2021 USNews rankings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rankings are BS. People need to look beyond the prestige and ranking and find a college that truly is a good fit.

Agree, up to a point. I think we can all agree that the classroom dynamic is going to be different at, say, American and Stanford - I have no problem with someone saying that Stanford is going to be generally better for the people who can get in. But when you are comparing between a given school and one 20 spots higher or lower? Probably the higher-ranked school would provide a better education for most students, but there will be plenty for which it will be the reverse.

And the big difference is the student and what they do and take advantage of - I think many people would have made more of my spot at top 3 LAC; I got a good enough education but mostly floated through.

The real question is if you took someone who got accepted to Stanford and chose to attend American, how different would their life be? They are still Stanford smart. There was a study from years ago that did just this type of thing and the conclusion was there was no significant difference in outcomes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1. Only striver mediocrities obsess over this crap. The elites will always be elite.

The undisputed elites:

Harvard, Stanford
Yale, MIT
Princeton

The rest are pretenders needing ED contracts to boost their yield.

Based on what?

Rice, Caltech, Ga tech, and Harvey Mudd are wayyyy better schools than Princeton, Yale or Harvard for things like engineering. Harvard and Yale are great for getting inflated grades in useless fields that are paths to become a consultant or lawyer who gets paid big bucks to outsource jobs or ruin the country later as a politician, hedge fund manager, corporate lobbyist, or some other sell out who ships jobs overseas.

Harvard has about 50% of undergraduates majoring in STEM fields. I'm betting you didn't know that.

Harvard Degrees Conferred per CDS 2019:
Natural Resources and Conservation - 1%
Area, Ethnic, and Gender Studies - 2%
Computer and Information Science - 9%
Engineering - 5%
Foreign Languages - 3%
English - 3%
Biological/Life Sciences - 14%
Mathematics & Statistics - 11%
Philosophy and Religious - 2%
Physical Sciences - 5%
Psychology - 5%
Social Sciences - 28%
Visual and Performing Arts - 3%
History - 9%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Penn State engineering degree is more impressive than an English degree from Harvard or Yale.

Is it? What probably is true about your statement is the Penn State engineer may make more money in the short term than the English degree graduate from Harvard or Yale. But the Harvard or Yale English graduate may still have opportunities to do jobs in areas that pay well (consulting, finance) or to go to a top graduate school (law, business). If you are just interested in earnings, majors probably matter more overall than the school. Remember that when you compare earnings between schools. It may largely be a factor of the degrees chosen by graduates.

Yale and Harvard will have more famous graduates who majored in English and other arts and humanities majors than Penn State will have in engineering. Jodie Foster studied literature at Yale, Edward Norton and George W Bush majored in history, George HW Bush, economics. Conan O'Brien majored in history at Harvard, Tommy Lee Jones in English, and Al Gore in government.

One of these things is not like the other...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1. Only striver mediocrities obsess over this crap. The elites will always be elite.

The undisputed elites:

Harvard, Stanford
Yale, MIT
Princeton

The rest are pretenders needing ED contracts to boost their yield.

Based on what?

Rice, Caltech, Ga tech, and Harvey Mudd are wayyyy better schools than Princeton, Yale or Harvard for things like engineering. Harvard and Yale are great for getting inflated grades in useless fields that are paths to become a consultant or lawyer who gets paid big bucks to outsource jobs or ruin the country later as a politician, hedge fund manager, corporate lobbyist, or some other sell out who ships jobs overseas.

So Princeton, Harvard and Yale produce the people who run our country and influences its fate, but you're down on them? Come back when the other school you listed start producing significant numbers of leaders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Penn State engineering degree is more impressive than an English degree from Harvard or Yale.

Is it? What probably is true about your statement is the Penn State engineer may make more money in the short term than the English degree graduate from Harvard or Yale. But the Harvard or Yale English graduate may still have opportunities to do jobs in areas that pay well (consulting, finance) or to go to a top graduate school (law, business). If you are just interested in earnings, majors probably matter more overall than the school. Remember that when you compare earnings between schools. It may largely be a factor of the degrees chosen by graduates.

Yale and Harvard will have more famous graduates who majored in English and other arts and humanities majors than Penn State will have in engineering. Jodie Foster studied literature at Yale, Edward Norton and George W Bush majored in history, George HW Bush, economics. Conan O'Brien majored in history at Harvard, Tommy Lee Jones in English, and Al Gore in government.

One of these things is not like the other...

Funny, I would’ve chosen Dubya.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1. Only striver mediocrities obsess over this crap. The elites will always be elite.

The undisputed elites:

Harvard, Stanford
Yale, MIT
Princeton

The rest are pretenders needing ED contracts to boost their yield.

Based on what?

