How well does the US News rankings correlate with actual prestige?

[Anonymous]

I agree with 14:41 and 14:43 who think USNWR is a complete joke.

But isn’t it also a joke to assert on a DC mom’s website, based on familiarity with, at best, 1-2 colleges at the top of the list and some clear prejudices for and against others, that Dartmouth/CalTech definitely belongs near the top but U Chicago doesn’t belong near the top? (I have zero connection to Dartmouth, CalTech or U Chicago.)

C’mon folks, the strident claims of bored and partially informed posters on a DC mom’s website doesn’t have a whole lot more credibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1a. Harvard, Stanford, MIT

1b. Yale, Princeton

2. Columbia, Penn, Dartmouth

3a. Chicago, Duke, Brown, Cornell

Whoa, Dartmouth is in the same class as Columbia and Penn? Sure....

Clueless troll. People in the know recognize who goes to Dartmouth.

Hahaha, nice one. Bonus points for calling troll on anybody who disagrees about Dartmouth being the bestest college ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1a. Harvard, Stanford, MIT

1b. Yale, Princeton

2. Columbia, Penn, Dartmouth

3a. Chicago, Duke, Brown, Cornell

Whoa, Dartmouth is in the same class as Columbia and Penn? Sure....

Clueless troll. People in the know recognize who goes to Dartmouth.

My cousin’s alcoholic kid, who wants to be a bazillionaire finance whiz, goes there because he didn’t get in anywhere else. Your point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1a. Harvard, Stanford, MIT

1b. Yale, Princeton

2. Columbia, Penn, Dartmouth

3a. Chicago, Duke, Brown, Cornell

1a. Harvard, Stanford, MIT

1b. Yale, Princeton

2a. Columbia, Penn, Chicago

2b. Dartmouth, Duke, Brown, Cornel

Fixed it for you. Dartmouth is a lower ivy along with Brown and Cornell. Columbia and Penn are kind of in the middle, definitely way above Dartmouth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The things white peoples worry about.

And Asian

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It seems to me that the US News rankings does not always align itself with what most people would consider the top schools to be, based on general prestige. An example is that Berkeley and Emory are both tied at 21. I would bet that most of the population is a lot more familiar with Berkeley and that it carries a bigger wow factor among the general population than Emory. How much correlation do you think the rankings have with overall name recognition and prestige that the colleges carry with the overall population?

You had to dig all the way down to No. 21 before you could find an apparent disconnect?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems to me that the US News rankings does not always align itself with what most people would consider the top schools to be, based on general prestige. An example is that Berkeley and Emory are both tied at 21. I would bet that most of the population is a lot more familiar with Berkeley and that it carries a bigger wow factor among the general population than Emory. How much correlation do you think the rankings have with overall name recognition and prestige that the colleges carry with the overall population?

You had to dig all the way down to No. 21 before you could find an apparent disconnect?

No there were others, starting with Harvard being listed as #2, but I didn't think it was necessary to list each disconnect, I just listed the first one that popped into my mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems to me that the US News rankings does not always align itself with what most people would consider the top schools to be, based on general prestige. An example is that Berkeley and Emory are both tied at 21. I would bet that most of the population is a lot more familiar with Berkeley and that it carries a bigger wow factor among the general population than Emory. How much correlation do you think the rankings have with overall name recognition and prestige that the colleges carry with the overall population?

You had to dig all the way down to No. 21 before you could find an apparent disconnect?

No there were others, starting with Harvard being listed as #2, but I didn't think it was necessary to list each disconnect, I just listed the first one that popped into my mind.

The real disconnect is that HYPSM are not the top 5. The top 10 as a group makes sense, the order within it is absurd though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1a. Harvard, Stanford, MIT

1b. Yale, Princeton

2. Columbia, Penn, Dartmouth

3a. Chicago, Duke, Brown, Cornell

1a. Harvard, Stanford, MIT

1b. Yale, Princeton

2a. Columbia, Penn, Chicago

2b. Dartmouth, Duke, Brown, Cornel

Fixed it for you. Dartmouth is a lower ivy along with Brown and Cornell. Columbia and Penn are kind of in the middle, definitely way above Dartmouth.

