Why we're still fascinated by college rankings

[Anonymous]

Majors are more determinative, at least in the short- to mid-term for average earnings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Majors are more determinative, at least in the short- to mid-term for average earnings.

At this point though, a lot of it is about prestige long term and getting into a great grad school in the short/mid-term.

Where you go does matter too when looking at majors: Don't just study CS, go to Stanford and study CS if you want $$ right away!
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/slideshows/10-college-majors-with-the-highest-starting-salaries?slide=10

Computer science
Median starting salary: $77,300

College with highest median alumni starting salary for this major: Stanford University (CA)

U.S. News Best Colleges rank: 6 (tie), National Universities

Median starting salary for Stanford University graduates in this field: $119,000

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:DCUM loafers above are already showing their better than thou attitudes.

No, fit is not overrated - just wait till one of your kids is miserable and depressed at the wrong school.

Yes, super smart kids often attend the most party heavy schools.

People focus on fit when their kid can't get into a top 20 school. Sorry. Poor people say money can't buy you happiness. Of course it does. Vacations, nice restaurants, etc. It buys experiences which has been shown to be linked to happiness. I don't have enough money so I am not happy as I could be. I have some but not enough.

People focus on rankings more than fit when the care about their own egos more than their kids' well-being.

Or maybe when they care about career opportunities ?

If you take full advantage of what's offered, career opportunities are the same regardless of whether you attend a school ranked in the top 10 or one ranked 50-100.

really? top 50-100 will offer same opportunity as top 10? you believe that?

There was an academic study that showed that people who had the same qualifications as top ranked college students when entering college (i.e. they were accepted to a top school but chose to go elsewhere) had the same average outcomes post college as the kids graduating from the top ranked colleges.

+1 It's an important study to be familiar with if you're going to enter a discussion about college ROI. It's a longitudinal study done by Krueger and Dale done over several decades now, and no one has come close to refuting the findings. Here's a link to the abstract.....

https://www.nber.org/papers/w17159

“ We also estimate the return to college selectivity for the 1976 cohort of students, but over a longer time horizon (from 1983 through 2007) using administrative data..”


In 1976, when the Krueger and Dale cohort entered the job market, having any kind of a college degree was a big deal. The value of a college degree has been diluted a great deal since then, making the name brand of the school more important in recruiting.

+1000

Going to an HYPS for undergrad matters immensely if you want to work right out of undergrad and not go to med/law school.

I think major in CS or cerntain engineering at like #20-#60 something matter more than HYPS or T20 humanites or alike if you want to work right out of undergrad

+ 1001

No doubt about it, but an HYPS STEM major will have job opportunities available that, say, an Ohio State grad will not.

Also, if I were a humanities or social science major, I would much rather be at an Ivy than at a state flagship ranked #50.

True prestige matters for majors like business but especially if you are going to major in some mediocre stuff, make sure to do it at prestigious schools.

I would say in general HYPS STEM > T50ish STEM > HYPS mediocre majors >>>>>> mediocre majors at mediocre schools

There are definitely other undergrad schools I would recommend to my kid for certain STEM degrees before Yale and Harvard.

Obviously both are incredible schools my kid would be fortunate to attend. But there are way more than four schools that might be the best choice for a randomly chosen but qualified student, even if they somehow had a golden ticket to go anywhere. The circumstances that let a student achieve the most they are capable of will vary.

I can see a person having incentive to argue the opposite to boost the brand value of their or their kid’s diploma. But that shouldn’t be necessary, it’s not true, and it clearly contributes to an unhealthy obsession that leads to eventual disappointment, not only among those rejected, but even among many fortunate enough to be admitted.

One of best indicators of long term satisfaction with a school is alumni giving. It’s interesting only one of those four are in the top 30 of combined colleges for giving rate. Perhaps not fair to hold public colleges to that same metric, but for private schools it’s a pretty level field. Hard to be as impressed by wealthy alumni when despite that greater affluence they find reason not to give to their college.

They rank high for national universities.

Yes, they rank higher when LACs are excluded (other than Princeton which is 1st overall either way.) But why exclude LACs?

Anyhow, amongst just NUs, the other 3 are 14th, 16th, and 19th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Majors are more determinative, at least in the short- to mid-term for average earnings.

At this point though, a lot of it is about prestige long term and getting into a great grad school in the short/mid-term.

Where you go does matter too when looking at majors: Don't just study CS, go to Stanford and study CS if you want $$ right away!
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/slideshows/10-college-majors-with-the-highest-starting-salaries?slide=10

Computer science
Median starting salary: $77,300

College with highest median alumni starting salary for this major: Stanford University (CA)

U.S. News Best Colleges rank: 6 (tie), National Universities

Median starting salary for Stanford University graduates in this field: $119,000

They are also disproportionately working in the Bay area where the cost of living is astronomical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Majors are more determinative, at least in the short- to mid-term for average earnings.

