For undergraduate degree, aim for overall reputation or program ranking?

[Anonymous]

Clearly, program ranking for graduate school. But it seems crazy for undergraduate education. How many 17 year olds know their unwavering major before attending college? What if you picked a stem oriented college like CMU or a Georgia Tech and wound up liking history? What if you pick a slac and wind up loving wet lab stem majors?

[Anonymous]

Combination of both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Combination of both.

+1.

For example, I think it would be foolish turning down a T10 school for, say, Purdue, even for engineering.

[Anonymous]

Overall reputation, all day long.

The ones who care about the program rankings are the same ones obsessed with ROI. I will never agree with this line of thinking.

Rankings are pretty stupid in general, but this is to the extreme. You're going to get a bad education at UPenn, say, because some discipline is not "ranked" in the top 20 for graduate school? Oh yeah, better go to Iowa State instead! That's the move.

Give me a break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Combination of both.

+1.

For example, I think it would be foolish turning down a T10 school for, say, Purdue, even for engineering.

You made a good point. But T10 is obvious. Even T20 is rather obvious. But it gets murkier at T25 etc…

[Anonymous]

Overall reputation unless your kid knows exactly what they want to do and doesn't need grad school to do it (CS, Engineering, or similar).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Overall reputation unless your kid knows exactly what they want to do and doesn't need grad school to do it (CS, Engineering, or similar).

Agree. We are facing this for our DC with 5year architecture programs. Seems to me that program rank has to trump overall reputation when your undergraduate degree is in a professional type discipline and is likely to be your terminal degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Combination of both.

+1.

For example, I think it would be foolish turning down a T10 school for, say, Purdue, even for engineering.

You made a good point. But T10 is obvious. Even T20 is rather obvious. But it gets murkier at T25 etc…

What?! what's the difference between Notre Dame and Georgetown?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Combination of both.

+1.

For example, I think it would be foolish turning down a T10 school for, say, Purdue, even for engineering.

Why?
What is crazy is not to consider cost for any purchase unless you’re super rich or someone else is subsiding your cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Combination of both.

+1.

For example, I think it would be foolish turning down a T10 school for, say, Purdue, even for engineering.

You made a good point. But T10 is obvious. Even T20 is rather obvious. But it gets murkier at T25 etc…

What?! what's the difference between Notre Dame and Georgetown?

Notre Dame > Georgetown

But if you are into public service and got into Welsh, then Georgetown

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clearly, program ranking for graduate school. But it seems crazy for undergraduate education. How many 17 year olds know their unwavering major before attending college? What if you picked a stem oriented college like CMU or a Georgia Tech and wound up liking history? What if you pick a slac and wind up loving wet lab stem majors?

Most parents want free or cheapest college to collect GPA on your way to the medical school, never looking for bigger picture.

[Anonymous]

Overall reputation, unless you have a very, very precise of what you want to study.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Combination of both.

+1.

For example, I think it would be foolish turning down a T10 school for, say, Purdue, even for engineering.

You made a good point. But T10 is obvious. Even T20 is rather obvious. But it gets murkier at T25 etc…

What?! what's the difference between Notre Dame and Georgetown?

For starters, Notre Dame is in Indiana

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Overall reputation, all day long.

The ones who care about the program rankings are the same ones obsessed with ROI. I will never agree with this line of thinking.

Rankings are pretty stupid in general, but this is to the extreme. You're going to get a bad education at UPenn, say, because some discipline is not "ranked" in the top 20 for graduate school? Oh yeah, better go to Iowa State instead! That's the move.

Give me a break.

Oh please.

First, ROI is a valid measure for a degree for those who don't view college as a 4-year coming-of-age ceremony.

Second, program ranking does matter for those interested in going to the best graduate programs in their major.

CS students from Georgetown which has an extremely mediocre CS program would have a hard time getting into MIT graduate school because their CS undergrad preparation simply does not prepare them for graduate study at MIT, while someone from the lower overall ranked UIUC would have a greater chance because of its top CS department which allows students to take more advanced courses, work with and get recommendation letters from renowned professors for undergraduate research, etc.

This is the same as going to a low-performing rural high school with no APs/IBs and expecting to be prepared for MIT undergrad, compared to someone who attended TJHSST.

As others have said, it's a combination of both.

Comparing CS for Penn vs. UIUC, the easy choice is Penn even if UIUC is ranked among the best, because Penn is still very good in CS.

Comparing CS for Georgetown vs. UIUC is a different question.

[Anonymous]

If your child decides to switch majors, I would go with the overall school.