Just about everyone is familiar with the U.S. News college rankings. Not to be outdone, the good folks at the Atlantic Monthly have devised their own pecking order of colleges. But unlike U.S. News, which employs a variety of data to reach its conclusions, the Atlantic relies solely on one factor: selectivity.

In what it deems an experiment, the magazine gathered data on the top 50 colleges and ranked them according to selectivity—defined as a combination of acceptance rates, SAT scores, and class rank. Following that exercise, though, the Atlantic concluded that selectivity tells part, but not all, of an institution's story, and should not be the overriding factor in choosing a college.

That same issue features related articles on college admissions "chaos," SAT bias, "late decision programs," and a new evaluation tool designed to measure learning outcomes.

And while you're there, check out this amusing take on the SAT's new writing component. According to the authors, Shakespeare and Hemingway would have trouble getting a good score on this test, which evidently rewards competence rather than creativity. The Unabomber, however, would do just fine.

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