At this point though, a lot of it is about prestige long term and getting into a great grad school in the short/mid-term.

Where you go does matter too when looking at majors: Don't just study CS, go to Stanford and study CS if you want $$ right away!
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/slideshows/10-college-majors-with-the-highest-starting-salaries?slide=10

Computer science
Median starting salary: $77,300

College with highest median alumni starting salary for this major: Stanford University (CA)

U.S. News Best Colleges rank: 6 (tie), National Universities

Median starting salary for Stanford University graduates in this field: $119,000

They are also disproportionately working in the Bay area where the cost of living is astronomical.

+1

Folks always forget about CoL when making alumni salary comparisons. But there is almost always at least some geographic tilt towards school’s region for where alumni end up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why we're still fascinated by college rankings:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/20/us/college-rankings-obsession-us-news-cec/index.html


I wasn't buying into this ranking thing but I've gotten sucked in from DCUM.

I for one no longer care about ranking. My son wanted to go to Harvard really bad. He didn't get in. He was sad.
He ended up at Columbia, which is ranked no.18 now. He is happy and enjoying his time there. Fit is everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why we're still fascinated by college rankings:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/20/us/college-rankings-obsession-us-news-cec/index.html


I wasn't buying into this ranking thing but I've gotten sucked in from DCUM.

I for one no longer care about ranking. My son wanted to go to Harvard really bad. He didn't get in. He was sad.
He ended up at Columbia, which is ranked no.18 now. He is happy and enjoying his time there. Fit is everything.

LOL. Troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Majors are more determinative, at least in the short- to mid-term for average earnings.

At this point though, a lot of it is about prestige long term and getting into a great grad school in the short/mid-term.

Where you go does matter too when looking at majors: Don't just study CS, go to Stanford and study CS if you want $$ right away!
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/slideshows/10-college-majors-with-the-highest-starting-salaries?slide=10

Computer science
Median starting salary: $77,300

College with highest median alumni starting salary for this major: Stanford University (CA)

U.S. News Best Colleges rank: 6 (tie), National Universities

Median starting salary for Stanford University graduates in this field: $119,000

Sure but Standford CS would be extremely difficult to get in.
Also not everyone can handle CS.

So in general, CS Standford > CS at UCLA, UCB, USC > Standford psychology

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Majors are more determinative, at least in the short- to mid-term for average earnings.

At this point though, a lot of it is about prestige long term and getting into a great grad school in the short/mid-term.

Where you go does matter too when looking at majors: Don't just study CS, go to Stanford and study CS if you want $$ right away!
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/slideshows/10-college-majors-with-the-highest-starting-salaries?slide=10

Computer science
Median starting salary: $77,300

College with highest median alumni starting salary for this major: Stanford University (CA)

U.S. News Best Colleges rank: 6 (tie), National Universities

Median starting salary for Stanford University graduates in this field: $119,000

Sure but Standford CS would be extremely difficult to get in.
Also not everyone can handle CS.

So in general, CS Standford > CS at UCLA, UCB, USC > Standford psychology

Standford > Hardvard

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rankings matter a bit, but not as much as fit.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anyone who breathes near a textbook in high school can get an acceptance letter from at least one school on the T100 universities or T100 LACs list

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who breathes near a textbook in high school can get an acceptance letter from at least one school on the T100 universities or T100 LACs list

+1 LOL. Not sure it's quite that easy, but definitely anyone who puts forth a reasonable amount of effort in HS will have plenty of opportunities for places to get a strong college education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Majors are more determinative, at least in the short- to mid-term for [/b]average earnings.

At this point though, a lot of it is about prestige long term and getting into a great grad school in the short/mid-term.

Where you go does matter too when looking at majors: [b]Don't just study CS, go to Stanford and study CS if you want $$ right away!
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/slideshows/10-college-majors-with-the-highest-starting-salaries?slide=10

Computer science
Median starting salary: $77,300

College with highest median alumni starting salary for this major: Stanford University (CA)

U.S. News Best Colleges rank: 6 (tie), National Universities

Median starting salary for Stanford University graduates in this field: $119,000

OMG. You’re brilliant. Why doesn’t everyone just go to a Stanford where the acceptance rate is <5%? Simple math says everyone can!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who breathes near a textbook in high school can get an acceptance letter from at least one school on the T100 universities or T100 LACs list

+1 LOL. Not sure it's quite that easy, but definitely anyone who puts forth a reasonable amount of effort in HS will have plenty of opportunities for places to get a strong college education.

agreed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who breathes near a textbook in high school can get an acceptance letter from at least one school on the T100 universities or T100 LACs list

LACs seem mediocre after like 40 50