For those who watch school rankings - how low to go?

[Anonymous]

Below maybe T50 should I be interested in the numbers anymore? Does it matter if DC attends a school ranked in the 80s vs. 120s vs. 180s? At what point can I or should I stop caring about the ranking?

[Anonymous]

Getting my popcorn ready.

[Anonymous]

No. One my kids jumped 40 slots in a year did do removing class size and adding more metrics on social mobility. The school didn’t change.

[Anonymous]

*due to

[Anonymous]

My $.02 is you want to pick a school that someone has heard of but ranking doesn't matter much at that point.

So, pick University of Alabama at 171 over Rowan University also at 171 or Simmons University at 165.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My $.02 is you want to pick a school that someone has heard of but ranking doesn't matter much at that point.

So, pick University of Alabama at 171 over Rowan University also at 171 or Simmons University at 165.

This strategy also means you are (likely) selecting for ongoing financial viability, which is way more important than rating once you get below 100.

[Anonymous]

At the uni level, beyond HYPMS and possibly Wharton for finance, I just don’t think it matters very much at all. I say this as a proud alum of a T20 who loved my time there, but I’m not sure that degree, nor one from G’Town, or Cornell, Brown, or Rice or whatever comparable uni, gave me a world of possibilities that I couldn’t have gotten at PSU or UMD or Clemson. At the end of the day as long as it’s a college most people have heard of (not in a notorious sort of way at least), it should be more a function of what you put into it than anything else.

[Anonymous]

I think at that point, I’d mostly weigh cost, fit, school’s financial health, and other metrics like retention and graduation rates. Take a more holistic view versus simply picking the higher ranked school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the uni level, beyond HYPMS and possibly Wharton for finance, I just don’t think it matters very much at all. I say this as a proud alum of a T20 who loved my time there, but I’m not sure that degree, nor one from G’Town, or Cornell, Brown, or Rice or whatever comparable uni, gave me a world of possibilities that I couldn’t have gotten at PSU or UMD or Clemson. At the end of the day as long as it’s a college most people have heard of (not in a notorious sort of way at least), it should be more a function of what you put into it than anything else.

Why does it matter if you went to one of those schools either? Can you name me one opportunity available to graduates of those schools that is not available to a graduate of Brown, Cornell or Rice? Even the most exclusive firms/jobs have more than those schools on their target hiring list (though, they don't have PSU/UMD/Clemson on all of them and possibly none of them).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think at that point, I’d mostly weigh cost, fit, school’s financial health, and other metrics like retention and graduation rates. Take a more holistic view versus simply picking the higher ranked school.

+1 the rankings are pretty meaningless IMO. The only way they matter for some people is an indicator of prestige and after you get out of the T30 or so then you are out of the "prestige" area anyway.

I looked for a good retention rate (>80%), affordable cost, good program for what my kids wanted to do and a good regional reputation for those programs.

[Anonymous]

I do not rely on the rankings of any single publisher, as they are often full of data manipulation. The same data can be adjusted to produce any desired outcome depending on how it is formulated.

Furthermore, the data sources themselves are often unreliable from the start. However, assuming the data is reliable, it is important to examine the methodology and the factors being prioritized. Additionally, consider the context: if a small fraction of a score creates a large ranking gap, does that truly reflect a significant difference in quality?

Personally, I gather data from various sources and analyze it based on what I believe is important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My $.02 is you want to pick a school that someone has heard of but ranking doesn't matter much at that point.

So, pick University of Alabama at 171 over Rowan University also at 171 or Simmons University at 165.

Not an answer to your question but obviously this is a very regional strategy. I live in South Jersey and Rowan is where most of the kids' teachers went (undergrad and masters), and everyone knows it has a very good engineering program - and the price is certainly right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My $.02 is you want to pick a school that someone has heard of but ranking doesn't matter much at that point.

So, pick University of Alabama at 171 over Rowan University also at 171 or Simmons University at 165.

Not an answer to your question but obviously this is a very regional strategy. I live in South Jersey and Rowan is where most of the kids' teachers went (undergrad and masters), and everyone knows it has a very good engineering program - and the price is certainly right.

I agree with both of the comments above. If your kid wants to work in a geographic location for the first few years after graduation- for example a lot of kids stay home and save for a few years now due to high housing costs, then some of the regional schools might actually be better than a higher ranked school further away. We will probably end up deciding between a regional like GMU ( I get it is nationally ranked but it is in the 100s) and higher ranked OOS schools in the 40s and 50s. It will all come down to $ and the program of study.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the uni level, beyond HYPMS and possibly Wharton for finance, I just don’t think it matters very much at all. I say this as a proud alum of a T20 who loved my time there, but I’m not sure that degree, nor one from G’Town, or Cornell, Brown, or Rice or whatever comparable uni, gave me a world of possibilities that I couldn’t have gotten at PSU or UMD or Clemson. At the end of the day as long as it’s a college most people have heard of (not in a notorious sort of way at least), it should be more a function of what you put into it than anything else.

Why does it matter if you went to one of those schools either? Can you name me one opportunity available to graduates of those schools that is not available to a graduate of Brown, Cornell or Rice? Even the most exclusive firms/jobs have more than those schools on their target hiring list (though, they don't have PSU/UMD/Clemson on all of them and possibly none of them).

Pp here. It may not. I frankly don’t believe in the rarified air of those places.

I think it might be easier for a middle of the class student at those schools to land the “elite” job than it would for a comparable one elsewhere. But most won’t want these so-called “elite” jobs. A Clemson or PSU grad may not land at Goldman Sachs or Jane street, but they can absolutely end up at the Philly or Atlanta office of a nation I banking or consulting firm.

[Anonymous]

Go where your child would be happy regardless of rankings