Overrated schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA. Why would anyone want to go there?

Same reasons people want to go to any state flagship.

But that assumes UVA is the state flagship

It’s called The University of Virginia for a reason...

Yeah, because a slaveholder defined things. UVA too small to be a flagship. VT, GMU, JMU, ODU and VCU are state supported schools that are larger than UVA.

Virginia Tech has more funded research.

UVA does have the highest Blood Alcohol content of any of those schools (maybe with the exception of JMU).

All kidding aside, UVA is highly ranked because they limit the size -- not for the education received. It is a fine school, but it is highly ranked because of its size: its freshman class is about 4000... there are probably nearly that many worthy kids in graduating from Fairfax County.

UMD poster?

My thought exactly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In this thread: Broke middle class who clearly don't know what it's like to have real money. Being able to send your children to their favorite college is one of lives greatest joys. The way you all talk about "worth" as it relates to education is such a low-class outlook.

Broke middle class does fine. For those broke middle class kids who get into an Ivy, FA such that it makes no sense to go elsewhere. (Cornell is a possible exception to this rule.) From experience, Ivy FA is significantly better than some of the 10-20 schools.

incorrect. The cut-off for guaranteed loans is so low that Mose families reading here will not get any aid. We’re MC and d Ed oerstely needed assistance due to other extraneous costs but HYP ( actually every school) gave us zero. Fill out the FAFSA first to fine out where you really stabs. And don’t believe the bull about [/b]65 percent getting aid. First if all there is no “average “ student. Most pay full fright OR are on significant Sid. When you add that up and divide I. Hal’s you get a weird statistic that college administrators use to be able to say @ rmthe average student gets $$ per year. The other truck colleges use is to say 80 percent of our students get aid but included in that number us the routine [b]!5500 loan which everyone gets if their files the FAFSA[b]. So the marketing figures do not reflect reality. Finally, even if FAFSA indicates your income is less than $100K a year and you are entitled to significant aid, that amount subtracted from the 80k still comes up with a number that cannot be beat by in-state tuition. That happened to us -even with $26K merit scholarship, instate was still less prestigious and less expensive.

Some ivys don’t have loans as a matter of policy. Not sure which ivy PP is referring to. I am a sample size of 1; however, I can’t complain about ivy FA. Mines been more than generous even with upper middle income.

So you must have very modest assets to get generous FA from an Ivy as an UM income earner, correct?

[Anonymous]

Lower level liberal arts colleges that cost the price of a good one: Occidental is a big culprit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s truly overrated is the big push toward third-rate, Deep South public universities. While the institutions are legitimate educational institutions, nobody is impressed by someone attending them.

+1

It has been a HUGE trend this year.

+ UCs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In this thread: Broke middle class who clearly don't know what it's like to have real money. Being able to send your children to their favorite college is one of lives greatest joys. The way you all talk about "worth" as it relates to education is such a low-class outlook.

Broke middle class does fine. For those broke middle class kids who get into an Ivy, FA such that it makes no sense to go elsewhere. (Cornell is a possible exception to this rule.) From experience, Ivy FA is significantly better than some of the 10-20 schools.

incorrect. The cut-off for guaranteed loans is so low that Mose families reading here will not get any aid. We’re MC and d Ed oerstely needed assistance due to other extraneous costs but HYP ( actually every school) gave us zero. Fill out the FAFSA first to fine out where you really stabs. And don’t believe the bull about [/b]65 percent getting aid. First if all there is no “average “ student. Most pay full fright OR are on significant Sid. When you add that up and divide I. Hal’s you get a weird statistic that college administrators use to be able to say @ rmthe average student gets $$ per year. The other truck colleges use is to say 80 percent of our students get aid but included in that number us the routine [b]!5500 loan which everyone gets if their files the FAFSA[b]. So the marketing figures do not reflect reality. Finally, even if FAFSA indicates your income is less than $100K a year and you are entitled to significant aid, that amount subtracted from the 80k still comes up with a number that cannot be beat by in-state tuition. That happened to us -even with $26K merit scholarship, instate was still less prestigious and less expensive.

Some ivys don’t have loans as a matter of policy. Not sure which ivy PP is referring to. I am a sample size of 1; however, I can’t complain about ivy FA. Mines been more than generous even with upper middle income.

So you must have very modest assets to get generous FA from an Ivy as an UM income earner, correct?

Must. We are UMC which is $300k+ in my mind and did not get not a dime at Ivies/T10s/T20s. We average around $490k HHI so didn’t expect to get any—but I ran every possible scenario/calculator, etc and nothing resulted in any $. FWIW- I don’t know anyone getting aid from an Ivy above $300k HHI- so they say.

Are there multiple kids in college? No assets? Did they hide $$—own company but pay themselves little amount?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s truly overrated is the big push toward third-rate, Deep South public universities. While the institutions are legitimate educational institutions, nobody is impressed by someone attending them.

