A New (Better?) Way to Think About College

College Guide

2013 Table of Contents

Welcome to the Washington Monthly College Guide and Rankings. UnlikeU.S. News and World Report and similar guides, this one asks not what colleges can do for you, but what colleges are doing for the country. Are they educating low-income students, or just catering to the affluent? Are they improving the quality of their teaching, or ducking accountability for it? Are they trying to become more productive—and if so, why is average tuition rising faster than health care costs? Every year we lavish billions of tax dollars and other public benefits on institutions of higher learning. This guide asks: Are we getting the most for our money?

We designed the Washington Monthly college rankings to embody the American higher education compact at the institutional level. Instead of lauding colleges for closing their doors to all but an elite few, we give high marks to institutions that enroll low-income students, help them graduate, and don’t charge them an arm and a leg to attend. Universities that bring in research dollars are rewarded by our standards, as are those whose undergraduates go on to earn PhDs. And we recognize institutions that are committed to public service, both in the way they teach and in encouraging students to enter service-focused careers.

Our rankings aim to identify institutions that are acting on behalf of the true public interest. 

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  Introduction: A Different Kind of College Ranking

  
  

  By the Editors

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  National University Rankings

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  Liberal Arts College Rankings

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  Best-Bang-for-the-Buck Rankings

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  Master’s University Rankings

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  Baccalaureate College Rankings

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  Community College Rankings

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  A Note on Methodology: 4-Year Colleges and Universities

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  A Note on Methodology: Community Colleges

John M. Flaxman Library

At the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (where alum Alex Bernstein is studying), the library collection focuses on "20th- and 21st-century visual arts, design, architecture, criticism, theory, and philosophy".  They have more than 350 magazines!  Imagine.

And OMG, they use LibGuides too!  Are you guys starting to feel like FSHA is awesome, or what?  Here are some of their LibGuides:
Art History
Fashion
Photography

Anyone in contact with Alex?  I'd love to know if she's had reason to visit the library.....

UCLA's Arts Library

image from latimes blog

The UCLA Arts Library "has more than 270,000 books in the fields of architecture, architectural history, art, art history, design, film, television, photography as art, theater, and allied disciplines."  They even use LibGuides, just like we do!  Can you believe it?  Personally, I am very impressed.  Here are links to some of their art LibGuides:

image from artlibrarycrawl.com

Art and Art History
Contemporary Art and Artists
Theater Research Guide

(They have many more.  You can see them all by visiting the Arts Library link above.)

The Arts Library also has exhibits, including displays of student and faculty work.  They also have collections of TV and film scripts, movie stills, original artwork, and so many other fantastic resources that my mind is officially boggled.

USC's Fine Arts Library

Did you know most big universities have special library collections for the Fine Arts?  At USC, the Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library "houses more than 75,000 volumes of books and journals dedicated to the studies of art history, fine arts, and architecture, as well as a notable collection of rare titles and artists' books", according to the school's website. The library is located in Watt Hall, in the Roski School of Fine Arts.  The library was designed by Graeme Morland, a faculty member in the school of architecture.



images courtesy of publicartinla.com