Anonymous wrote:DP. Agree Rochester is underrated. Rigorous and intense, but excellent.

Anonymous wrote:UVA

Anonymous wrote:Thinking about the vast amount of schools to choose from. On this board I don't hear much about the SUNYs, I find that a bit surprising. Some of them are excellent. Impressions of SUNYs? Topic is too broad I know bc many schools are overlooked. Guess I'm also wondering aside from prestige, which schools perhaps are a bit overlooked?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Consider UMass! My DC is there now, got merit aid, and is happy with the quality of classes. Lots of activities and opportunities, and the school has been fantastic in terms of keeping kids informed about what’s going on.

What area of study is your DC pursuing?

Anonymous wrote:Consider UMass! My DC is there now, got merit aid, and is happy with the quality of classes. Lots of activities and opportunities, and the school has been fantastic in terms of keeping kids informed about what’s going on.

Anonymous wrote:If you don't mind catholic colleges, I think most of them are underrated except t Georgetown, Notre dame, and Villanova.

Most have small-mid size classes and generally are located in areas that have access to big cities.

Anonymous wrote:If you don't mind catholic colleges, I think most of them are underrated except t Georgetown, Notre dame, and Villanova.

Most have small-mid size classes and generally are located in areas that have access to big cities.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretty much all of them after the top 50 are under-rated.

Most colleges are great places with excellent teaching, and every college is perfect for someone.

Don't be afraid to seek them out and measure them up against the students goals.

Agree. The whole rating system creates a false devaluing of schools, especially regional schools. It's a huge country with a lot of colleges. Ranking them is a silly exercise.

Ranking is useful when there are a lot of colleges like 2500+
Thanks to the information, my three kids found great schools fit them well.

The choice isn't ranking vs. nothing. I very much prefer the Princeton Review approach that selects under 400 schools it considers strong and then rates schools on a variety of features, and gives qualitative description of the schools. This helps people find a "good" school on the aspects they care about without getting into this horse race mentality that where one school is ten spots above another because they have 1% more research grant funding and 1% more Pell grant recipients or whatever--distinctions that matter so little about whether the school will be a good fit for your student.

My kid thought the Princeton Review guide was very helpful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretty much all of them after the top 50 are under-rated.

Most colleges are great places with excellent teaching, and every college is perfect for someone.

Don't be afraid to seek them out and measure them up against the students goals.

Agree. The whole rating system creates a false devaluing of schools, especially regional schools. It's a huge country with a lot of colleges. Ranking them is a silly exercise.

Ranking is useful when there are a lot of colleges like 2500+
Thanks to the information, my three kids found great schools fit them well.

The choice isn't ranking vs. nothing. I very much prefer the Princeton Review approach that selects under 400 schools it considers strong and then rates schools on a variety of features, and gives qualitative description of the schools. This helps people find a "good" school on the aspects they care about without getting into this horse race mentality that where one school is ten spots above another because they have 1% more research grant funding and 1% more Pell grant recipients or whatever--distinctions that matter so little about whether the school will be a good fit for your student.

My kid thought the Princeton Review guide was very helpful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretty much all of them after the top 50 are under-rated.

Most colleges are great places with excellent teaching, and every college is perfect for someone.

Don't be afraid to seek them out and measure them up against the students goals.

Agree. The whole rating system creates a false devaluing of schools, especially regional schools. It's a huge country with a lot of colleges. Ranking them is a silly exercise.

Ranking is useful when there are a lot of colleges like 2500+
Thanks to the information, my three kids found great schools fit them well.

The choice isn't ranking vs. nothing. I very much prefer the Princeton Review approach that selects under 400 schools it considers strong and then rates schools on a variety of features, and gives qualitative description of the schools. This helps people find a "good" school on the aspects they care about without getting into this horse race mentality that where one school is ten spots above another because they have 1% more research grant funding and 1% more Pell grant recipients or whatever--distinctions that matter so little about whether the school will be a good fit for your student.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretty much all of them after the top 50 are under-rated.

Most colleges are great places with excellent teaching, and every college is perfect for someone.

Don't be afraid to seek them out and measure them up against the students goals.

Agree. The whole rating system creates a false devaluing of schools, especially regional schools. It's a huge country with a lot of colleges. Ranking them is a silly exercise.

Ranking is useful when there are a lot of colleges like 2500+
Thanks to the information, my three kids found great schools fit them well.

The choice isn't ranking vs. nothing. I very much prefer the Princeton Review approach that selects under 400 schools it considers strong and then rates schools on a variety of features, and gives qualitative description of the schools. This helps people find a "good" school on the aspects they care about without getting into this horse race mentality that where one school is ten spots above another because they have 1% more research grant funding and 1% more Pell grant recipients or whatever--distinctions that matter so little about whether the school will be a good fit for your student.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretty much all of them after the top 50 are under-rated.

Most colleges are great places with excellent teaching, and every college is perfect for someone.

Don't be afraid to seek them out and measure them up against the students goals.

Agree. The whole rating system creates a false devaluing of schools, especially regional schools. It's a huge country with a lot of colleges. Ranking them is a silly exercise.

Ranking is useful when there are a lot of colleges like 2500+
Thanks to the information, my three kids found great schools fit them well.

The choice isn't ranking vs. nothing. I very much prefer the Princeton Review approach that selects under 400 schools it considers strong and then rates schools on a variety of features, and gives qualitative description of the schools. This helps people find a "good" school on the aspects they care about without getting into this horse race mentality that where one school is ten spots above another because they have 1% more research grant funding and 1% more Pell grant recipients or whatever--distinctions that matter so little about whether the school will be a good fit for your student.

What about other 2100 schools
Those were ranked lower and eliminated.
You were interested in top 400 schools.
My kids were interested in top 50 schools.

But the PR doesn't think there are top 50 schools--or doesn't orient that way. They list them in alphabetical order not by their average rating. You can look at what is highest rated on the variables that interest you rather than thinking that you can identify a precise order among institutions that are very different from one another. The schools that are included (the number varies--it's 388 right now I think) are all the ones that meet their benchmark. It's a different philosophy and method than rank-ordering, it's benchmarking for inclusion and then rating.