Do US News Rankings Have any Impact on Admissions?
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Anonymous
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Curious if the shift in rankings will have impact on applicant quality and volume at different schools. Even slight changes, like 1-2%, would be interesting. Some of the bigger developments that happened:
1. Penn, Duke, and Caltech created separation from the rest of the pack at the end of the T10, and restored their level bordering the T5 where they were ~1 decade ago 2. Brown finally broke into the T10, although at the bottom 3. UChicago plummeted out of the T10, and there's no reason to expect they'll get back in considering they've been ranked ~20 in most other rankings 4. Dartmouth and Vanderbilt both experienced significant drops to the end of the T20 5. Public schools in general rose, with the most noticeable rises at the top being Berkeley, UCLA, and UNC 6. The 2 New York ivies, Columbia and Cornell, are now tied, but don't look like they're breaking into the T10. |
Anonymous
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Why worry about things you cannot control?
Just apply to the schools you like best and have a reasonable mix of reaches, targets and safeties and let the chips fall where they will |
Anonymous
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Hard to believe anyone cares about how the deck chairs are arranged in the T20.
“Oh no, Chicago dropped, cross them off the list!” |
Anonymous
| Honestly, it’s possible. Dartmouth going from flirting with the T10 to barely holding on to T20 isn’t a light thing, especially when students likely will be considering peer schools like Penn, Duke, and Brown. |
Anonymous
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DCUMers look at / discuss rankings like a hobby. Some like fantasy football, some like analyze USNWR rankings.
Live a little. |
Anonymous
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For people who aren’t familiar with the US system, they may think US News is an official, legit ranking, they have an impact.
For educated people who know that rankings exist to make money, no. |
Anonymous
Sure but the rankings somewhat mirror perception. Dartmouth will still be elite, striver kids will still flock to Princeton, Duke, Wharton, etc. and STEM kids will aim for MIT and Caltech |
Anonymous
Of all the ways those 4 schools are different, it's hard to imagine that where in the top 20 a school is ranked would make a difference in how much a student likes it. |
Anonymous
| None of the shifts mean anything to employers. Some still want grads from certain schools (and the rankings don’t matter- Ivy is Ivy), some don’t care where you went. No one should consider these rankings more than top 20, top 50 and top 100. More analysis than that is a waste of time. |
Anonymous
| Given how hard admissions have become, no. |
Anonymous
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Dartmouth will be less affected than Vanderbilt, Wash. U. and even Chicago.
Dartmouth in an Ivy, and the Ivy brand is way too strong globally. It's located in the wealthiest and most populous region of the US (Northeast) and will always attract wealthy students. |
Anonymous
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Of course - why do you think that one Northeastern president made it his life/university's goal:
https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2014/08/26/how-northeastern-gamed-the-college-rankings/ (h/t to someone who posted this on another thread) |
Anonymous
| I was actually kind of bummed to see Virginia Tech enter the Top 50. I am worried that it will attract a lot more applicants, making it an even harder admission for my current NOVA HS junior. |
Anonymous
Good insight. I wondered why they cared. |
Anonymous
Well for those of us who have kids applying, it’s interesting to know what schools are on what trajectories. If a school is going up rather than down, it feels like a safer investment. But of course the acceptances need to come first |