Anonymous wrote:

Oh you have hit on a pet peeve of mine. I noticed that mostly upper-middle-class people from the Northeast use this phrase. I have to struggle not to roll my eyes.


What phrase? Several phrases have been mentioned.

Any version of "that's a really good school". Usually said with emphasis, as in "that's a REALLY good school" with a nod.

Agreed. i am sick of hearing it too. Please. I mentioned Pomona to someone the other day, who said "oh thats not a very good school' with the most pathetic concerned look on her face like i was sending her into the jungles of Somalia. I had to "enlighten" her that is ranked 4th for liberal arts colleges. I also am not a big supporter of the rankings but we have little to go on. But just imagine for a minute they did not exist. No one would say "that's a good school' or "That's a bad school" UNLESS they knew of someone who went based on their recommendation. So in this case I do see the OP'S point...she may have taken a few unnecessary detours to get to her point but i think its well founded and spot on.

And I too practically cringe when I hear someone who says the very much abused phrase "That's a good school". So sick of hearing it myself, that we no longer mention specific names when people ask my son where he is applying. We just say a broad range or we are still looking.

Anonymous wrote:

Oh you have hit on a pet peeve of mine. I noticed that mostly upper-middle-class people from the Northeast use this phrase. I have to struggle not to roll my eyes.


What phrase? Several phrases have been mentioned.

Any version of "that's a really good school". Usually said with emphasis, as in "that's a REALLY good school" with a nod.

Meh. I don't read so much into that phrase.

If anything, "I know you must be disappointed that after spending $250K your kid is going to Podunk U, so I'll say nice things about Podunk U."

Oh you have hit on a pet peeve of mine. I noticed that mostly upper-middle-class people from the Northeast use this phrase. I have to struggle not to roll my eyes.


What phrase? Several phrases have been mentioned.

Any version of "that's a really good school". Usually said with emphasis, as in "that's a REALLY good school" with a nod.

Agree that OP needs to take a writing course ASAP.

Anonymous wrote:Oh you have hit on a pet peeve of mine. I noticed that mostly upper-middle-class people from the Northeast use this phrase. I have to struggle not to roll my eyes.

What phrase? Several phrases have been mentioned.

Oh you have hit on a pet peeve of mine. I noticed that mostly upper-middle-class people from the Northeast use this phrase. I have to struggle not to roll my eyes.

Wait. OP calls her husband's school "mediocre" and then complains about how people label schools as "good" or "bad"? I'm confused....

Anonymous wrote:So your DH went to a lesser known undergrad ---- and then went to an IVY LEAGUE law school.

Sorry, but that fact completely undermines your entire argument.

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I thought her argument was undermined by her inability to refrain from telling is her DD's college was nevertheless in the USNWR Top 50.

Right, it reads like she does want people to believe there is a right and wrong answer as to which schools are "good," but she does not want an answer that implies her immediate family did not do well by that metric.

Right, it reads like she does want people to believe there is a right and wrong answer as to which schools are "good," but she does not want an answer that implies her immediate family did not do well by that metric.

I initially thought OP was complaining about people who obsess over rankings, which is fine by me.

But her title says the opposite: she's tired of people saying that ANY [these are OP's original caps] old school is "a good school."

So in the end, I'm irritated with OP. OP, what is a "good" school, then? How do we guide our snowflakes in their college choices? You offer one criteria: it should have good teachers. Frankly, you could say that most colleges today have good teachers, because there are tons of great PhDs minted every year and they're all fighting desperately for few teaching jobs. But don't get me started on class size or the distinction between teaching ability and putting out tenure-worthy research.

Then OP goes on to trash the USNWR rankings, which isn't a huge contribution to moving the DCUM debate forward, because I think pretty much everybody here already thinks the USNWR rankings are over-rated anyway. Then OP winds up with some sort of insinuation that every time somebody on DCUM writes that "school X is good" it must be because we're all slaves to USNWR and not because, I dunno, we know people who had good experiences there, or we know the school's reputation in our own areas of work, or some other reason that we didn't bother to spell out for OP's benefit. So what's left? Some sanctimony about OP's husband and daughter. Thanks for nothing, OP!

Actually I think I get the point being made, that people are very hung up on rankings and that is most people's criteria when referring to a school as good, great or shitty. I think she used her husband as an example. She also used herself as an example saying she was an average student who got to go to one of these "great" schools and in fact she could have gotten the education anywhere.

I truly believe that if you took the best teacher at a comm. college and the best teacher at many top colleges, you would have a hard time differentiating between the two in terms of effectiveness and engagement.

I am therefore of the camp that believes we will in time move away from these rankings that everyone obsesses over and it cannot happen a day too soon. US News nothing but another form of a mafia.

Yeah I was with OP for the first few paragraphs and then the post kind of fell apart. OP, it would be easier for you to get yourself completely comfortable with the fact that your husband went to a lesser known school and that your daughter might follow in his footsteps than it will be for you to change everyone else's attitudes. You need to actually internalize the words you are saying to yourself.

oops meant "how" not hoe

I agree with one of the pp in that the elite rankings of the Ivies and other prominent schools will in fact get watered down over the years to come mostly due to diversity, a quickly changing world and the playing field leveling out. Industries are changing and many of the tech sectors in fact have these brilliant minds who don't even complete college (many) my nephew works for Google and was shocked at hoe many kids skipped college all together or bagged out to work there (can't blame them)! So things are changing fast and I suspect along with more and more schools doing away with standardized tests so too will the arguably silly rankings (which I personally never followed or gave much credit to).