Are US News rankings making DC rethink college list?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We started by defining what my kid wanted:Southern, medium to large school, excellent academics, decent football/spectator sports and Greek life.

This was the initial list, in no particular order: Florida, UNC, UVA, Duke, Vandy, Emory, Texas, Wake Forest, Davidson, Clemson. Duke came off because no one gets in from their school, and Davidson was deemed too small. Emory moved to the bottom because they didn’t like the social scene but stayed on list because of excellent pre med. Ultimately all schools applied to, other than Clemson, had a medical school and hospital, which was a nice plus since student is starting out premed.

Are you trying to claim that this list of schools had nothing to do with rankings? They are all very highly ranked schools...and you omitted hundreds of other schools that fit your criteria...and you have a school like Emory that has no football and really not great spectator sports (according to our tour guide)...but it is ranked highly!

We didn’t need to go to US News to be aware of the existence of these schools. What a strange comment. You can search by size and location on Naviance, College kick start, etc. . . Our student had the stats to be competitive at all these schools, we didn’t have to seek out schools we weren’t familiar with.

And yes, no football is one of the reasons Emory went to the bottom of the list but it didn’t seem an important enough factor to rule it out entirely. It isn’t the school my student is attending.

It is not a strange comment...you literally selected only highly-rated schools. Emory and Davidson have really no business being on the list based on the criteria you purport to want. You mention stats to get into the schools...if you didn't care about rankings, you would have added lots of other schools that accept 90%+ of their students. Why isn't ECU on your list...why isn't Charlotte on your list..why aren't literally 100+ other schools on your list?

Are you now claiming your college research is only limited to schools that you can think of on the top of your head?

What a weirdo you are. Please tell me you have better things to do with your time than pick apart some stranger’s explanation of how their kid picked which schools to apply to, posted in an attempt to be helpful to others.

It’s not 1985 anymore, people use resources like Naviance, College Kickstart, College Vine, etc. . .because we can now get recommendation based on our kid’s individual statistics and criteria. These are the resources being promoted by local high schools, whether public or private.

Hmmm...then why go through so much effort when you could have just looked at universities that rank in the top 100 by USNews...PP didn't surface any "hidden gems"...sure, it's just a coincidence they all rank fairly high. In fact, if you remove Clemson you can make your search even more efficient and only look at the Top 50 schools.

There are only so many D1 football schools.

Based on OPs asks, I would have added TN, NS State, UGA and maybe GT. But they are also all decently ranked. Notice PP skipped the SEC.

Why does anyone need a list of 40 target schools? If someone gets left off who cares, as long as they school they attend is a good match.

Oh no they left off UGA and NC State. What essential element not replicated at any other school on the list (and is highly valued by the kid) is on offer there?

The only rankings I like are Princeton Review because 1) they actually ask the consumers of the product, the students, what they think and 2) they tell you a lot of valuable lifestyle info like which schools are religious, which are LGBT friendly, which are jock schools, etc. which you can’t get from the CDS.

[Anonymous]

No. My son wants to go into International Relations/Govt/Politics--his passion.

So- we look for schools that specialize in that.

unweighted 4.0/4.4 at a private. 35 ACT. 5s on every AP exam. He is an in-state VA. Lots of sports (high level), tons of community service, college credit, job, president of a club, etc.

He also has some college coaches in talks for his sport--a few D3, a couple D1. Not sure if that will pan out--but they are schools on his list.

We didn't look at USNWR to come up with a list. He also isn't looking for a big state university and could care less about their football programs.

He's got a mix of reaches/targets/safeties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. My son wants to go into International Relations/Govt/Politics--his passion.

So- we look for schools that specialize in that.

unweighted 4.0/4.4 at a private. 35 ACT. 5s on every AP exam. He is an in-state VA. Lots of sports (high level), tons of community service, college credit, job, president of a club, etc.

He also has some college coaches in talks for his sport--a few D3, a couple D1. Not sure if that will pan out--but they are schools on his list.

We didn't look at USNWR to come up with a list. He also isn't looking for a big state university and could care less about their football programs.

He's got a mix of reaches/targets/safeties.

Sounds like WM and UVA should top this list. UVA would be club sports and not D1 (sport dependent) and big football. WM may we’ll get him playing D1, depending on sport. And he’d be a very solid applicant from the info provided. Lots of good SLACs, like Vassar, Macalaster, Middlebury, Bates and Carleton in IR.

My IR kid chose WM and WM IR is exceptional. And rigorous. Your kid wants to look at what the major entails before committing. Or consider government,, global policy or public policy which are less competitive. IR, you have to apply to be admitted and it has a series of weed out econ classes (and for some kids the foreign language requirement is an issue as well).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. My son wants to go into International Relations/Govt/Politics--his passion.

So- we look for schools that specialize in that.

unweighted 4.0/4.4 at a private. 35 ACT. 5s on every AP exam. He is an in-state VA. Lots of sports (high level), tons of community service, college credit, job, president of a club, etc.

He also has some college coaches in talks for his sport--a few D3, a couple D1. Not sure if that will pan out--but they are schools on his list.

We didn't look at USNWR to come up with a list. He also isn't looking for a big state university and could care less about their football programs.

He's got a mix of reaches/targets/safeties.

You want to consider Hollins in Roanoke and ODU.

[Anonymous]

Yes for sure - more excited about publics

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. My son wants to go into International Relations/Govt/Politics--his passion.

So- we look for schools that specialize in that.

unweighted 4.0/4.4 at a private. 35 ACT. 5s on every AP exam. He is an in-state VA. Lots of sports (high level), tons of community service, college credit, job, president of a club, etc.