No, it's not. Chicago is also 50% larger, thus Dartmouth spaces are more prestigious. Chicago would be in the 10-13 range were it not for shameless rankings gaming.

[Anonymous]

"Prestige" is so subjective. As an example in China, GW is thought of as being almost in the same category as an Ivy.
It is a good school but surely not a match for an Ivy....it is interesting to see how other countries look at our schools, the big H is still seen as the holy grail while many admit they heard of Princeton, go figure.

[Anonymous]

Actually I think this is true to an extent.

There are a lot of schools that are ranked highly on that list that most people haven’t heard of: WashU, Emory, Rice, Vandy, Lehigh, Wake Forest, Davidson, Tufts, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1a. Harvard, Stanford, MIT

1b. Yale, Princeton

2. Columbia, Penn, Dartmouth

3a. Chicago, Duke, Brown, Cornell

1a. Harvard, Stanford, MIT

1b. Yale, Princeton

2a. Columbia, Penn, Chicago

2b. Dartmouth, Duke, Brown, Cornel

Fixed it for you. Dartmouth is a lower ivy along with Brown and Cornell. Columbia and Penn are kind of in the middle, definitely way above Dartmouth.

No, it's not. Chicago is also 50% larger, thus Dartmouth spaces are more prestigious. Chicago would be in the 10-13 range were it not for shameless rankings gaming.

This is delusional. Size has nothing to do with prestige. Dartmouth is definitely below HYP, Columbia, Penn. It is not an established top 10 school. It is on par with Brown and Cornell in the 10-13 range.
Not a huge Chicago fan but it is fair to say that it is an established top 10 school. The undisputed top 10 schools are HYPSM, Columbia, Penn, Caltech, Chicago. The #10 spot would go either to Duke or Dartmouth or Brown, but it is not established.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Prestige" is so subjective. As an example in China, GW is thought of as being almost in the same category as an Ivy.
It is a good school but surely not a match for an Ivy....it is interesting to see how other countries look at our schools, the big H is still seen as the holy grail while many admit they heard of Princeton, go figure.

This is a huge exaggeration. Sure in China GW has a bigger reputation than you would expect but nowhere close to the ivies, Stanford.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is some correlation because 25% of the survey draws from peer assessment, of which 2/3 comes from college administrators and 1/3 comes from high school counselors.

But the actual ranking of prestige is different from the US News list: https://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-rankings-blog/2013/02/28/which-universities-are-ranked-highest-by-college-officials

As you can see, there are a lot of public schools in here which do poorly on the overall rank. US New's methodology inherently favors schools with a ton of money. Princeton ranks #1 because it has the highest endowment per student of any college in the country and therefore can make its class sizes small/faculty ratios low/etc. Public schools don't anywhere near the same financial resources for undergraduates.

This. I think USNews somewhat reflects prestige within academia more than "lay" prestige. And they also emphasize undergraduate education. many big name schools, especially state flagships, excel at the graduate level, but smaller privates usually outperform for undergraduate education, where they have smaller classes and more personal attention. Though, you do have anomalies, like Northeastern and WUSTL, which USNews tends to rank far beyond the estimation of anyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Prestige" is so subjective. As an example in China, GW is thought of as being almost in the same category as an Ivy.
It is a good school but surely not a match for an Ivy....it is interesting to see how other countries look at our schools, the big H is still seen as the holy grail while many admit they heard of Princeton, go figure.

This is a huge exaggeration. Sure in China GW has a bigger reputation than you would expect but nowhere close to the ivies, Stanford.

My husband works overseas for a Chinese company and I would beg to differ. The general feeling from many many that we have spoken to is that GW while not an ivy is a extremely prestigious school. And not to take away from the fact that it IS a darn good school. I think the perception there if far more than it is here.