US College Rankings, from the perspective of a college student

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prattle on all you want, but the top 10 will always be some combination of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, U Chicago, MIT, U Penn, Northwestern, and Duke. Vast majority of people in this country simply don’t even know of Williams and Amherst, though they are great schools. This is also not helped by the fact that in most parts of the world, a “college” is a lesser institution to a “university” (for example in the UK, where the designation of “university” is closely guarded by a government body).

Talk about a reification of rankings. You do realize that several of the schools you listed are relatively new to the top 10, don’t you?

Besides, Northwestern does not belong in the top 10. You just have to ED the school to get in.

There is a difference. The other ivy ED schools do not accept 80% of their class from EDs like Northwestern and Chicago. It's more like 20% or below. For Northwestern and UChicago, you do not have to be a top student, you just have to ED.

I don't think anyone can feel entitled to admission to either of those schools just by ED'ing. This simply is just not true. Your anti-NU/Chicago bias is showing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prattle on all you want, but the top 10 will always be some combination of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, U Chicago, MIT, U Penn, Northwestern, and Duke. Vast majority of people in this country simply don’t even know of Williams and Amherst, though they are great schools. This is also not helped by the fact that in most parts of the world, a “college” is a lesser institution to a “university” (for example in the UK, where the designation of “university” is closely guarded by a government body).

Talk about a reification of rankings. You do realize that several of the schools you listed are relatively new to the top 10, don’t you?

Besides, Northwestern does not belong in the top 10. You just have to ED the school to get in.

There is a difference. The other ivy ED schools do not accept 80% of their class from EDs like Northwestern and Chicago. It's more like 20% or below. For Northwestern and UChicago, you do not have to be a top student, you just have to ED.

This is just blatantly incorrect. About half of Northwestern's incoming classes are accepted through ED, which is in line with several other "top 10" schools, such as Duke and Penn, and Ivies such as Brown. No idea where you got the "80%" figure. Keep in mind that for a D1 school like Northwestern, the ED rate is inflated due to athletic admits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prattle on all you want, but the top 10 will always be some combination of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, U Chicago, MIT, U Penn, Northwestern, and Duke. Vast majority of people in this country simply don’t even know of Williams and Amherst, though they are great schools. This is also not helped by the fact that in most parts of the world, a “college” is a lesser institution to a “university” (for example in the UK, where the designation of “university” is closely guarded by a government body).

Talk about a reification of rankings. You do realize that several of the schools you listed are relatively new to the top 10, don’t you?

Besides, Northwestern does not belong in the top 10. You just have to ED the school to get in.

There is a difference. The other ivy ED schools do not accept 80% of their class from EDs like Northwestern and Chicago. It's more like 20% or below. For Northwestern and UChicago, you do not have to be a top student, you just have to ED.

This is just blatantly incorrect. About half of Northwestern's incoming classes are accepted through ED, which is in line with several other "top 10" schools, such as Duke and Penn, and Ivies such as Brown. No idea where you got the "80%" figure. Keep in mind that for a D1 school like Northwestern, the ED rate is inflated due to athletic admits.

This is mostly correct: most top schools are closer to 50%, although Northwestern is closer to 60%. Johns Hopkins is well over 60%. Chicago is notorious for this, but it hides the numbers by not publishing a common data set (Columbia is the only other top school that won’t publish a CDS; that should tell you something). I would assume that Chicago’s percentage is unusually high — maybe even 70%. As for Division 1, you should be making the opposite point: Division 1 typically means that there is a lower proportion of student athletes than, say, a top Division 3 school — not more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do Harvard Extension students take some of the classes as the regular students?

Heck no! Anybody can sign up for a Harvard extension course. Your local Massachusetts high school grad or community college dropout, say. It’s night school. Not sure you even need a high school degree. In any event, a GED will suffice...

As for Columbia GS, I feel bad for the kids from great schools like Trinity Dublin and Sciences Po who excitedly enroll in the joint degree program, thinking its with “Columbia.” Did I say Columbia? I meant Columbia GS. Spend 2 years at Trinity Dublin studying your actual major and then, as a junior, you get to go to “Columbia” and take the GS common core. Correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding is that the GS and Columbia common core courses, unlike other courses for your major, are separate and not at all integrated. Shame on Trinity Dublin and Sciences Po for allowing themselves to be duped...

Do Harvard Extension School has a different set of instructors from those at regular Harvard?

It offers an undergraduate degree program and graduate degree programs.

There may be some “professors” who teach at both: they are adjuncts. Not tenure track. Folks should stop the Harvard whataboutism in the context of the Columbia GS discussion...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prattle on all you want, but the top 10 will always be some combination of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, U Chicago, MIT, U Penn, Northwestern, and Duke. Vast majority of people in this country simply don’t even know of Williams and Amherst, though they are great schools. This is also not helped by the fact that in most parts of the world, a “college” is a lesser institution to a “university” (for example in the UK, where the designation of “university” is closely guarded by a government body).

