Reply to US College Rankings, from the perspective of a college student

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "US College Rankings, from the perspective of a college student"

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]If you check out her early videos, she was rejected or waitlisted from many of these top schools and was pretty bitter about attending her UC for the first year or so (my kid watches her videos). It's a good lesson in getting over disappointment and making the most of the opportunities that are available to you, so I hope kids watching her have that takeaway. Coming from PA/Midwest, I was surprised to see how competitive and stressful her HS experience of applying to college and receiving decisions was and how bitter (and somewhat entitled) that environment of overachieving and competition can make 18 year olds. It was news to me that kids felt disappointed by UCLA and UCB and snarked about or harbored resentment for kids who did get in, whom they perceived to be less competitive. [/quote]

This is very, very common among UC Berkeley students. [/quote]

I find this to be very true also.  There main comparison is Stanford which does not help with self image.  Also, most of the other UCs have closed the gap or even past them.  UCLA definitely has better undergraduate experience with housing and food, etc.  
A common rivalry joke is what do Stanford and Berkeley students have in common?  They both applied to Stanford.

I guess it helps her ego to rank Berkeley in the Top 10.  [/quote]

Berkeley is in the top 10.[/quote]

In what way does Berkeley come close to providing top 10 undergraduate educational quality?[/quote]

America’s Top Colleges 2021: For The First Time A Public School Is Number One

RANK.                    NAME. STATE  TYPE.           AV. GRANT AID.         AV. DEBT.         MEDIAN 10-YEAR SALARY

1.    University of California, Berkeley CA Public.  $19,126               $6,000.              $138,800
 2.        Yale 
 3.        Princeton University
 4.      Stanford University
 5.       Columbia University
 6.   Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 7.     Harvard University
 8.  University of California, Los Angeles
 9.  University of Pennsylvania
10. Northwestern University
11. Dartmouth College
12. Duke University
13. Cornell University
14. Vanderbilt University
15. University of California, San Diego
16. Amherst
17. USC
18. Williams
19. Pomona
20. UC Davis
21. Georgetown 
22. Michigan
23. Chicago
24. Rice

https://www.forbes.com/top-colleges/
[/quote]

This ranking is heavily impacted by salary, which is a terrible measure if done poorly. Schools that rank well tend to have a lot of STEM graduates or students who get jobs in big and expensive (think coastal) cities. To do salaries right, compare an English major from Harvard and one from the University of Cincinnati both living in Cincinnati and working as teachers. Will there be much of a difference? HR will ensure not. Alternatively, it would be interesting to have a “coveted job” index, like the proportion of undergrads that get jobs in investment banking, VC, PE, hedge funds, and strategy consulting. Or, the percent of CS majors who gets jobs at FANG. [/quote]

The ranking also heavily favors colleges with lots of Pell/poor students. 27% of Berkeley students are poor. At Harvard, it’s 12%. Berkeley gets the award for more handouts. I’m not sure how that’s related to the quality of academics. [/quote]

My guess is that Harvard would have higher average amount of handouts than Berkeley. Also, I thought DCUM concluded it is far more impressive to educate poor students than wealthier students. [/quote]

[b]Certainly higher average $ but not higher number of students. The ranking looks at the number of students.[/b] I’m not sure it’s more impressive to educate poor students, assuming admission standards are met. It’s more that a public school’s mission is to educate its public. The mission for privates are a combination of academics and social pedigree. Harvard definitely beats Berkeley for pedigree.

Also, the salary data is limited to those who received financial aid. Some of Harvard’s best outcomes won’t have taken financial aid.

In sum, thus if this ranking as a poor student’s ranking. If you’re poor and get into Berkeley, you’ll have a good outcome.

[/quote]

Ranking is based on "AV. GRANT AID.         AV. DEBT.         MEDIAN 10-YEAR SALARY" not number of students receiving aid.[/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