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Title: Gourman Report falls short
Review: The idea of a guide that ranks undergraduate programs by area of study seems compelling at first. However, Jack Gourman's book falls far short. He fails to provide an explanation of rationale and methodology. Perhaps the greatest disservice Gourman does to the reader is a very strong bias in favor of big state schools. Smaller (but very distinguished) liberal arts schools almost never make a showing, even in programs where they have an established reputation. Schools like Williams College, Swarthmore College, Wesleyan University, Amherst College, and the College of William and Mary, all of which emphasize teaching over faculty research, have astonishingly poor ratings in Gourman's rating of overall academic quality, while some mediocre public schools, such as the University of Missouri campus in my hometown of St. Louis, get a thumbs-up.
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