)
- Wabash College (Ind.)
- Sarah Lawrence College (N.Y.)
- Hastings College (N.E.)
- Cornell College (Iowa)
- Hollins University (Va.)

Liberal arts colleges dominate the list of institutions with the best professors. That isn't surprising because colleges focus on undergraduate education and routinely offer instruction in small classes that allow students to get to know their professors and find mentors.

In contrast, the best-known universities are research institutions where the professors are focused on their own work. At these schools, undergraduate education is not the top priority.

No. 1 school

For the third year in a row, Oklahoma Wesleyan University in Bartlesville, Okla., came in first among schools with great professors. On its website, the school says that it "is known for its bold and clear mission which emphasizes the Primacy of Jesus Christ, the Priority of Scripture, the Pursuit of Truth and the Practice of Wisdom."

What is also notable about the list is the presence of four single-sex colleges. Wabash College, one of just two all-male colleges left in the country, made the list, along with three all-women's colleges: Bryn Mawr College, Wellesley College and Hollins University. Single-sex colleges routinely get high marks from their graduates, although most teenagers tend not to consider these institutions as an option. 

And finally a shout-out to Nebraska, a sparsely populated state that nonetheless has two schools on the list -- Doane College (No. 14) and Hasting College (No. 23).

The professor rating is just one of the components that the Center for College Affordability and Productivity uses when compiling its yearly best colleges list for Forbes.

You can see how the faculty at any of the 650 schools on the Forbes list fared by downloading the "component rankings" PDF from the center's website.The teacher rankings are under the column heading "RMP Rank," which stands for RateMyProfessors.

[Arrolflinn]

What does all this matter anyway. Whether you have a Harvard degree or a degree from BFE College, there is no substitute for experience.....assuming you can find a job and get that experience. Sadly, so long as the Democrat socialists are in charge of the country, the chances of you finding a job get worse and that in its self makes the point of this article even more worthless.

[HotPhysicsNerd]

This wonderful article and it's astute analysis has me convinced that I need to drop out at Stanford University so I can transfer to East Bumble College in West Bumble, Oklahoma.

[itsmebwee]

it's

[PoshBoy94]

You may go to Stanford but apparently you don't know the difference between it's and its.

[discursions2]

I am a college professor who happens to get fairly high student evaluations. I rank 4.7 overall out of a possible 5.0 at ratemyprofessors. I relate that ranking so that what I say now isn't viewed merely as sour grapes. I have never had trouble getting high student evaluations, and I am not at all convinced that the evaluations that students give say much if anything about the quality of instruction. I happen to be easygoing, amusing, and someone who naturally peppers his conversation with jokes and one-liners. Students enjoy that. They say they love my courses and come back 2, 3, 4 times to take me again. I should be flattered I suppose, but I'm not. For one thing, when I have an absolutely terrific class that I am proud of and a perfectly wretched class that makes me think I have no business teaching, they get the same evaluations from students. When I have a semester where I'm firing on all cylinders, vigilant, well prepared, and creative, I get rankings in the top 5-10% of all teachers on my campus. When I have a newborn and am not sleeping and space out and forget assignments and due dates and just coast through a semester using notes from previous semesters, I get rankings in the top 5-10% of all teachers on my campus. If the rankings registered actual quality of instruction, there should be some variation when my performance so manifestly varies. There isn't.

[dustin94sc]

Hey Discursions2, take evening grammar classes. Your paranoid rambling shows only obtuse convolution.

[Forty-Four]

I am a college student and don't trust ratemyprofessor.com. Why? It is too biased. Too many people looking at it from an "idiot college student" perspective rather than an educational standpoint. Best professors I have had had horrible ratings on there. Not to mention there are those students who miss half the semester and rate the professor poorly because they failed that class. Then finally there is the people who post sarcastic reviews. This happened to my boss who used to teach a class for the university. He knows so many people and a few decided to post sarcastically on there for him. So no offense, but 4.7 out of 5 on there isn't exactly saying much. All I can say is just keep doing your job as well as you do and you should be fine :)

[Jesse_Fell]

In my freshman year at a small liberal arts college, I took a religion course from a professor who was not well liked on campus. He was, to begin with, a hard grader. And then, he didn't hesitate to conceal his dismay at his students' lack of general knowledge, their lack of reading, and their inability to write clear, straightforward English. He was fastidious as to his own person, which suggested a degree of self-regard that some people found offensive. He was not one of the "in" professors. And, as time passes, my debt to him seems to me greater and greater. He was a true scholar, an excellent writer, and an embodiment of the highest intellectual and moral standards. He would, no doubt, have fared poorly in ratings by students; which is why I don't think student ratings are worth attending to.

