2021 USNews rankings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting how Yale went down a notch.
They took 4 kids at our school last year. All legacies. Very strong students but nothing exceptional.

In the real world, they haven't gone down at all. Yale is still between #2 and #4, which is where it's always been.

Princeton has been #1 for years, but I'll bet a significant majority of cross-admits are choosing Harvard, Stanford, and MIT over Princeton. I think Yale is very likely favored as well.

Meh! I think Yale has gone down. Princeton is obviously very strong for undergraduates but location turns some people off and the eating clubs culture also turns some kids off. I’m not saying either of these things should matter but I know they do for some kids

Try to visit Princeton in cool weather when it is in session and has some activity in evidence. On a quiet swampy summer day it does not present well. I tired to tell my kid it was just the day we visited but could not get him to even apply.

Interesting. It's been years since I"ve been on campus but all I remember were the gorgeous buildings. What was it that turned your kid off?

[Anonymous]

Hopkins is a very difficult school, well known for grade deflation. It should probably be higher when other schools have so much grade inflation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hopkins is a very difficult school, well known for grade deflation. It should probably be higher when other schools have so much grade inflation.

Why would that matter since college GPA is not part of their calculation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopkins is a very difficult school, well known for grade deflation. It should probably be higher when other schools have so much grade inflation.

Why would that matter since college GPA is not part of their calculation?

Because you get what you actually pay for. High quality education that isn't watered down garbage because generations of kids who've gotten participation trophies and who were protected by helicopter parents can't handle the fact that they're not A studies. Schools like Hopkins don't dumb down materials so you can get watered down As.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting how Yale went down a notch.
They took 4 kids at our school last year. All legacies. Very strong students but nothing exceptional.

In the real world, they haven't gone down at all. Yale is still between #2 and #4, which is where it's always been.

Princeton has been #1 for years, but I'll bet a significant majority of cross-admits are choosing Harvard, Stanford, and MIT over Princeton. I think Yale is very likely favored as well.

Meh! I think Yale has gone down. Princeton is obviously very strong for undergraduates but location turns some people off and the eating clubs culture also turns some kids off. I’m not saying either of these things should matter but I know they do for some kids

Try to visit Princeton in cool weather when it is in session and has some activity in evidence. On a quiet swampy summer day it does not present well. I tired to tell my kid it was just the day we visited but could not get him to even apply.

Interesting. It's been years since I"ve been on campus but all I remember were the gorgeous buildings. What was it that turned your kid off?

I went to Princeton but spent two summers there as a research assistant. It can be hot and humid in the summer (like DC) and seem very languid. I liked the contrast but probably only because I knew how busier things were during the school year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopkins is a very difficult school, well known for grade deflation. It should probably be higher when other schools have so much grade inflation.

Why would that matter since college GPA is not part of their calculation?

Because you get what you actually pay for. High quality education that isn't watered down garbage because generations of kids who've gotten participation trophies and who were protected by helicopter parents can't handle the fact that they're not A studies. Schools like Hopkins don't dumb down materials so you can get watered down As.

I'll leave your polemics aside and repeat the question: why would any of that affect the ranking?

[Anonymous]

Johns Hopkins is excellent in the medical related fields, but has not much to show in other areas.

I won't try to find out why anything has changed Y/Y, because there is none. I strongly suspect it's USN marketing strategy that is driving all the changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yay!! Hopkins made it to No.9 and beat Duke!

+1 Go Hop!

Class of '93 here... glad to see it!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopkins is a very difficult school, well known for grade deflation. It should probably be higher when other schools have so much grade inflation.

Why would that matter since college GPA is not part of their calculation?

Because you get what you actually pay for. High quality education that isn't watered down garbage because generations of kids who've gotten participation trophies and who were protected by helicopter parents can't handle the fact that they're not A studies. Schools like Hopkins don't dumb down materials so you can get watered down As.

Not sure how what letters you you throw on transcripts affects the quality of education received. You can teach the same material, administer the exact same exams, and then just adjust how many of each letter you wish to assign. A more useful metric is input (e.g., students, cash) quality.

[Anonymous]

Harvard
Yale, Stanford
MIT
rest of the Ivies
Duke
Chicago

Nobody really gives a damn about Hopkins, Northwestern, Vandy, etc. at the undergraduate level. Everyone knows status-obsessed families outside of the Ivy Plus schools were rejected from all of them. Not cream of the crop.

[Anonymous]

Duke is not even top ten anymore. “Status-obsessed families” are going to start treating the school as a safety and stop applying to it as an ED admit. Watch it continue to plummet year after year as those in the know realize that it was wildly overrated and not nearly as good as they thought it was. Certainly not “cream of the crop.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopkins is a very difficult school, well known for grade deflation. It should probably be higher when other schools have so much grade inflation.

Why would that matter since college GPA is not part of their calculation?

