Reply to The Absurdity of U.S. News College Rankings

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "The Absurdity of U.S. News College Rankings - Per Malcolm Gladwell"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It's strange that a bankrupt magzine has so much sway on the  higher-education systems.

That US NEWS ranking University of Florida much higher than Univ of Washington should make people think twice. Instead, people just take the ranking as if god-given. [/quote]

Those are the obvious ones but other than those, the rankings are pretty solid relative to their actual prestige. [/quote]
Don't act like you would've heard of Chicago, Vanderbilt, Rice, Washington University, Northwestern, or even Duke and Hopkins outside of the DC Area had it not been for US News.

The top 10 of USNews is a strong indicator of national and worldwide prestige. The ranking after 10 becomes 
useless as a measure of prestige excluding the Ivies which will always hold sway due to being Ivies, not being ranked between 10-20.

The fact that Chicago went from >15 to top 3 (or where ever it is now) within 20 years shows how idiotic the rankings are even for prestige - schools don't rise in prestige so quickly at the top because prestige is entrenched.  U. Chicago has always had strong graduate departments but that its often ranked ahead of Yale, Caltech, etc. or ranked alongside Harvard today is simply a result of  ranking manipulation.[/quote]

All the schools you named have <15% acceptance rate and average SATs of above 1450 so Id say there prestige is through the roof among prospective students. [/quote]
Certainly, and look at their acceptance rates and scores 20 years ago. The ranking provides a self-reinforcing cycle where schools ranked higher receive more applications, higher scores, etc.

That does not mean that the schools ranked higher are necessarily more prestigious nationally though, excluding the top 10 w/o Chicago.

Schools like [b]Duke, Hopkins, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Rice, Chicago, Washington University[/b] were, in the 1990's and early 2000s, respected regional universities that attracted great students from their respective regions. If they were renowned nationally, they were so in a few specific fields - Hopkins for medicine, Chicago for Economics, Duke for Divinity (no joke), etc.

These schools were not nationally prestigious universities as they are today, and certainly not globally renowned, which they still largely aren't today

So the people acting like Northwestern, Chicago, Rice, Vanderbilt, etc. were simply destined to be top national universities or already were largely considered prestigious nationally prior to the domination of these rankings is flat out lying. Had it not been for the rankings, they wouldn't have even heard of these universities. The rankings have provided a self-perpetuating cycle that has brought these universities to their current level of national prestige in recent years. [/quote]

What?  Nonsense. If you mean that they weren't known to the average middle class family, maybe.  But they were nationally and internationally prestigious. They were elite schools, known to elites. All of those schools have been extremely well regarded for more than 50 years. I

[/quote]
They were known to elites in their respective regions, and certainly not upper-middle class families on the other end of the country.

And no, they were not internationally prestigious, and neither are they today. Have you even lived outside of the US?[/quote]

I snorted at this. Have [i]you[/i] ever lived outside of the US? Can you speak another language other than English? And what school did you attend? Awfully dangerous up there with all your high-horsing.[/quote]

Good way to confirm you have never lived outside of the US.

Taking a few courses of Duolingo does not count as knowing a second language.

It's hilarious how individuals are so personally insulted by others mentioning that their school is objectively not prestigious internationally. It is not an insult of the school itself - although there are reasons these schools are not as prestigious - but primarily how those outside the US view universities. [/quote]

You seem awfully confident for someone who comes off as an ignorant, sheltered Karen. I'm bilingual and lived abroad for 7 years of my childhood, and 3 years abroad throughout my professional career. But sure, keep embarrassing yourself.

Seriously, what language do you speak?[/quote]
Yes, I'm sure your 7 years of toddlerhood, likely on a military base, really gave you a strong understanding of which universities were prestigious and which weren't.

I grew up overseas, speak far more languages than you and most importantly, spent the most important part of life regarding colleges - college examinations and applications - abroad.

And as stated, these schools are either unknown or considered non-impressive outside of certain fields - Economics PhD. at Chicago and medicine at Hopkins.

Just because a school is hard to get into does not mean that the school is considered prestigious or impressive.

No one bothers to apply to Vanderbilt because the school is unknown and you may have just attended any other private, unless you are going to carry around a printout of the US News rankings everywhere you go.

Schools that are more renowned or prestigious that these remaining T10-T20 privates abroad:

Georgetown (Politics)
Berkeley (STEM)
Carnegie Mellon (Computer Science)
Cornell 
UCLA
[/quote]

Oh my God, you really are completely insufferable. No wonder you don't have any friends and your husband despises you.

.... is about how ridiculous you sound. The fact that you keep making completely uneducated potshots anonymously at people you don't even know is ridiculous. And funnily enough, at least my claim is based off of just how obnoxious and imbecilic you come off via the written word. Your claims as to other peoples' language abilities and overseas experience is based on zilch, just a very odd, roundabout way to stroke your own ego. Get over yourself.[/quote]
This post basically makes a ad hominem attacks with no reference to the subject at hand.

PP, your eggs might be dying and I understand your English degree does not allow you the compensation to afford egg freezing, but take your cats and leave this thread.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics