Eighty-eight schools are happier than us

A recent ranking from The Daily Beast puts Wesleyan down as the nation’s 89th happiest college.  Criteria used to gauge our happiness include:

  • Campus housing grade: how students rank their school’s dormitories (College Prowler)
  • Nightlife grade: how students rank the party options for their campus and town (College Prowler)
  • Campus dining grade: how students rank their school’s food (source: College Prowler)
  • Daylight hours that are sunny: a percentage calculated on an annual basis by dividing the number of sunny daylight hours over the number of total daylight hours (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

    • NB: We did not place in the list of “Most Stressful Universities,” though I’m sure some of us might contest this.

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    18 thoughts on “Eighty-eight schools are happier than us”

    7. anon

      agree with #5. these ratings are based on criteria that supposedly make people more happy, but did they actually get the students’ opinion on whether these criteria affected their well-being? Just because a college has great food, weather and nightlife doesn’t automatically mean the students are estatic.

    8. anon

      agree with #5. these ratings are based on criteria that supposedly make people more happy, but did they actually get the students’ opinion on whether these criteria affected their well-being? Just because a college has great food, weather and nightlife doesn’t automatically mean the students are estatic.

    9. Anonymous

      What a stupid thing for the article to claim. You can’t claim that that’s evidence that stressed-out colleges produce more satisfied customers because “more satisfied” is NOT one of the criteria used. Stanford is probably high on the list because IT’S IN CALIFORNIA and part of the criteria for being a happy college is purely the number of sunny-weathered days you have.

      Is Usdan the primary contributor to my happiness at Wesleyan? Not in the slightest. Seriously, people draw the most stupid conclusions. Calling these “happiness ratings” don’t make them happiness ratings. Poll student happiness itself if that’s what you’re going for, or at least acknowledge that you’re using an imperfect system.

    10. Anonymous

      What a stupid thing for the article to claim. You can’t claim that that’s evidence that stressed-out colleges produce more satisfied customers because “more satisfied” is NOT one of the criteria used. Stanford is probably high on the list because IT’S IN CALIFORNIA and part of the criteria for being a happy college is purely the number of sunny-weathered days you have.

      Is Usdan the primary contributor to my happiness at Wesleyan? Not in the slightest. Seriously, people draw the most stupid conclusions. Calling these “happiness ratings” don’t make them happiness ratings. Poll student happiness itself if that’s what you’re going for, or at least acknowledge that you’re using an imperfect system.

    11. Marina Post author

      @johnwesley–

      Also, from the article: “Several of the schools that rated high on the list of stressed-out colleges (notably, Stanford) scored highly here, too, suggesting that academic pressure doesn’t automatically translate to a bad college experience. In fact, as seen from these rankings, dozens of colleges turn out more than graduates: They produce satisfied customers.”

    12. Marina

      @johnwesley–

      Also, from the article: “Several of the schools that rated high on the list of stressed-out colleges (notably, Stanford) scored highly here, too, suggesting that academic pressure doesn’t automatically translate to a bad college experience. In fact, as seen from these rankings, dozens of colleges turn out more than graduates: They produce satisfied customers.”

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