Talk about a reification of rankings. You do realize that several of the schools you listed are relatively new to the top 10, don’t you?

Besides, Northwestern does not belong in the top 10. You just have to ED the school to get in.

There is a difference. The other ivy ED schools do not accept 80% of their class from EDs like Northwestern and Chicago. It's more like 20% or below. For Northwestern and UChicago, you do not have to be a top student, you just have to ED.

This is just blatantly incorrect. About half of Northwestern's incoming classes are accepted through ED, which is in line with several other "top 10" schools, such as Duke and Penn, and Ivies such as Brown. No idea where you got the "80%" figure. Keep in mind that for a D1 school like Northwestern, the ED rate is inflated due to athletic admits.

This is mostly correct: most top schools are closer to 50%, although Northwestern is closer to 60%. Johns Hopkins is well over 60%. Chicago is notorious for this, but it hides the numbers by not publishing a common data set (Columbia is the only other top school that won’t publish a CDS; that should tell you something). I would assume that Chicago’s percentage is unusually high — maybe even 70%. As for Division 1, you should be making the opposite point: Division 1 typically means that there is a lower proportion of student athletes than, say, a top Division 3 school — not more.

Where are you getting the 60% number for Northwestern? Everything I’m seeing is that it’s around the 50% mark, not significantly higher (or lower) than its peer schools that also recruit a large portion of its incoming class through ED (Penn, Duke, Brown, etc.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prattle on all you want, but the top 10 will always be some combination of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, U Chicago, MIT, U Penn, Northwestern, and Duke. Vast majority of people in this country simply don’t even know of Williams and Amherst, though they are great schools. This is also not helped by the fact that in most parts of the world, a “college” is a lesser institution to a “university” (for example in the UK, where the designation of “university” is closely guarded by a government body).

Talk about a reification of rankings. You do realize that several of the schools you listed are relatively new to the top 10, don’t you?

Besides, Northwestern does not belong in the top 10. You just have to ED the school to get in.

There is a difference. The other ivy ED schools do not accept 80% of their class from EDs like Northwestern and Chicago. It's more like 20% or below. For Northwestern and UChicago, you do not have to be a top student, you just have to ED.

I don't think anyone can feel entitled to admission to either of those schools just by ED'ing. This simply is just not true. Your anti-NU/Chicago bias is showing.

I am not biased. My DC was admitted regular decision by UChicago this year, which given that it's a 3% admit rate in RD, shows how good my DC is. But I am under no illusion that these schools admit a ton of students through ED, Northwestern included. This is how they play the game on admissions and yields.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prattle on all you want, but the top 10 will always be some combination of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, U Chicago, MIT, U Penn, Northwestern, and Duke. Vast majority of people in this country simply don’t even know of Williams and Amherst, though they are great schools. This is also not helped by the fact that in most parts of the world, a “college” is a lesser institution to a “university” (for example in the UK, where the designation of “university” is closely guarded by a government body).

Talk about a reification of rankings. You do realize that several of the schools you listed are relatively new to the top 10, don’t you?

Besides, Northwestern does not belong in the top 10. You just have to ED the school to get in.

There is a difference. The other ivy ED schools do not accept 80% of their class from EDs like Northwestern and Chicago. It's more like 20% or below. For Northwestern and UChicago, you do not have to be a top student, you just have to ED.

I don't think anyone can feel entitled to admission to either of those schools just by ED'ing. This simply is just not true. Your anti-NU/Chicago bias is showing.

I am not biased. My DC was admitted regular decision by UChicago this year, which given that it's a 3% admit rate in RD, shows how good my DC is. But I am under no illusion that these schools admit a ton of students through ED, Northwestern included. This is how they play the game on admissions and yields.

First of all, LOL.

Second of all, your made up 80% figure is literally just made up. We don’t know UChicago since they don’t publish CDS, but Northwestern accepts roughly 50% of its class through ED, similar to other top schools in its peer group.

Why are you lying?

[Anonymous]

Weird. Are people on DCUM really so daft as to believe that “you just have to ED to get in” at Northwestern or UChicago? Lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do Harvard Extension students take some of the classes as the regular students?

Heck no! Anybody can sign up for a Harvard extension course. Your local Massachusetts high school grad or community college dropout, say. It’s night school. Not sure you even need a high school degree. In any event, a GED will suffice...

As for Columbia GS, I feel bad for the kids from great schools like Trinity Dublin and Sciences Po who excitedly enroll in the joint degree program, thinking its with “Columbia.” Did I say Columbia? I meant Columbia GS. Spend 2 years at Trinity Dublin studying your actual major and then, as a junior, you get to go to “Columbia” and take the GS common core. Correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding is that the GS and Columbia common core courses, unlike other courses for your major, are separate and not at all integrated. Shame on Trinity Dublin and Sciences Po for allowing themselves to be duped...

