Well, well, well... so how the mighty have fallen. It seems that Mount Allison is no longer the number one undergraduate school in Canada. The title has been bestowed to St. Francis Xavier. So now the rivalry continues, not only do they beat our football team to a bloody pulp but now they beat us in the McLeans rankings. I think this is a good wake up call for our school. After winning the number one spot for eleven years in a row, acknowleging that we are number two now will stop us for taking this school for granted and maybe now we can get off our collective asses and make this school the number one school we once were. This is not a bad thing people, this is a good thing. Now we won't be lazy, and now we will try as hard as we can to climb back up the ranks. Good luck Mount Allison!

Wayne MacKay, the president of Mount Allison has these words to say about our rankings. It's an interesting read. Take care everyone:

Mount Allison has once again performed very well on the annual Maclean's
ranking of universities. As many of you may have heard, this year we have
been ranked #2. Our Atlantic colleague institution, St. Francis Xavier, has
taken over first place, bringing our 11 year reign as the top undergraduate
university in Canada to an end (for now). This change is based upon the
improved ranking of St. Francis Xavier and a change in the methodology for
calculation of the class size indicators that worked to the disadvantage of
Mount Allison.

I have called St. FX President Sean Riley, to offer my congratulations on
behalf of Mount Allison University. I have indicated to him how pleased and
proud we are that another Maritime University has achieved the distinction
of #1 in the rankings. Atlantic Canada continues to shine on the national
post-graduate scene.

I would like to thank the students, faculty and staff for working together
to make Mount Allison such a special place and one that continues to
deliver high quality teaching and research. It is a place where people
continue to count.

For those of you who may have questions concerning our rankings, I offer
the following information, based on our analysis of the survey, and
confirmed in conversation with Maclean's:

One of the key reasons for our new ranking is that after some 11 years of
conducting their survey fairly consistently, for the first time this year,
Maclean's changed their methodology. They made the change in two of the
indicators that are heavily weighted and account for 15% of the overall
survey: Class sizes in 1st and 2nd year and Class Sizes in 3rd and 4th
year. In the past, Maclean's counted the number of classes within the
various class-size categories (for instance, classes with 1 - 25 students,
26 - 50 students, etc.) This year, for the first time, Maclean's changed
their approach to include the number of students within these class-size
categories. Because Mount Allison has a number of
one-student-to-one-professor classes, Mount A ranked highly in this heavily
weighted category when Maclean's chose to count classes as opposed to
students.

Last year in the survey, St. FX was #2, and we are told by Maclean's that a
ranking switch such as this can occur with very little dramatic change. For
instance, a quick look at the ranking shows that of the 21 indicators in
Maclean's, Mount Allison's position compared to last year's rankings has
improved on nine indicators, stayed the same on five, decreased modestly on
five, and significantly decreased only on the two related to class sizes.

We have benefitted in many ways from being ranked the number one
undergraduate university in Canada by Maclean's for the last 11 years. As
we continue to move ahead and meet our goals and challenges, I am pleased
that we are still recognized as one of the best universities in the
Country. More importantly, I am proud that Mount Allison continues to be
an excellent educational institution, by our own standards and not just
those of Maclean's. Working together we will continue to make our
University an even better place in the years ahead. Thank you for your
continued support.


Wayne MacKay, President