Because you get what you actually pay for. High quality education that isn't watered down garbage because generations of kids who've gotten participation trophies and who were protected by helicopter parents can't handle the fact that they're not A studies. Schools like Hopkins don't dumb down materials so you can get watered down As.

Not sure how what letters you you throw on transcripts affects the quality of education received. You can teach the same material, administer the exact same exams, and then just adjust how many of each letter you wish to assign. A more useful metric is input (e.g., students, cash) quality.

USNWR doesn't measure whether you get what you pay for. Quality of teaching (one measure of getting what you pay for) and Value for Money are separate rankings that don't get as much focus. If anything, USNWR gives incentives for schools to be easier, since that makes graduation rates higher. Have you ever looked at what happened to graduation rates once it became clear that it was being measured? They went through the roof. If you look at college GPAs, same thing. 40+ years of uninterrupted grade inflation. There is limited data on Hopkins on Gradeinflation.com, but even there, it shows average GPA going from 3.23 in 2005 to 3.38 in 2015.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopkins is a very difficult school, well known for grade deflation. It should probably be higher when other schools have so much grade inflation.

Why would that matter since college GPA is not part of their calculation?

Because you get what you actually pay for. High quality education that isn't watered down garbage because generations of kids who've gotten participation trophies and who were protected by helicopter parents can't handle the fact that they're not A studies. Schools like Hopkins don't dumb down materials so you can get watered down As.

Not sure how what letters you you throw on transcripts affects the quality of education received. You can teach the same material, administer the exact same exams, and then just adjust how many of each letter you wish to assign. A more useful metric is input (e.g., students, cash) quality.

USNWR doesn't measure whether you get what you pay for. Quality of teaching (one measure of getting what you pay for) and Value for Money are separate rankings that don't get as much focus. If anything, USNWR gives incentives for schools to be easier, since that makes graduation rates higher. Have you ever looked at what happened to graduation rates once it became clear that it was being measured? They went through the roof. If you look at college GPAs, same thing. 40+ years of uninterrupted grade inflation. There is limited data on Hopkins on Gradeinflation.com, but even there, it shows average GPA going from 3.23 in 2005 to 3.38 in 2015.

GPA is not as important as you think, for graduating.

Most majors have requirements where the core courses require milestones beyond simply passing the courses. At many schools, you can have a relatively “high” overall GPA, but still fail out of the major.

Also, many schools have been making an effort to improve student-faculty ratios. It’s easier to graduate on-time when you can actually take the required courses. Some schools have lower graduation rates because they are simply overcrowded and students can’t even finish required courses until year 5 or 6.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopkins is a very difficult school, well known for grade deflation. It should probably be higher when other schools have so much grade inflation.

Why would that matter since college GPA is not part of their calculation?

Because you get what you actually pay for. High quality education that isn't watered down garbage because generations of kids who've gotten participation trophies and who were protected by helicopter parents can't handle the fact that they're not A studies. Schools like Hopkins don't dumb down materials so you can get watered down As.

Not sure how what letters you you throw on transcripts affects the quality of education received. You can teach the same material, administer the exact same exams, and then just adjust how many of each letter you wish to assign. A more useful metric is input (e.g., students, cash) quality.

Not the poster you’re arguing with but you don’t think demanding more of students improves the education received by having them, I don’t know, work harder, study more, do better?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopkins is a very difficult school, well known for grade deflation. It should probably be higher when other schools have so much grade inflation.

Why would that matter since college GPA is not part of their calculation?

Because you get what you actually pay for. High quality education that isn't watered down garbage because generations of kids who've gotten participation trophies and who were protected by helicopter parents can't handle the fact that they're not A studies. Schools like Hopkins don't dumb down materials so you can get watered down As.

Not sure how what letters you you throw on transcripts affects the quality of education received. You can teach the same material, administer the exact same exams, and then just adjust how many of each letter you wish to assign. A more useful metric is input (e.g., students, cash) quality.

USNWR doesn't measure whether you get what you pay for. Quality of teaching (one measure of getting what you pay for) and Value for Money are separate rankings that don't get as much focus. If anything, USNWR gives incentives for schools to be easier, since that makes graduation rates higher. Have you ever looked at what happened to graduation rates once it became clear that it was being measured? They went through the roof. If you look at college GPAs, same thing. 40+ years of uninterrupted grade inflation. There is limited data on Hopkins on Gradeinflation.com, but even there, it shows average GPA going from 3.23 in 2005 to 3.38 in 2015.

GPA is not as important as you think, for graduating.

Most majors have requirements where the core courses require milestones beyond simply passing the courses. At many schools, you can have a relatively “high” overall GPA, but still fail out of the major.

Also, many schools have been making an effort to improve student-faculty ratios. It’s easier to graduate on-time when you can actually take the required courses. Some schools have lower graduation rates because they are simply overcrowded and students can’t even finish required courses until year 5 or 6.

Most schools have significantly increased administrators per student, part time instructors per student, but tenure-track faculty per undergraduate student has been going down.