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

[Anonymous]

There have been multiple studies on the Ivy -plus schools (defined as ivy ,MIT, Duke, Stanford, &Chicago in these studies) that showed benefit to these schools for reaching the top-level of some careers. The next group down(Washu, Hopkins, Norhtwestern, UVa, Vanderbilt, GTown, Rice, Berkeley and more) have shown some benefit as well, especially when digging into top law and top med admissions. Mid tier law and med does not have the same preferential treatment of undergrad prestige.
There is phD feeder data that shows an overlapping but slightly different group of schools as important(many LACs do well here).
Current rankings do not take into account student quality or class size and faculty quality. You have to use the various studies to find lists, then pick a school where your student is likely to be able to deal effectively with the competition yet still be pushed, its a balance if you will

[Anonymous]

The college I went to was ranked #5 for national SLACs the year I applied, was #12 the next year, and has been in the 20s the last decade or two. Oh well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Just to be clear...Rowan is ranked by USNews as a National university, not a regional college. Same with GMU.

[Anonymous]

I don't care about the number at all. I do care about a large number of other things we are vetting for.

[Anonymous]

Matter for what? Most of the answers here focus on career. But you might care about experience on campus, actual learning, etc.

I went to a highly selective LAC, and when I was a freshman, a friend who was a senior in HS visited. A classmate ran in at one point, super excited about a reading from religion class. My friend was shocked: he'd visited his brother at a large state university and never heard anyone excited about academics. He ended up at an Ivy, where I think he was happier than he would have been if he'd joined his brother.

[Anonymous]

If your kid intends to major in something common (English, Computer Science, Biology, Business, Engineering) then go for the best known school possible. If your kid intends to major in something less common (marine biology, actuarial science, bio-ceramics) then the school rank doesn't matter at all. People in those fields know where the better programs actually are

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Matter for what? Most of the answers here focus on career. But you might care about experience on campus, actual learning, etc.

I went to a highly selective LAC, and when I was a freshman, a friend who was a senior in HS visited. A classmate ran in at one point, super excited about a reading from religion class. My friend was shocked: he'd visited his brother at a large state university and never heard anyone excited about academics. He ended up at an Ivy, where I think he was happier than he would have been if he'd joined his brother.

Hopefully they also taught him about the hasty generalization fallacy while he was there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid intends to major in something common (English, Computer Science, Biology, Business, Engineering) then go for the best known school possible. If your kid intends to major in something less common (marine biology, actuarial science, bio-ceramics) then the school rank doesn't matter at all. People in those fields know where the better programs actually are

This.

[Anonymous]

Kid 1-we were conscious of the ranking for the FIELD OF STUDY but didn't care about the school
Kid 2-wants to be a teacher. Doesn't matter. Just so long we can afford.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid intends to major in something common (English, Computer Science, Biology, Business, Engineering) then go for the best known school possible. If your kid intends to major in something less common (marine biology, actuarial science, bio-ceramics) then the school rank doesn't matter at all. People in those fields know where the better programs actually are

Money being no object, not sure I'd pick Brown, Yale, Dartmouth, Columbia or Penn over Illinois for CS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid intends to major in something common (English, Computer Science, Biology, Business, Engineering) then go for the best known school possible. If your kid intends to major in something less common (marine biology, actuarial science, bio-ceramics) then the school rank doesn't matter at all. People in those fields know where the better programs actually are

Ok, so I have a student who wants to double major. English and a HIGHLY specific field. We are having a dilemma

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid intends to major in something common (English, Computer Science, Biology, Business, Engineering) then go for the best known school possible. If your kid intends to major in something less common (marine biology, actuarial science, bio-ceramics) then the school rank doesn't matter at all. People in those fields know where the better programs actually are

Money being no object, not sure I'd pick Brown, Yale, Dartmouth, Columbia or Penn over Illinois for CS.

It's interesting you would specifically say UIUC. Have a friend with a kid at Chicago and UIUC for CS and she says the Chicago kid has far more internship/job opportunities present themselves than the UIUC kid.

[Anonymous]

Relatively few people who matter care about the difference between #1 and #21 (in whatever ranking). Nobody who matters cares about the difference between #51 and #71.

[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 No college below T20 is worth $60K+/year. I'm not even sure I'd go above $50K/yr.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid intends to major in something common (English, Computer Science, Biology, Business, Engineering) then go for the best known school possible. If your kid intends to major in something less common (marine biology, actuarial science, bio-ceramics) then the school rank doesn't matter at all. People in those fields know where the better programs actually are

Money being no object, not sure I'd pick Brown, Yale, Dartmouth, Columbia or Penn over Illinois for CS.

It's interesting you would specifically say UIUC. Have a friend with a kid at Chicago and UIUC for CS and she says the Chicago kid has far more internship/job opportunities present themselves than the UIUC kid.

Maybe due to proximity? UIUC being in the middle of nowhere?