Niche is a popular website that grades and ranks K-12 schools, colleges and universities based on various criteria. There are 12 main factors that are taken into account while grading: Academics, Value, Diversity, Campus, Athletics, Party Scene, Professors, Location, Dorms, Campus Food, Student Life and Safety. Niche compiles reviews from students, alumni and parents while also looking into public data sources such as the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Census.
Each group gets a score from A to F which is eventually compiled into an overall grade for the university. But where do the grades come from?
In each group, some factors are considered when grading and the weight of each factor differs. For example, when grading a school based on academics, Niche will look into acceptance rates, retention rates and graduation rates. Acceptance rate weighs more in the grading system than retention and graduation rates.
Overall, Marywood’s current Niche Grade is a B. Academics, Campus, Professors and Student Life scored a B. Value and Safety scored a B+ while Diversity scored a B-. Party Scene and Campus Food scored a C+, Athletics scored a C. Finally, Location and Dorms scored an A-.
According to Niche, our lowest score comes into our Athletics grade. Niche will look at the revenue generated from the athletic departments and national championships won since 2000. One factor, Football National Championships, does not apply to Marywood and other smaller colleges that do not have football teams. However, this criterion is still ranked highly, holding 10% of the overall grade weight, and can determine if a college receives an A or B.
According to Niche, student experience regarding the quality of the athletic experience and engagement holds 25% of the grade’s weight. Revenue and money spent on coaches holds 52.5% and championships are worth 22.5%. The grading for athletics mainly looks into profitability instead of the student experience.
Unlike the athletics grade, Niche’s Party Scene grade relies heavily on student experience with that factor contributing to 70% of the grade. Other factors considered are access to bars and Greek life on campus. Marywood has two smaller sororities on campus: Alpha Sigma Psi and Zeta Phi Delta and are technically considered clubs. Since Marywood is in a more secluded area and Greek life is not a major presence on campus, there is a lower grade.
Safety is a big determinant of what colleges’ prospective students pick and Niche takes into account crime rates in the area, crimes in residence halls, arrests made on campus and student experience with safety.
When grading professors, Niche looks into student responses but also on salary of professors and the amount of full-time professors hired. The grading system may change with a shift towards more adjunct professors hired by universities across the country. The other factors such as diversity, dorms and student life come mainly from student responses.
President Lisa Lori sees the grade as a positive, however, she wants to continue to see Marywood grow.
“I’m competitive, I want an A but I am happy that I see a lot of responses on here and I am glad that a lot of students and alums are responding because I want us to do better. I wish it was an A, and I want to get there.”
There are upcoming projects that Lori believes will help increase the grade that will be coming up throughout the semester and into next year. “I want this campus to be lively, I want it to be an exciting place where students want to come, and I want it to be a place where faculty and staff want to work.”
Some of these upcoming projects include the upcoming construction of Pacer Pub, now tentatively called 1915 Maxis, which Lori hopes is running in May of this year, along with renovations to the art field behind the Learning Commons into “Main Street Marywood” where students can hang out.
Sophomore Samantha Magan, a student from the Boston area majoring in Theatre Education, looked deeply at Niche grades when researching where to go to college.
“I did look at Niche ratings when deciding where I wanted to go to school, but that was mostly because Niche ads were plastered all over the Common App website. Though I didn’t take them that seriously, I do have to admit that it was hard to not wince or feel a particular way about some of the ratings.”
She believes that while Marywood’s overall grade is fairly accurate to her experience, she sees changes on campus that have shifted her views.
“I think that during this school year compared to the 2023-24 school year that the Dining Hall staff has put not only a noticeable but a commendable amount of effort into making Naz into a place that students want to be,” she said. “Sure, the food that they offer isn’t for everybody, but the care and different options that are presented to us are usually very good.”
Although these changes have been positive, she does believe that there are still improvements that could be made to help the Academics grade.
“There isn’t much to say about this other than that many of our majors here that are not highly advertised are largely kept alive by professor and student passion. Many majors could benefit to more exposure by those who run the social media, by admissions, and by our deans, president and other high-ranking leaders.”
Although many students take the grade with a grain of salt, Niche’s grade shows student input, and Marywood has started to make a valuable change to campus in order to help students get the full college experience.
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