The Top 50 National Universities by Average Rank from the 8 Most Influential Rankings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can’t average a ranking. These are ordinal numbers. There’s no underlying zero. You can’t add them up and then divide.

But you all keep doing your DCUM status obsession thing.

Why is it an issue if they’re ordinal numbers - the schools that rank the highest in the most places are more than likely the best, especially considering each ranking has different methodologies. MIT clearly does well in all the major criteria of what a good college is - Great financial aid, high ROI, great student resources, top-notch teaching, etc. That’s why it’s ranked #1 on so many different publications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t average a ranking. These are ordinal numbers. There’s no underlying zero. You can’t add them up and then divide.

But you all keep doing your DCUM status obsession thing.

Why is it an issue if they’re ordinal numbers - the schools that rank the highest in the most places are more than likely the best, especially considering each ranking has different methodologies. MIT clearly does well in all the major criteria of what a good college is - Great financial aid, high ROI, great student resources, top-notch teaching, etc. That’s why it’s ranked #1 on so many different publications.

This one has so many errors snd unreliable
Let this thread die

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t average a ranking. These are ordinal numbers. There’s no underlying zero. You can’t add them up and then divide.

But you all keep doing your DCUM status obsession thing.

Why is it an issue if they’re ordinal numbers - the schools that rank the highest in the most places are more than likely the best, especially considering each ranking has different methodologies. MIT clearly does well in all the major criteria of what a good college is - Great financial aid, high ROI, great student resources, top-notch teaching, etc. That’s why it’s ranked #1 on so many different publications.

This one has so many errors snd unreliable
Let this thread die

Clearly, you did not attend MIT otherwise you would know why averaging multiple indices is bad statistics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t average a ranking. These are ordinal numbers. There’s no underlying zero. You can’t add them up and then divide.

But you all keep doing your DCUM status obsession thing.

Why is it an issue if they’re ordinal numbers - the schools that rank the highest in the most places are more than likely the best, especially considering each ranking has different methodologies. MIT clearly does well in all the major criteria of what a good college is - Great financial aid, high ROI, great student resources, top-notch teaching, etc. That’s why it’s ranked #1 on so many different publications.

This one has so many errors snd unreliable
Let this thread die

Clearly, you did not attend MIT otherwise you would know why averaging multiple indices is bad statistics.

Clearly you failed HS
Didn't you see the thread??
It wasn't even averaged right, missing data, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t average a ranking. These are ordinal numbers. There’s no underlying zero. You can’t add them up and then divide.

But you all keep doing your DCUM status obsession thing.

Why is it an issue if they’re ordinal numbers - the schools that rank the highest in the most places are more than likely the best, especially considering each ranking has different methodologies. MIT clearly does well in all the major criteria of what a good college is - Great financial aid, high ROI, great student resources, top-notch teaching, etc. That’s why it’s ranked #1 on so many different publications.

This one has so many errors snd unreliable
Let this thread die

Clearly, you did not attend MIT otherwise you would know why averaging multiple indices is bad statistics.

Clearly you failed HS
Didn't you see the thread??
It wasn't even averaged right, missing data, etc.

Relax, only two schools were missed, and they were added on after. Not that big of a deal. The averaging all seems correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:US News, WSJ/THE, Niche, Forbes, Washington Monthly, Money, Wallet Hub, and Degree Choices, you get an overall ranking of:

I would only include US News and give it a 40 percent weight. 20 Percent Niche 20 percent Forbes 20 percent WSJ. I did this when my kids applied.

Why did you do that for your kids? So arbitrary. My favorite ranking is WSJ so I'm going to give it 40%. For your kids shouldn't you go off the methodology/criteria that matters the most for you? If your reasoning for giving US News 40% is that it's the most popular, that just becomes an echo chamber. At least OP included some interesting rankings that calculate different things than the usual suspects.

The rankings are for reference purpose.
Giving more weight to the most influential ranking make the most sense. Then you look at it for a reference. And its one of may factors to consider.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t average a ranking. These are ordinal numbers. There’s no underlying zero. You can’t add them up and then divide.

But you all keep doing your DCUM status obsession thing.

Why is it an issue if they’re ordinal numbers - the schools that rank the highest in the most places are more than likely the best, especially considering each ranking has different methodologies. MIT clearly does well in all the major criteria of what a good college is - Great financial aid, high ROI, great student resources, top-notch teaching, etc. That’s why it’s ranked #1 on so many different publications.

