Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northeastern is the one I don't understand.
Large number of first years spend semester or full year abroad with sub par professors who have been put out to pasture. Some Co-ops are great but lots are menial jobs. Not sure how kids who get that much less coursework than students from other colleges can compete in grad schools??

I know Northeastern gamed the system (to their credit, by following the rules) to get a better ranking, but it is ironically now one of the most underrated schools by US News. Most schools would kill for its admissions rate, even for what its admit rate would be without the spring admits etc (higher, sure, but still pretty low). In fact, several Boston schools — BC, BU, Northeastern, Tufts — are very underrated by US News.

Rankings for the public schools are so much inflated.

McDonald's is gaming the system. They market relentlessly to appear more desirable than they deserve. They're nowhere near as good as Burger King but they've convinced everyone their meals are worth the price. Infuriating. That early bird discount they ran a while back was a step too far! Grrrr

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kenyon and Dickinson get pumped by private high school parents but both are ranked 45th in 2026. No momentum for them. Colgate and Haverford have declined in recent past. Holy Cross inching up each year now 27th. And Bucknell will it’s magical Pipeline to The Street is now 30.

I'm very excited for my kid to go to Kenyon next year. Could not possibly care less about some dumb ranking.

My dd is at a top ranked 'DCUM approved' school and she would have been super happy at Kenyon - we all loved that school when we toured and the kids we spoke with were more impressive than so many we encountered at other schools, and actually wanted to discuss what they were studying and their excitement over it all - rather than, like at so many other schools, just what their major was, their double major, their internship, their consulting club, their career center, their grade deflation, their interview prep, and so on. At many other schools, kids were so focused on what they would do after college, it was just a means to an end. Congrats to your kid! I would have loved going to a school like Kenyon.

Anonymous wrote:Northeastern is the one I don't understand.
Large number of first years spend semester or full year abroad with sub par professors who have been put out to pasture. Some Co-ops are great but lots are menial jobs. Not sure how kids who get that much less coursework than students from other colleges can compete in grad schools??

I know Northeastern gamed the system (to their credit, by following the rules) to get a better ranking, but it is ironically now one of the most underrated schools by US News. Most schools would kill for its admissions rate, even for what its admit rate would be without the spring admits etc (higher, sure, but still pretty low). In fact, several Boston schools — BC, BU, Northeastern, Tufts — are very underrated by US News.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Feels like this year's ranking is very similar to last year's. Someone should compute the average change in rank (rise and drop both treated as positive) for last year's t50 schools. My guess is the average is less than 3. Repeat this for last year's t100 and my guess is the average is less than 5.

Where TF have you been??? It is always the same. Very little change. I’ve been watching these ratings since the 90s. The only change was when some schools—NE, UChic., etc started driving up applicants and plating the mailing and ED game, test optional to appear more selective.

I mean what, you think Harvard and Princeton will drop out of the T10?

Selectivity has nothing to do with the rankings. https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/how-us-news-calculated-the-rankings

It highly correlates with the peer surveys, so it indirectly still does.

Correlation is not causality.

Yes it is, when it is coupled with sound theory. But theory is not even needed here: the reality is that some people go to the admissions tab on US News when unclear how to rank a school for the survey.