+1

It has been a HUGE trend this year.

+ UCs

California is the 5th largest economy in the world on its own (and soon to be 4th), wipes the floor with every other state in the critical area of innovation, and has the the top 2 public institutions (along with 6 of the top 15 publics) in the country, but sure - totally overrated.

They should actually pay people to attend these dumps that somehow magically whomp whomp all over everyone else in the student ratings despite being so terribly overrated. In fact, can we get the fugazi UC grad. school lecturer in here now to regale us once again with tales of 3,500 student (no, it’s now 5,000 students!) in required classes at Berkeley and UCLA?!

lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s truly overrated is the big push toward third-rate, Deep South public universities. While the institutions are legitimate educational institutions, nobody is impressed by someone attending them.

+1

It has been a HUGE trend this year.

+ UCs

California is the 5th largest economy in the world on its own (and soon to be 4th), wipes the floor with every other state in the critical area of innovation, and has the the top 2 public institutions (along with 6 of the top 15 publics) in the country, but sure - totally overrated.

They should actually pay people to attend these dumps that somehow magically whomp whomp all over everyone else in the student ratings despite being so terribly overrated. In fact, can we get the fugazi UC grad. school lecturer in here now to regale us once again with tales of 3,500 student (no, it’s now 5,000 students!) in required classes at Berkeley and UCLA?!

lol

Please provide these student ratings where the UCs "whomp whomp" on everyone else.

[Anonymous]

The hate boner on Berkeley is so strange. If your child isn’t t Saavy enough to get through a large institution or smart enough to get through weed out courses, you just have a mediocre kid who needs a lot of support (like a private college) to graduate. That’s ok, but Berkeley is a top global university with the best researchers in this country with a staggering amount of once-in-a-lifetime rewards. You cannot expect to be in an environment with access to that and be hand held as a public university.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northeastern.

It might have made some improvements since its recent lowbrow commuter college history, but among all of the many schools in the Boston area, it isn't ever going to shed that downmarket connotation. This isn't even about academic reputation: if Northeastern were a person, it would be a raspy-voiced waitress who chainsmokes and feeds her kids Tater Tots and Mountain Dew.

If anything, it's actually pretty underrated.
It's not just some improvements. All major metrics rival T20 25 schools.

It has a proud history of supporting and providing to working class unlike other schools that have a history of catering to rich Whites if that's what 'commuter college history' means.

It is a massively overcrowded mess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The hate boner on Berkeley is so strange. If your child isn’t t Saavy enough to get through a large institution or smart enough to get through weed out courses, you just have a mediocre kid who needs a lot of support (like a private college) to graduate. That’s ok, but Berkeley is a top global university with the best researchers in this country with a staggering amount of once-in-a-lifetime rewards. You cannot expect to be in an environment with access to that and be hand held as a public university.

It's not that students cannot handle the massive size, it's more that you pay a lot for out of state tuition and still have to deal with the uncertainty of getting your course selection, being a number in big lecture halls, not having access to professors because the queue is too long, etc. Are you getting your money's worth when you go to a large state university and not in the honors program?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The hate boner on Berkeley is so strange. If your child isn’t t Saavy enough to get through a large institution or smart enough to get through weed out courses, you just have a mediocre kid who needs a lot of support (like a private college) to graduate. That’s ok, but Berkeley is a top global university with the best researchers in this country with a staggering amount of once-in-a-lifetime rewards. You cannot expect to be in an environment with access to that and be hand held as a public university.

It's not that students cannot handle the massive size, it's more that you pay a lot for out of state tuition and still have to deal with the uncertainty of getting your course selection, being a number in big lecture halls, not having access to professors because the queue is too long, etc. Are you getting your money's worth when you go to a large state university and not in the honors program?

If Berkeley was some average state school, sure. But, it is at the top of the top. I think the experience humbles a lot of students, who have to realize that there is a planet full of people quicker, better, and smarter than you'll ever be, and many students are impassioned by that to work harder and get further. If you are willing to go beyond mediocrity, there is no resource Berkeley doesn't have. If you are simply looking to get an easy degree and have an easy time transitioning to college, go to a fancy private that will give you the red carpet. It's just two very different ideologies on how education should embolden students and both work.

[Anonymous]

Duke - overranked for quality of actual programs and ranks of departments

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Duke - overranked for quality of actual programs and ranks of departments

Major rankings mean so little and typically evaluate grad quality, not undergrad.

[Anonymous]

There is no such thing as an overrated school - unless you want proof that they are worth the money - in that case you could argue that anything over the median price is overrated because you can get the same experience for less money - point is, these schools are what you make of them. These days it seems people paying full price are out to prove that less expensive schools are somehow "bad" and that is just plain stupid reasoning.

[Anonymous]

Chicago

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/opinion/university-chicago-has-debt-problem-opinion