in general, the smarter the students, the better the university. Smart kids want to go to a college with other smart kids. This isn't rocket surgery.

Anonymous wrote:Selectivity ranking is a popularity ranking.
It’s not a prestige, academic reputation, nor future success ranking.
It only shows supply and demand.
But it still is an important info to consider while making a college list for your kids.

I think you are talking about admissions rate. In this case, the ranking uses scores and class rank.

Selectivity ranking is a popularity ranking.
It’s not a prestige, academic reputation, nor future success ranking.
It only shows supply and demand.
But it still is an important info to consider while making a college list for your kids.

I looked up a bunch of random schools on this list. One thing that they seem to have in common is that the student is admitted to the university and isn't constrained to a particular major.

I'm used to seeing so many schools where you have to apply to a particular college/degree and that it is very difficult to change majors.

To me, using this list of high achieving students combined with that ability is a big win-win.

Anonymous wrote:The universities that have my greatest respect offer a wide swath of majors. The university exceeds expectations for outcomes, for a range of students. Due to the varied nature of the programs, assigning an overall selectivity rating means very little.

Assigning an overall “best college” rating means very little also. Still, some parents and their kids get dumbfounded when they wrongly rely on US News ratings as a proxy for selectivity — only to be amazed when DC gets rejected by the high selectivity (but somewhat lower-ranked) school. That’s a problem.