Rankings factors which are irrelevant to undergraduate experience

[Anonymous]

Many of the factors that go into college rankings seem irrelevant to the undergrad experience, particularly for non-STEM. Factors like research tier status, athletics conferences, and graduate programs seem less important than things like student to professor ratio, likelihood that a class will be on line, likelihood that grad student will teach a class, etc.

Where can I go to find rankings that disaggregate the less relevant factors?

[Anonymous]

USNWR up until 2023

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:USNWR up until 2023

Because USMWR changed their methodology?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:USNWR up until 2023

Because USMWR changed their methodology?

Dp, but yes. The old criteria included more criteria related to the undergraduate classroom experience, and selectivity.

[Anonymous]

Since rankings are BS, why look at rankings?

Search for schools matching your kid’s stats, desired major, retention/graduation/job placement stats you want, budget & any non-edu criteria (climate, availability of a sport or club, etc). ChatGPT or similar is actually decent at this, though obviously double check any schools of interest

[Anonymous]

You might want to look at some of the “best value” college lists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Since rankings are BS, why look at rankings?

Search for schools matching your kid’s stats, desired major, retention/graduation/job placement stats you want, budget & any non-edu criteria (climate, availability of a sport or club, etc). ChatGPT or similar is actually decent at this, though obviously double check any schools of interest

Why? Because I don’t live on a desert island. I live in a society. As such I contribute what I can through my time, work and expertise and rely on others with different skill sets and knowledge. I do t have the time to do this myself nor the money to pay someone else to do this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many of the factors that go into college rankings seem irrelevant to the undergrad experience, particularly for non-STEM. Factors like research tier status, athletics conferences, and graduate programs seem less important than things like student to professor ratio, likelihood that a class will be on line, likelihood that grad student will teach a class, etc.

Where can I go to find rankings that disaggregate the less relevant factors?

USNWR has separate rankings for best undergraduate teaching. For student to professor ration and class size, I would do it by hand, so to speak, and go to a each school's Common Data Set. I think that it is Section I for class sizes and C6 for student/faculty ratio. Class size is done by quintile. I did this last year, informative. As an aside, Catholic schools are striking for the small sizes of their classes.

For graduate students teaching classes, you will probably have to do the work of looking through the school's program and course catalog materials for the kid's majors of interest, and/or contact the program. Perhaps, look for threads on Reddit. Generally, large publics are reportedly known for more for this than privates (UMich, UIUC, UNC maybe Pitt, too). Maybe, others have more insight into more readily available sources.

Probably the same with online.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:USNWR up until 2023

Well not completely, but yes pre 2023 it was much "better". Now class sizes don't matter according to UWNWR. And many things like engineering (always has been) are a popularity contest of other engineering schools ranking them all. So no "real criteria" at all

[Anonymous]

You can look at the Fiske Guide descriptions for schools that meet whatever ranking criteria you are interested in. Fiske has more emphasis on undergraduate experience

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since rankings are BS, why look at rankings?

Search for schools matching your kid’s stats, desired major, retention/graduation/job placement stats you want, budget & any non-edu criteria (climate, availability of a sport or club, etc). ChatGPT or similar is actually decent at this, though obviously double check any schools of interest

Why? Because I don’t live on a desert island. I live in a society. As such I contribute what I can through my time, work and expertise and rely on others with different skill sets and knowledge. I do t have the time to do this myself nor the money to pay someone else to do this.

Bro, it’s typing a paragraph & letting a robot do the work for you. It’s hardly a lot of “time, work, or expertise” involved &, frankly, maybe your kid should be doing it anyway so it’s not even about YOUR time.

But, sure, leave one of your biggest investments of your life (aside from your education & your home) to a for-profit company that tweaks their formula every year to stay relevant. Because that’s trustworthy…

[Anonymous]

Do any rankings incorporate “athletic conferences” into their rankings?

Alabama would definitely move up if that was the case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many of the factors that go into college rankings seem irrelevant to the undergrad experience, particularly for non-STEM. Factors like research tier status, athletics conferences, and graduate programs seem less important than things like student to professor ratio, likelihood that a class will be on line, likelihood that grad student will teach a class, etc.

Where can I go to find rankings that disaggregate the less relevant factors?

With respect to these attributes, this survey-based ranking from the Princeton Review may offer you ideas for colleges to research further:

Best Colleges for Classroom Experience | The Princeton Review https://share.google/2SWiZ1VfaySVUTwUV

[Anonymous]

Graduate schools strong in the target major are a large plus. This generally means more faculty in the department, larger offerings of classes, and more connections for internships etc.

Rankings also influence the peer group. The more difficult a school is to get into, the more serious and academic the students. Faculty also care about rankings and the better ones seek the best packages etc. There are very openings so the competition is very strong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of the factors that go into college rankings seem irrelevant to the undergrad experience, particularly for non-STEM. Factors like research tier status, athletics conferences, and graduate programs seem less important than things like student to professor ratio, likelihood that a class will be on line, likelihood that grad student will teach a class, etc.

Where can I go to find rankings that disaggregate the less relevant factors?

With respect to these attributes, this survey-based ranking from the Princeton Review may offer you ideas for colleges to research further:

Best Colleges for Classroom Experience | The Princeton Review https://share.google/2SWiZ1VfaySVUTwUV

LOL !

The Princeton Review is worse than Niche.