For undergraduate degree, aim for overall reputation or program ranking?

[Anonymous]

Decision should be based on which university has the best weather.

[Anonymous]

US News ranking is not the same as "overall reputation."

For instance: US News ranks Soka University # 29 in national liberal arts colleges, and I don't doubt that it is a terrific school. But I bet very few students outside its immediate vicinity would turn down Bryn Mawr, Kenyon, Oberlin, etc-- all of which are ranked lower by USN-- to go to Soka, because it's not at all well known.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Combination of both.

+1.

For example, I think it would be foolish turning down a T10 school for, say, Purdue, even for engineering.

You made a good point. But T10 is obvious. Even T20 is rather obvious. But it gets murkier at T25 etc…

What?! what's the difference between Notre Dame and Georgetown?

There's no difference between top 20 and top 25. Notre Dame is ranked 19. It could easily not be top 20 next year.
Notre Dame > Georgetown

But if you are into public service and got into Welsh, then Georgetown

[Anonymous]

Fit. You are trying to find a new home for your child. Where they will grown and thrive. Your goal is not to impress others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Combination of both.

+1.

For example, I think it would be foolish turning down a T10 school for, say, Purdue, even for engineering.

You made a good point. But T10 is obvious. Even T20 is rather obvious. But it gets murkier at T25 etc…

Blanket statements like this make no sense.

So the extremely bright, hard-working student from Dallas who's been watching Texas football since s/he was born, wants to stay close to home, cares about the warmth of the weather, loves being able to see great live music on a regular basis, and gets offered a full-tuition scholarship to Austin should turn it down for Dartmouth?

The Jersey shore genius who's been surfing three-foot waves for 10 years and longs for a bigger challenge, hates how uptight the East Coast is, thinks it would be hilarious to cheer for Gauchos, and has significantly relieved depression when the sun is shining all the time should pick MIT over UCSB?

[Anonymous]

Cost and where my child would be happiest at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cost and where my child would be happiest at.

Same.

[Anonymous]

I was told that kids getting into HYPMS, they should just go there.
But kids getting into other colleges, program ranking is more important.

Is this good advice?

[Anonymous]

The vast majority of kids are going to switch majors. I chuckled at the PP who mentioned a five year architecture plan. My friends DD was set on architecture for years to the point that they would only consider schools with that major. Ended up in community college with an automatic transfer program to the state u. Fast forward to spring freshman year and she is now a Cs major.

Always always always go for the overall reputation. Not many kids at 17-18 know what they want to do, heck most of them have no concept of what jobs are actually out there on the marketplace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:US News ranking is not the same as "overall reputation."

For instance: US News ranks Soka University # 29 in national liberal arts colleges, and I don't doubt that it is a terrific school. But I bet very few students outside its immediate vicinity would turn down Bryn Mawr, Kenyon, Oberlin, etc-- all of which are ranked lower by USN-- to go to Soka, because it's not at all well known.

Kenyon? Meh. It's a safety school for NESCAC wannabes. Or for VA kids who can't get into William & Mary.

[Anonymous]

Fit is the most important IMHO.
And if you have a motivated child that definitely wants medical school - a school where they can do well is also very important bc there are fairly set GPA and MCAT cutoffs. Back in the day, a 3.4 from a HYPS May haven equal to a 3.6 -3.7 from another school, but now a 3.4 is a 3.4 no matter where it is from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Combination of both.

+1.

For example, I think it would be foolish turning down a T10 school for, say, Purdue, even for engineering.

You made a good point. But T10 is obvious. Even T20 is rather obvious. But it gets murkier at T25 etc…

What?! what's the difference between Notre Dame and Georgetown?

Notre Dame > Georgetown

But if you are into public service and got into Welsh, then Georgetown

In other words, program mattes more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Overall reputation, all day long.

The ones who care about the program rankings are the same ones obsessed with ROI. I will never agree with this line of thinking.

Rankings are pretty stupid in general, but this is to the extreme. You're going to get a bad education at UPenn, say, because some discipline is not "ranked" in the top 20 for graduate school? Oh yeah, better go to Iowa State instead! That's the move.

Give me a break.

Agreed, but recognize that the overall rankings are very fuzzy. The Ivies, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech and the University of Chicago simply are in their own exalted class.

Most of the other schools we’ve heard of are roughly in the same classy class. They’re great schools, but we wouldn’t rob a bank or sell a kidney to send our kids there if the alternative was a much more affordable state flagship, even if the state flagship was a regular, non-spectacular state flagship.

[Anonymous]

How do you compare top 10 SLAC with T25? I mean t25 are still big guys right?

[Anonymous]

There’s a sucker born every minute.