Which rankings are most important?
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Anonymous
not a chance PSU has hotter people than UCLA...not a fucking chance. I think Georgetown is underrated for attractiveness on that graph. |
Anonymous
The academic rankings are pretty funny too - BC and Tufts ranked way higher than USNEWS ranks them. The person making the sexiness rankings must equate pasty white northeastener with sexiness because the diverse west coast schools like UCLA, USC and Stanford are downgraded. Different strokes for different folks I suppose. |
Anonymous
| Very simple. The one that positions your son's or daughter's college in the highest slot. |
Anonymous
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Is this "smart rank" the definitive ranking?
http://colleges.findthebest.com/ The results seem rational. Smart Rank combines each school's statistics with the rankings awarded by U.S. News, Forbes Magazine, and the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). |
Anonymous
Looks like SLAC's are ranked too high - Swarthmore over Princeton? |
Anonymous
There is no "definitive" rankings. Each ranking depends on the very specific criteria used by the rankers and they vary depending on what they deem valuable. You don't see this "smart rank" using the Washington Monthly rankings, for example. They've deemed their choice of criteria not valuable. If you sat down and decided to rank colleges based on whatever your child wants and needs, it will not be the same as any of these rankings. Lets say you rank in terms of: (1) SLACs, (2) which send the most history majors to Phd programs, (3) and have the most merit aid, (4) and accessibility to mass transit (airports, train stations). These are all valid considerations if your DC chooses them and there is no ranking system that reflects them. Rankings are bunk. if you insist on referring to them at least recognize that they are artificial constructions. |
Anonymous
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Rankings are certainly artificial constructions, but they aren't considered bunk by many - especially the schools and employers.
The perceived quality of you education will impact you throughout life. Ratings are very important. |
Anonymous
I don't know if you are the person who always posts about how ranking are important to employers but I think that is bunk. Of course, the most competitive schools stand out to employers but you don't need a ranking to tell you that certain schools are more competitive. I have never, ever heard of an employer consulting rankings. Not to mention that the rankings don't burrow down into specific areas of study. A school may not be highly ranked but may have a stand out department that is well known. |
Anonymous
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Which ranking is important -is which ranking is important to you. Which source do you identify with. What information do you need.
We found US News the most helpful in a gauging the competitiveness of college admission -especially for National Universities. We were able to zero-in on the range of likely schools. |
Anonymous
For that you can just search for acceptance rates which is more accurate that USNWR. |
Anonymous
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No one gets lower than a "B" at Harvard. Professors who assign grades lower than Bs soon find that students refuse to take their classes and their employment is terminated. Sit in on their lower division courses and you'll find they are no more difficult than A.P. high school courses.
There was a time when Ivy Leaguers seemed to be well read in the classics and the historiography of wide variety of topics, but this is no longer the case. It's been a long time since they've graduated the likes of Oliver Wendell Holmes or Theodore Roosevelt. Everyone knows of high school valedictorians being rejected by their dream schools and everyone knows a George W. Bush who graduated from both Yale and Harvard. The overflow of those valedictorians who weren't accepted to their dream schools haven't died, they've just gone to different universities. In the distant past when few Americans graduated from college and the ol' boy network was firmly entrenched where an individual went to college was far more important than it is today. That system and its inertia lasted until the very recent past, but for millennials this system has passed. The corporate demand for talent is simply far too great for Fortune 500 Companies to limit their job recruitment searches to about twenty colleges any longer. Teach your children well. Encourage them work hard and to be serious students in acquiring knowledge. Develop a strong work ethic and respect the rights of others. Attend a good college where they are welcomed and where they can envision themselves being proud supportive alumni one day. Sure there was a time when Wall Street was an Ivy League enclave, but in the electronic age what was exclusively done on Wall Street is now done on every street in America. Ivy League grads aren't going away, but for the milennials |
Anonymous
| the ivy's will no longer dominate the board room of American business. |
Anonymous
I'm interested about the reasons why, Cedarville University has a higher ranking than Earlham College? This seems patently unfair to me! |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
Not true - acceptance rate is just a statistic - it doesn't tell you about the quality of the candidates you are competing against. Putting aside those who had no business applying in the first place, most applicants to Harvard would be a sure thing at Penn State (as an example) and yet 90+ 5 are rejected by Harvard. If you make it easy to apply you will bring down your acceptance rate, but admission may be no more competitive. |