Rice, Caltech, Ga tech, and Harvey Mudd are wayyyy better schools than Princeton, Yale or Harvard for things like engineering. Harvard and Yale are great for getting inflated grades in useless fields that are paths to become a consultant or lawyer who gets paid big bucks to outsource jobs or ruin the country later as a politician, hedge fund manager, corporate lobbyist, or some other sell out who ships jobs overseas.

Harvard has about 50% of undergraduates majoring in STEM fields. I'm betting you didn't know that.

Harvard Degrees Conferred per CDS 2019:
Natural Resources and Conservation - 1%
Area, Ethnic, and Gender Studies - 2%
Computer and Information Science - 9%
Engineering - 5%
Foreign Languages - 3%
English - 3%
Biological/Life Sciences - 14%
Mathematics & Statistics - 11%
Philosophy and Religious - 2%
Physical Sciences - 5%
Psychology - 5%
Social Sciences - 28%
Visual and Performing Arts - 3%
History - 9%

That appears to be exactly 50%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rankings are BS. People need to look beyond the prestige and ranking and find a college that truly is a good fit.

Agree, up to a point. I think we can all agree that the classroom dynamic is going to be different at, say, American and Stanford - I have no problem with someone saying that Stanford is going to be generally better for the people who can get in. But when you are comparing between a given school and one 20 spots higher or lower? Probably the higher-ranked school would provide a better education for most students, but there will be plenty for which it will be the reverse.

And the big difference is the student and what they do and take advantage of - I think many people would have made more of my spot at top 3 LAC; I got a good enough education but mostly floated through.

The real question is if you took someone who got accepted to Stanford and chose to attend American, how different would their life be? They are still Stanford smart. There was a study from years ago that did just this type of thing and the conclusion was there was no significant difference in outcomes.

There was a study from a few years ago that did exactly that. The conclusion was the smart people admitted to elite schools who went to college elsewhere did about the same as their peers who attended the elite schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rankings are BS. People need to look beyond the prestige and ranking and find a college that truly is a good fit.

Agree, up to a point. I think we can all agree that the classroom dynamic is going to be different at, say, American and Stanford - I have no problem with someone saying that Stanford is going to be generally better for the people who can get in. But when you are comparing between a given school and one 20 spots higher or lower? Probably the higher-ranked school would provide a better education for most students, but there will be plenty for which it will be the reverse.

And the big difference is the student and what they do and take advantage of - I think many people would have made more of my spot at top 3 LAC; I got a good enough education but mostly floated through.

The real question is if you took someone who got accepted to Stanford and chose to attend American, how different would their life be? They are still Stanford smart. There was a study from years ago that did just this type of thing and the conclusion was there was no significant difference in outcomes.

There was a study from a few years ago that did exactly that. The conclusion was the smart people admitted to elite schools who went to college elsewhere did about the same as their peers who attended the elite schools.

Says nothing about the quality of education received.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rankings are BS. People need to look beyond the prestige and ranking and find a college that truly is a good fit.

Agree, up to a point. I think we can all agree that the classroom dynamic is going to be different at, say, American and Stanford - I have no problem with someone saying that Stanford is going to be generally better for the people who can get in. But when you are comparing between a given school and one 20 spots higher or lower? Probably the higher-ranked school would provide a better education for most students, but there will be plenty for which it will be the reverse.

And the big difference is the student and what they do and take advantage of - I think many people would have made more of my spot at top 3 LAC; I got a good enough education but mostly floated through.

The real question is if you took someone who got accepted to Stanford and chose to attend American, how different would their life be? They are still Stanford smart. There was a study from years ago that did just this type of thing and the conclusion was there was no significant difference in outcomes.

There was a study from a few years ago that did exactly that. The conclusion was the smart people admitted to elite schools who went to college elsewhere did about the same as their peers who attended the elite schools.

From Stanford, the student will have many doors opened that might have otherwise remained closed. Stanford has already done the selectivity for future employers. From American, it’s more on the student to prove, beat out, competitors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should not use liberal arts for this ranking, it is garbage degrees

Like math (one of the liberal arts)?

And Economics

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rankings are BS. People need to look beyond the prestige and ranking and find a college that truly is a good fit.

Agree, up to a point. I think we can all agree that the classroom dynamic is going to be different at, say, American and Stanford - I have no problem with someone saying that Stanford is going to be generally better for the people who can get in. But when you are comparing between a given school and one 20 spots higher or lower? Probably the higher-ranked school would provide a better education for most students, but there will be plenty for which it will be the reverse.

And the big difference is the student and what they do and take advantage of - I think many people would have made more of my spot at top 3 LAC; I got a good enough education but mostly floated through.