[GiminyEffingCricket]

You are indeed fortunate. It takes a really dedicated professional teacher/professor to push his/her students to grow out of their comfort zones. Yours did that for you. If he's still alive, send him something nice to say: Thank you so much!

[johnbing]

Sarah Lawrence just came in first in another million student survey, so good to see them here as well. I did 2 years at community college in the military and then finished at SLC. Got the best education for less total debt than average. I highly recommend doing it that way, with or without the military. Freshman year is just easy lectures anyway. Get the basics dirt cheap and then design your own custom classes 1 on 1 at SLC for the last 2 years. Warning: that multiple choice business class on the Battleship and calculus CLEP did not transfer.

[TheTruchShallSetYouFree]

What a bunch of malarkey!! If the highest rated school is judged ",,,known for its bold and clear mission which emphasizes the Primacy of Jesus Christ, the Priority of Scripture, the Pursuit of Truth and the Practice of Wisdom..." then education in this country is truly in a downward spiral towards the dark ages,,,pathetic. Clearly a school populated by sycophantic, lemming-like, intellectually clueless students.

[Lowen_Lowen]

As an history text and further as a book relaying the lessons of wisdom and goodness as well as a whole lot of actual violent life experiences and practices of their day, the bible is a primary reference. As a book of human lessons learned it is unsurpassed. Many find its value therein.
Late in biblical times, Jesus of Nazareth was born and so with it the era of the positive, largely - that man is basically good, that infinite intelligence commonly called God is likewise, and Jesus, like some other of the earlier prophets revealed their abilities to heal. To cure. This has survived, and so regardless of criticisms to the contrary, documented healings are indisputable (there are millions of them and they continue daily, unabated) and are thus the absolute proof of the efficacy of Jesus demonstrations and the further validity of Christian postulates - including mores, basis in western law, our culture, and so on.
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote ably on the subject he called the Law of Compensation wherein you get what you dish out, good or bad, but in magnified amounts. This ties in with the wisdom of the ancients, as do the writings of Norman Vincent Peale, Dr. Shwartz (in The Power of Your Subconscious Mind), Og Mandino's The Greatest Salesman in the World, and many other worthy authors who have applied these postulates with great and universal success.
For you, I recommend Og Mandino's The Greatest Salesman in the World. Follow the book's instructions to the letter and you will experience a dramatic and positive change in your outlook.
Good Luck.

[rcabilingreales]

Education is a matter of dedication and perseverance, wether professors are good or not. Same subjects are discuss on similar degrees.If you want to excel you will. Your performance in the job market is dependent on attitude and self appraisal. The more you know yourself, the better. We are only to blame if opportunities don't come our way.

[LearnToProofread]

Speaks the man who clearly never had a good professor.

[scsucic]

Title of the article should be "US colleges with the easiest professors" because that is the only thing Rate My Professor is used for. Students check it because it determines who gives easy grades without much work. This is a list that should embarrass its members - they need to toughen their standards. The author should do some real research before writing such a piece (piece of what I will not say).

[ramz555]

If you think Bryn Mawr College has easy professors, you are sadly mistaken. We are ranked the number 1 liberal arts college in the country. Our professors are rigorous, highly intellectual, and push us to think beyond the average college student. I say the author got our professors right.

[BDWabashFiji]

As a student at Wabash College, I can personally assure you this comment is misguided. Once people reach higher-level institutions, they care about their education because it is a huge investment. "Easy" professors are my least favorite - a quality instructor doesn't hand out A's. Dr. Widdows here most recently won the Excellence in Teaching award but rarely gives As. She's commended for her ability - not her grade scale.

[lotsofrain]

Wisconsin Lutheran University? There is no institution by that name. There is a Wisconsin Lutheran College (a college of the Wisconsin Synod)
and there is a Concordia University-Wisconsin (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod). Which do you mean?

[Incredulouis]

"The center generated its list by looking at the composite teaching scores that schools received via RateMyProfessors."
Aaaand stop reading.

[Geese88]

lol

exactly