Students choose based on a range of factors, not just academics. The Niche rankings capture this better than USNEWS or Shanghai

Anonymous wrote:I thought this would be an interesting study until I realized the samples of students polled are actually tiny; 11? 6? Real scientific.

I wish there were more observations, too, but not all the samples are tiny. The interactions between Big 10 schools are pretty clear, e.g.

The geographic skewing of the students sampled will also introduce significant regional biases. The population is heavily weighted towards the Midwest, with a slight overrepresentation from California. In contrast, NE and the Mid-Atlantic are underrepresented. A sampling of some of the results bears this out. University of Michigan, University of Chicago, UCLA, and Cal Berkeley all do better than one would expect. I would suspect that a combination of financial considerations (namely, In State Tuition) and proximity to home are often driving factors in choice. Grain of Salt.

I thought this would be an interesting study until I realized the samples of students polled are actually tiny; 11? 6? Real scientific.

Anonymous wrote:"77% of students picked University of Maryland, College Park over Penn State University."

Looks like it's finally been settled.

Shhh... you'll wake the UMCP troll.

Fun! 86% choose UVA over William and Mary. That's great news for DS, who prefers the
Latter.

great link!

"77% of students picked University of Maryland, College Park over Penn State University."

Looks like it's finally been settled.

Interesting interactive feature in NY Tmes. .

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/04/upshot/why-colleges-with-a-distinct-focus-have-a-hidden-advantage.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0