The real question is if you took someone who got accepted to Stanford and chose to attend American, how different would their life be? They are still Stanford smart. There was a study from years ago that did just this type of thing and the conclusion was there was no significant difference in outcomes.

There was a study from a few years ago that did exactly that. The conclusion was the smart people admitted to elite schools who went to college elsewhere did about the same as their peers who attended the elite schools.

From Stanford, the student will have many doors opened that might have otherwise remained closed. Stanford has already done the selectivity for future employers. From American, it’s more on the student to prove, beat out, competitors.

Perhaps, but what the study showed was that the real dependency was on the student being admitted to the elite school, not on whether or not the student attended the elite school in the end. In other words, the Stanford admit would excel and stand out at American and would find his or her way to opportunity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rankings are BS. People need to look beyond the prestige and ranking and find a college that truly is a good fit.

Agree, up to a point. I think we can all agree that the classroom dynamic is going to be different at, say, American and Stanford - I have no problem with someone saying that Stanford is going to be generally better for the people who can get in. But when you are comparing between a given school and one 20 spots higher or lower? Probably the higher-ranked school would provide a better education for most students, but there will be plenty for which it will be the reverse.

And the big difference is the student and what they do and take advantage of - I think many people would have made more of my spot at top 3 LAC; I got a good enough education but mostly floated through.

The real question is if you took someone who got accepted to Stanford and chose to attend American, how different would their life be? They are still Stanford smart. There was a study from years ago that did just this type of thing and the conclusion was there was no significant difference in outcomes.

There was a study from a few years ago that did exactly that. The conclusion was the smart people admitted to elite schools who went to college elsewhere did about the same as their peers who attended the elite schools.

Says nothing about the quality of education received.

It says that the institution is less important than the individual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rankings are BS. People need to look beyond the prestige and ranking and find a college that truly is a good fit.

Agree, up to a point. I think we can all agree that the classroom dynamic is going to be different at, say, American and Stanford - I have no problem with someone saying that Stanford is going to be generally better for the people who can get in. But when you are comparing between a given school and one 20 spots higher or lower? Probably the higher-ranked school would provide a better education for most students, but there will be plenty for which it will be the reverse.

And the big difference is the student and what they do and take advantage of - I think many people would have made more of my spot at top 3 LAC; I got a good enough education but mostly floated through.

The real question is if you took someone who got accepted to Stanford and chose to attend American, how different would their life be? They are still Stanford smart. There was a study from years ago that did just this type of thing and the conclusion was there was no significant difference in outcomes.

There was a study from a few years ago that did exactly that. The conclusion was the smart people admitted to elite schools who went to college elsewhere did about the same as their peers who attended the elite schools.

Says nothing about the quality of education received.

It says that the institution is less important than the individual.

That study is what happens when soft “scientists” mix academic studies with politics. PC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rankings are BS. People need to look beyond the prestige and ranking and find a college that truly is a good fit.

Agree, up to a point. I think we can all agree that the classroom dynamic is going to be different at, say, American and Stanford - I have no problem with someone saying that Stanford is going to be generally better for the people who can get in. But when you are comparing between a given school and one 20 spots higher or lower? Probably the higher-ranked school would provide a better education for most students, but there will be plenty for which it will be the reverse.

And the big difference is the student and what they do and take advantage of - I think many people would have made more of my spot at top 3 LAC; I got a good enough education but mostly floated through.

The real question is if you took someone who got accepted to Stanford and chose to attend American, how different would their life be? They are still Stanford smart. There was a study from years ago that did just this type of thing and the conclusion was there was no significant difference in outcomes.

There was a study from a few years ago that did exactly that. The conclusion was the smart people admitted to elite schools who went to college elsewhere did about the same as their peers who attended the elite schools.

Says nothing about the quality of education received.

It says that the institution is less important than the individual.

That study is what happens when soft “scientists” mix academic studies with politics. PC

Excellent use of facts and data in your refutation. . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UMD now ranked ahead of Penn State.

But behind Pitt.

And people here are also asking, "what is the appeal of pitt?"

It is a strong school!

Pitt and UMD are both much stronger academically than Penn State, yet PSU continues to have enormous appeal. Confusing!

That is your opinion. I don't agree (and didn't attend any of them).

Penn State is effectively an open-enrollment school. If you’re willing to drop 30k at one of their community colleges, you can attend. Half of University Park graduates began at one of the Penn State community colleges. Like it or not, every program on the main campus has to cater to average and below average high school students. For instance, you can get an economics degree from Penn State without even taking calculus! This is unheard of at serious universities.

Many students go to the satellite campus because they cannot afford to go to the main campus first year, not because they’re dumb. The main campus is pretty expensive to go to. I would recommend you look at the AASCB list and you’ll find that a lot of AASCB econ programs don’t require calculus.