Serious Question: Before USNWR Rankinga

[Anonymous]

Everyone knew the Ivys were the top tier, but how did people know about the rest? Serious question. I didn’t think about anything except applying to my state flagship. Not sure what I would have done if I hadn’t gotten in. But I’m sure lots of people cared about going to schools that were in some way distinguished, etc. What the heck did regular every day people use as criteria?

FWIW I am not in favor of the rankings. I think people should apply to schools that might be a good fit. But for sure there were status conscious kids in my school — so what were they looking at since rankings weren’t there?

[Anonymous]

USNWR have been around for a long time. Before then people applied to more local schools in general.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:USNWR have been around for a long time. Before then people applied to more local schools in general.

Just looked and they published their first best colleges report in 1983.

[Anonymous]

There were still guidebooks with info about schools and college fairs. But also even top students tended to stay in their region. I grew up in CA and applied to some UCs, Cal Poly SLO, and a few OOS schools. One of those was in an area that I liked where we had relatives. The others I'd read about and liked something about their program (now I can even remember what!). Got in everywhere and ultimately made the decision on fit and price (CPSLO).

Even without the USNWR rankings I got some crap from classmates for choosing a Cal State over a UC but the smaller size/undergrad focus was a better fit for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:USNWR have been around for a long time. Before then people applied to more local schools in general.

Just looked and they published their first best colleges report in 1983.

I graduated in 1987 so the rankings were available but I don't recall that anyone in my affluent HS paid all that much attention to them. Maybe they encouraged an application to a school you wouldn't have otherwise heard of but this "have go to a T20" attitude you see on DCUM was not at all a thing.

[Anonymous]

https://kieranhealy.org/blog/archives/2014/08/06/persistence-of-the-old-regime/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There were still guidebooks with info about schools and college fairs. But also even top students tended to stay in their region. I grew up in CA and applied to some UCs, Cal Poly SLO, and a few OOS schools. One of those was in an area that I liked where we had relatives. The others I'd read about and liked something about their program (now I can even remember what!). Got in everywhere and ultimately made the decision on fit and price (CPSLO).

Even without the USNWR rankings I got some crap from classmates for choosing a Cal State over a UC but the smaller size/undergrad focus was a better fit for me.

I also grew up in CA and I never understood why Cal states were considered "lesser than" UCs. I started out at a UC but it was not a good fit for me and I left and ultimately graduated from a Cal State. Because I was in good academic standing when I left the UC I was told I could re-enroll at any time--people thought I was crazy not to.

[Anonymous]

Just going to any college and getting BS/BA makes you stand out.

[Anonymous]

I agree with OP in that I’m opposed to the USNWR rankings. I don’t think tweaking the weightings etc would even help. They are a fool’s errand that should never have begun and should be given 0 weight by anyone. Colleges think this too, but because they know their customers do put stock in it, they are bound to play the game or face marginalization. And so they hypocritically play the game, further rigging and skewing the rankings. This won’t stop unless we collectively decide that the rankings are worthless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There were still guidebooks with info about schools and college fairs. But also even top students tended to stay in their region. I grew up in CA and applied to some UCs, Cal Poly SLO, and a few OOS schools. One of those was in an area that I liked where we had relatives. The others I'd read about and liked something about their program (now I can even remember what!). Got in everywhere and ultimately made the decision on fit and price (CPSLO).

Even without the USNWR rankings I got some crap from classmates for choosing a Cal State over a UC but the smaller size/undergrad focus was a better fit for me.

I also grew up in CA and I never understood why Cal states were considered "lesser than" UCs. I started out at a UC but it was not a good fit for me and I left and ultimately graduated from a Cal State. Because I was in good academic standing when I left the UC I was told I could re-enroll at any time--people thought I was crazy not to.

I work with coworkers who graduated from UC and Cal State. It's a blue-collar profession, FWIW. I have heard from UC graduates, if they knew what they knew then working alongside Cal State graduates, they would have gone to Cal State and saved the difference.

[Anonymous]

Rankings are older than USNWR. Use Google. Older rankings used to be for academics and identifying peer institutions. As others have said, prior to the 1980’s most people went to regional or state schools and just having a BS/BA made you a standout.

[Anonymous]

Life Magazine had rankings. I believe Swarthmore, Williams, Amherst, and Reed were regarded as top 10 schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There were still guidebooks with info about schools and college fairs. But also even top students tended to stay in their region. I grew up in CA and applied to some UCs, Cal Poly SLO, and a few OOS schools. One of those was in an area that I liked where we had relatives. The others I'd read about and liked something about their program (now I can even remember what!). Got in everywhere and ultimately made the decision on fit and price (CPSLO).

Even without the USNWR rankings I got some crap from classmates for choosing a Cal State over a UC but the smaller size/undergrad focus was a better fit for me.

I also grew up in CA and I never understood why Cal states were considered "lesser than" UCs. I started out at a UC but it was not a good fit for me and I left and ultimately graduated from a Cal State. Because I was in good academic standing when I left the UC I was told I could re-enroll at any time--people thought I was crazy not to.

I work with coworkers who graduated from UC and Cal State. It's a blue-collar profession, FWIW. I have heard from UC graduates, if they knew what they knew then working alongside Cal State graduates, they would have gone to Cal State and saved the difference.

What is a blue-collar profession?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:USNWR have been around for a long time. Before then people applied to more local schools in general.

Just looked and they published their first best colleges report in 1983.

I graduated in 1987 so the rankings were available but I don't recall that anyone in my affluent HS paid all that much attention to them. Maybe they encouraged an application to a school you wouldn't have otherwise heard of but this "have go to a T20" attitude you see on DCUM was not at all a thing.

I graduated in 1990 and used Fiske’s Guide and USNWR to identify top colleges for my major. Overall selectivity was also a consideration. Everyone in top 10% applied to T20 schools and almost all attended.

[Anonymous]

I graduated in 1979 from a “big 3” and we had a few books (insiders guide is one I recall). I don’t remember rankings being a driver but maybe they were. The list of schools people in my class applied to/attended was pretty much the same as today. Lots of ivies, top SLACs, top schools like Stanford and MIT, a few top publics like Michigan, UVA).