Reply to For undergraduate degree, aim for overall reputation or program ranking?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Overall reputation, all day long.

The ones who care about the program rankings are the same ones obsessed with ROI. I will never agree with this line of thinking.

Rankings are pretty stupid in general, but this is to the extreme. You're going to get a bad education at UPenn, say, because some discipline is not "ranked" in the top 20 for graduate school? Oh yeah, better go to Iowa State instead! That's the move.

Give me a break. [/quote]

Oh please.

First, ROI is a valid measure for a degree for those who don't view college as a 4-year coming-of-age ceremony.

Second, program ranking does matter for those interested in going to the best graduate programs in their major.

CS students from Georgetown which has an extremely mediocre CS program would have a hard time getting into MIT graduate school because their CS undergrad preparation simply does not prepare them for graduate study at MIT, while someone from the lower overall ranked UIUC would have a greater chance because of its top CS department which allows students to take more advanced courses, work with and get recommendation letters from renowned professors for undergraduate research, etc.

This is the same as going to a low-performing rural high school with no APs/IBs and expecting to be prepared for MIT undergrad, compared to someone who attended TJHSST.

As others have said, it's a combination of both.

Comparing CS for Penn vs. UIUC, the easy choice is Penn even if UIUC is ranked among the best, because Penn is still very good in CS.

Comparing CS for Georgetown vs. UIUC is a different question.[/quote]

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