This one has so many errors snd unreliable
Let this thread die

Clearly, you did not attend MIT otherwise you would know why averaging multiple indices is bad statistics.

Clearly you failed HS
Didn't you see the thread??
It wasn't even averaged right, missing data, etc.

Relax, only two schools were missed, and they were added on after. Not that big of a deal. The averaging all seems correct.

2 out of 50 is a lot lol very clumsy and unreliable.
I also think weighted average is much better.
Not all rankings treated equally.

[Anonymous]

Not to mention top SLACs not accounted for. How can you overlook schools like Amherst, Williams, Pomona, etc. Tiers are better. I am a tierist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not to mention top SLACs not accounted for. How can you overlook schools like Amherst, Williams, Pomona, etc. Tiers are better. I am a tierist.

To be fair most rankings don’t mix the LACs and research universities. What would be your tiers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not to mention top SLACs not accounted for. How can you overlook schools like Amherst, Williams, Pomona, etc. Tiers are better. I am a tierist.

To be fair most rankings don’t mix the LACs and research universities. What would be your tiers?

I think most of the mainstream ones other than US News do combine e.g. Forbes and WSJ. Here are the tiers discussed on this thread and other threads:

1A) MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Yale
1B) Penn, Caltech, Columbia, Duke

2A) Vanderbilt, Rice, Dartmouth, Brown, UChicago, Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Pomona, Northwestern
2B) UMich, Johns Hopkins, WashU, Notre Dame, Georgetown, UCLA, Berkeley, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna

3A) UVA, UNC, CMU, UF, Emory, USC, Georgia Tech, Wellesley, Barnard, Carleton, Middlebury
3B) UCSD, BC, UT Austin, W&M, UIUC, W&L, Vassar, Davidson, Hamilton, Haverford

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not to mention top SLACs not accounted for. How can you overlook schools like Amherst, Williams, Pomona, etc. Tiers are better. I am a tierist.

To be fair most rankings don’t mix the LACs and research universities. What would be your tiers?

I think most of the mainstream ones other than US News do combine e.g. Forbes and WSJ. Here are the tiers discussed on this thread and other threads:

1A) MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Yale
1B) Penn, Caltech, Columbia, Duke

2A) Vanderbilt, Rice, Dartmouth, Brown, UChicago, Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Pomona, Northwestern
2B) UMich, Johns Hopkins, WashU, Notre Dame, Georgetown, UCLA, Berkeley, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna

3A) UVA, UNC, CMU, UF, Emory, USC, Georgia Tech, Wellesley, Barnard, Carleton, Middlebury
3B) UCSD, BC, UT Austin, W&M, UIUC, W&L, Vassar, Davidson, Hamilton, Haverford

This actually looks pretty good and rationale. Better than 42 vs 43.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not to mention top SLACs not accounted for. How can you overlook schools like Amherst, Williams, Pomona, etc. Tiers are better. I am a tierist.

To be fair most rankings don’t mix the LACs and research universities. What would be your tiers?

I think most of the mainstream ones other than US News do combine e.g. Forbes and WSJ. Here are the tiers discussed on this thread and other threads:

1A) MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Yale
1B) Penn, Caltech, Columbia, Duke

2A) Vanderbilt, Rice, Dartmouth, Brown, UChicago, Cornell, Williams, Amherst, Pomona, Northwestern
2B) UMich, Johns Hopkins, WashU, Notre Dame, Georgetown, UCLA, Berkeley, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna

3A) UVA, UNC, CMU, UF, Emory, USC, Georgia Tech, Wellesley, Barnard, Carleton, Middlebury
3B) UCSD, BC, UT Austin, W&M, UIUC, W&L, Vassar, Davidson, Hamilton, Haverford

Your kid W&M? Lol

[Anonymous]

Sorry USN&WR still wins.

[Anonymous]

LMFAO Degree Choices
#3 CUNY City College
#4 U Florida

Did you even look at it
LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LMFAO Degree Choices
#3 CUNY City College
#4 U Florida

Did you even look at it
LOL

I've checked Degree Choices, it's actually a good source. It's focused primarily on ROI for college and how long it takes to pay off debt. You don't think that's important? CUNY is probably a highly affordable option that quickly boosts the earning potential of its graduates.