He also has some college coaches in talks for his sport--a few D3, a couple D1. Not sure if that will pan out--but they are schools on his list.

We didn't look at USNWR to come up with a list. He also isn't looking for a big state university and could care less about their football programs.

He's got a mix of reaches/targets/safeties.

You want to consider Hollins in Roanoke and ODU.

Is that a joke? The pp's kid should look at Georgetown, GW and William&Mary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. My son wants to go into International Relations/Govt/Politics--his passion.

So- we look for schools that specialize in that.

unweighted 4.0/4.4 at a private. 35 ACT. 5s on every AP exam. He is an in-state VA. Lots of sports (high level), tons of community service, college credit, job, president of a club, etc.

He also has some college coaches in talks for his sport--a few D3, a couple D1. Not sure if that will pan out--but they are schools on his list.

We didn't look at USNWR to come up with a list. He also isn't looking for a big state university and could care less about their football programs.

He's got a mix of reaches/targets/safeties.

You want to consider Hollins in Roanoke and ODU.

Is that a joke? The pp's kid should look at Georgetown, GW and William&Mary.

Sounds like PP wanted VA state schools...and doesn't care about rankings. William & Mary are on the list, and Georgetown/GW are private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. My son wants to go into International Relations/Govt/Politics--his passion.

So- we look for schools that specialize in that.

unweighted 4.0/4.4 at a private. 35 ACT. 5s on every AP exam. He is an in-state VA. Lots of sports (high level), tons of community service, college credit, job, president of a club, etc.

He also has some college coaches in talks for his sport--a few D3, a couple D1. Not sure if that will pan out--but they are schools on his list.

We didn't look at USNWR to come up with a list. He also isn't looking for a big state university and could care less about their football programs.

He's got a mix of reaches/targets/safeties.

You want to consider Hollins in Roanoke and ODU.

HE will have a very tough time with admissions at Hollins.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are 2024 US News rankings making DC rethink college list or early applications?

Their list is useless. They have lost creditably with me. Honestly I’m sort of relieved because we won’t pay much attention to rankings if this is what they’re looking for. University of Michigan and several other public universities are so liberal that they allow Muslim groups to conduct anti Jewish anti Israel protests making Jewish students feel very uncomfortable. There are other things that have gotten way out of hand and I say this as a very liberal person but not an environment we would want to be in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. My son wants to go into International Relations/Govt/Politics--his passion.

So- we look for schools that specialize in that.

unweighted 4.0/4.4 at a private. 35 ACT. 5s on every AP exam. He is an in-state VA. Lots of sports (high level), tons of community service, college credit, job, president of a club, etc.

He also has some college coaches in talks for his sport--a few D3, a couple D1. Not sure if that will pan out--but they are schools on his list.

We didn't look at USNWR to come up with a list. He also isn't looking for a big state university and could care less about their football programs.

He's got a mix of reaches/targets/safeties.

If you can afford it, Georgetown SFS is unparalleled in terms of academic preparation for a government career and connections.

Good luck to your son!

- Georgetown SFS grad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are 2024 US News rankings making DC rethink college list or early applications?

Their list is useless. They have lost creditably with me. Honestly I’m sort of relieved because we won’t pay much attention to rankings if this is what they’re looking for. University of Michigan and several other public universities are so liberal that they allow Muslim groups to conduct anti Jewish anti Israel protests making Jewish students feel very uncomfortable. There are other things that have gotten way out of hand and I say this as a very liberal person but not an environment we would want to be in.

As a Jewish Democrat, antisemitism on college campuses terrifies me. I remember it being a thing when I went to college (class of 2009), but it seems like it’s gotten a lot worse since then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We started by defining what my kid wanted:Southern, medium to large school, excellent academics, decent football/spectator sports and Greek life.

This was the initial list, in no particular order: Florida, UNC, UVA, Duke, Vandy, Emory, Texas, Wake Forest, Davidson, Clemson. Duke came off because no one gets in from their school, and Davidson was deemed too small. Emory moved to the bottom because they didn’t like the social scene but stayed on list because of excellent pre med. Ultimately all schools applied to, other than Clemson, had a medical school and hospital, which was a nice plus since student is starting out premed.

Given that med schools and hospitals are often inaccessible to undergrads (even physically in different places), what made that important? Plenty of kids go to med school from places that have neither and they don't usually impact undergrad experience even at schools with even the best med schools and hospitals like Stanford and Hopkins.

DP. Exactly. Med schools do not care where you did undergrad and whether you had access to a hospital. So dumb.

[Anonymous]

Dd says many people are taking Washu off their lists after the rankings fallout, and that many more are adding the top 3 publics to their list. People can dismiss usnews all they want but I would not be surprised if washu takes a huge hit on applications this year, and the publics see big spikes upward

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dd says many people are taking Washu off their lists after the rankings fallout, and that many more are adding the top 3 publics to their list. People can dismiss usnews all they want but I would not be surprised if washu takes a huge hit on applications this year, and the publics see big spikes upward

NP. Sorry, that is really dumb.

Hopefully this benefits WashU as they will get applicants with actual interest in the school beyond its ranking. (No, I don't have a kid who attended, though we were looking at this school a few years ago and there was much to like. I'd be thrilled if my high stats senior were to put it on his list.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dd says many people are taking Washu off their lists after the rankings fallout, and that many more are adding the top 3 publics to their list. People can dismiss usnews all they want but I would not be surprised if washu takes a huge hit on applications this year, and the publics see big spikes upward

If families take WashU off because of this, then they are not to bright and can't think for themselves. I doubt that's the kind of student any college is looking for.