Do Harvard Extension School has a different set of instructors from those at regular Harvard?

It offers an undergraduate degree program and graduate degree programs.

There may be some “professors” who teach at both: they are adjuncts. Not tenure track. Folks should stop the Harvard whataboutism in the context of the Columbia GS discussion...

Why not? If Columbia should include the GS school in their stat, Harvard should also include the Extension School into the stat too. They are similar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do Harvard Extension students take some of the classes as the regular students?

Heck no! Anybody can sign up for a Harvard extension course. Your local Massachusetts high school grad or community college dropout, say. It’s night school. Not sure you even need a high school degree. In any event, a GED will suffice...

As for Columbia GS, I feel bad for the kids from great schools like Trinity Dublin and Sciences Po who excitedly enroll in the joint degree program, thinking its with “Columbia.” Did I say Columbia? I meant Columbia GS. Spend 2 years at Trinity Dublin studying your actual major and then, as a junior, you get to go to “Columbia” and take the GS common core. Correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding is that the GS and Columbia common core courses, unlike other courses for your major, are separate and not at all integrated. Shame on Trinity Dublin and Sciences Po for allowing themselves to be duped...

Do Harvard Extension School has a different set of instructors from those at regular Harvard?

It offers an undergraduate degree program and graduate degree programs.

There may be some “professors” who teach at both: they are adjuncts. Not tenure track. Folks should stop the Harvard whataboutism in the context of the Columbia GS discussion...

Why not? If Columbia should include the GS school in their stat, Harvard should also include the Extension School into the stat too. They are similar.

Fine. Then then they are both way overrated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't saying San Joe State is the best school in the country. Just that the outcomes for their students overall are very good. They serve a lot of lower income, first gen and/or minority students. The ones that do graduate so quite well for themselves.

Of course, salaries in places like CA are going to be larger than other places. And tech fields have larger salaries than say where I work (small nonprofit).

I still say that a lot more should go into rankings than what is done by USNWR and WSJ.

I like the rankings of student happiness and teaching quality. Those mean a lot more to me, honestly.

Student happiness is on the subjective side but can be somewhat objectively measured by the retention rate.
Happier the students, more of them coming back.

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/freshmen-least-most-likely-return

So you would consider various references

Why is Yale's retention rate so low ? (91%) Or is this a misprint ?

[Anonymous]

Class of 2024:

Northwestern University's overall rate of admission = 9%.

Northwestern's ED rate of admission = 25%

Northwestern's RD admit rate = 6%

According to NU's press release: About 50% of the class was admitted by ED which had an ED admit rate of almost 25%.

Class of 2025 overall rate of admission fell to 6.8%

Class of 2026 rate of admission was 7%.

[Anonymous]

Northwestern’s 2021-2022 Common Data set:
2,086 enrolled freshmen/1,105 ED admits = 53% class filled ED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do Harvard Extension students take some of the classes as the regular students?

Heck no! Anybody can sign up for a Harvard extension course. Your local Massachusetts high school grad or community college dropout, say. It’s night school. Not sure you even need a high school degree. In any event, a GED will suffice...

As for Columbia GS, I feel bad for the kids from great schools like Trinity Dublin and Sciences Po who excitedly enroll in the joint degree program, thinking its with “Columbia.” Did I say Columbia? I meant Columbia GS. Spend 2 years at Trinity Dublin studying your actual major and then, as a junior, you get to go to “Columbia” and take the GS common core. Correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding is that the GS and Columbia common core courses, unlike other courses for your major, are separate and not at all integrated. Shame on Trinity Dublin and Sciences Po for allowing themselves to be duped...

Do Harvard Extension School has a different set of instructors from those at regular Harvard?

It offers an undergraduate degree program and graduate degree programs.

There may be some “professors” who teach at both: they are adjuncts. Not tenure track. Folks should stop the Harvard whataboutism in the context of the Columbia GS discussion...

Why not? If Columbia should include the GS school in their stat, Harvard should also include the Extension School into the stat too. They are similar.

I think you have just been shown how they are completely different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't saying San Joe State is the best school in the country. Just that the outcomes for their students overall are very good. They serve a lot of lower income, first gen and/or minority students. The ones that do graduate so quite well for themselves.

Of course, salaries in places like CA are going to be larger than other places. And tech fields have larger salaries than say where I work (small nonprofit).

I still say that a lot more should go into rankings than what is done by USNWR and WSJ.

I like the rankings of student happiness and teaching quality. Those mean a lot more to me, honestly.

Student happiness is on the subjective side but can be somewhat objectively measured by the retention rate.
Happier the students, more of them coming back.

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/freshmen-least-most-likely-return

So you would consider various references

Why is Yale's retention rate so low ? (91%) Or is this a misprint ?

It’s 98%. https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=Yale&s=all&id=130794#retgrad