2024 US News rankings

post reply Forum Index » College and University Discussion

◄ 1 2 3 ... 53 54 55 ... 88 89 90 ► Go

Go to page...

09/19/2023 17:54

Subject: 2024 US News rankings

quote

Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the new methodology removing class rank raises a legit issue about the ranking removing too many academic-focused factors, but by the same token, the class size and alumni engagement factors were too easily gamed by a lot of private schools and artificially propped them up.

Ultimately, I think the new rankings overall are better in clarifying, “Which schools are actually worth paying $90,000 per year over our in-state flagship?” The rankings still indicate that there’s a clear difference by going to an Ivy or its other peers in the top 20-ish, but maybe people will be dissuaded from thinking that paying a lot extra for, say, Tufts or Wake Forest is going to result in materially different outcomes compared to many of the major public flagships.

I disagree, if you want small class sizes, more professors with phds, and more money spent per student, you are going to get that at Wake or Tufts over Rutgers.

If you care more about social mobility, pick Rutgers.

The American university system is (to put it mildly) an anomaly amongst Western university systems, not least because it comprises so few world-class public institutions, and unlike their Canadian and European counterparts, these few have been losing taxpayer support over the years.
So sure, if I'm a resident of CA, MI, VA, NC, TX or GA and my child earns admission to Cal, UCLA, Michigan, Virginia, W & M, UNC-Chapel Hill, Plan II at UT-Austin or Ga Tech, then yes, I might not think it financially wise to shell out for Tufts or Wake Forest. But one of the most important factors affecting the quality of one's education is the quality of intellectual engagement on the part of one's peers. The 25th SAT percentiles for the Class of 2026 at the University of South Dakota were a 500 V/520 M which is to say that a quarter of that class scored even lower than 500/520 (and a quarter scored over 640/660). Even if we concede that standardized test scores correlate to parental wealth and are not necessarily an indication of intellectual ability, they probably reflect student preparedness for undergraduate level work. If I'm a resident of S. Dakota and my 18-year-old has taken the most challenging courses available at our local high school and has earned at least a 740 on both sections of the SAT, then yes, assuming that I can truly afford the tuition (and by "afford" I mean without having to remortgage the house, take on unmanageable debt, take funds out of retirement or sell a kidney), I'd consider it money well spent to send my kid to Tufts or Wake Forest.

For the record, over a quarter of the Rutgers Class of 2026 scored over a 720 V/760M on the SAT. So there is an argument to be made that in attending Rutgers, one gets the best of both worlds: smart, high achieving peers and the wider perspective that comes from interacting with peers from all over the socio-economic spectrum.