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05-03-2008, 08:07 AM
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#16 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2005
Threads: 30
Posts: 2,246
| Mom,
Agree with looking beyond rankings. What puzzles me are all the posts regarding what is the "best" for any of dozens of measures. I don't even know what best means for any one measure.
And worse is when you see posters ask for the "best" graduate school institutions. Not departments, but overall. Yikes. Then on top of that are those who argue that going to the "best" really matters. Of course these folks usually inhabit ivy land and a number are in Cambridge MA, for whatever that means. | 
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05-03-2008, 08:27 AM
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#17 | | Super Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2006
Threads: 122
Posts: 2,247
| I've seen students who have said, "You gotta go to School X because it's so much better than School Y" based on the USNWR rankings -- and these two schools might be only five slots apart. Or one. Sometimes it seems on CC that the only valid reason for going to a lower USNWR ranked school is finances. | 
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05-03-2008, 08:55 AM
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#18 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Threads: 4
Posts: 127
| It seems to me that if you took the type of students who are accepted to the above mentioned schools and put them anywhere, you would find that there is an exceptionally high rate of achievement from them. especially if your are dropping out all of the low performers from your statistical pool, which these schools do. The question becomes--which is more responsible for the high rankings--this very, very select group of high-performing students who just happen to go to School X, or is School X responsible for the success of their attendees? I would think that if you go to any number of colleges throughout the country and look at just the very highest performers and drop out the data from all of the other students, you would come up with equally impressive stats. | |
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05-03-2008, 09:07 AM
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#19 | | Super Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2006
Threads: 122
Posts: 2,247
| An intelligent, motivated individual can succeed with or without a top ranked school; however, not all educations are created equally. The question is not "Can a top student succeed at a lesser university/college?" but "Which universities/colleges offer the best education for a top student?" | |
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05-03-2008, 03:06 PM
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#20 | | New Member
Join Date: May 2007
Threads: 1
Posts: 4
| Interesting ranking, although I'm pretty suspicious of their use of ratemyprofessors.com. I don't know how it's used at the other schools on that list, but at Chicago almost nobody uses ratemyprofessors because there's an internal rating website that's linked to your actual course schedule and allows for a longer and more detailed response. From what I've seen, the few reviews for Chicago professors on RMP have actually been more negative (and often sounding like a grudge rather than a fair review) than the ones on the evaluations website - in any case, it's hard to trust a site that doesn't make sure you've actually taken classes from the professor in question or screen in any meaningful way (as far as I know).
Ratings in general are pretty stupid anyway, but I can't help but feel a little undeserved ego boost from seeing Chicago edge into the top five. | |
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05-05-2008, 01:50 PM
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#21 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2004
Threads: 37
Posts: 193
| New Forbes College Rankings
They have created their own rankings, the methodology is in the link, along with rankings of top LACs and top public schools. How to Choose a College - Forbes.com
All National Universities
Harvard University 1
Yale University 2
Princeton University 3
University of Chicago 4
Brown University 5
Columbia University 6
California Institute of Technology 7
Stanford University 8
Northwestern University 9
Dartmouth College 10
Boston College 11
University of Pennsylvania 12
Southern Methodist University 13
Cornell University 14
Duke University 15
University of Notre Dame 16
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 17
Johns Hopkins University 18
Wake Forest University 19
Emory University 20 | |
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05-05-2008, 01:54 PM
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#22 | | Member
Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: NY
Threads: 2
Posts: 557
| where did Southern Methodist University come from? I wonder how in the world it is ranked higher than MIT. | |
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05-05-2008, 01:57 PM
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#23 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Threads: 10
Posts: 1,009
| ^ It's based on their nutty methodolgy (from the same guy--sorta--who brought us the flat tax  ): Quote: |
Our measures begin with student evaluations posted on Ratemyprofessors.com, a nine-year-old site with 6.8 million student-generated evaluations. We look at college graduation rates (as does U.S. News). We also calculate the percent of students winning awards like Rhodes Scholarships and undergraduate Fulbright travel grants. For vocational success we turn to Who's Who in America. Though imperfect, it is the only comprehensive listing of professional achievement that includes undergraduate affiliations.
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05-05-2008, 02:17 PM
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#24 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Penn
Threads: 113
Posts: 6,353
| ... wow | |
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05-05-2008, 02:27 PM
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#25 | | Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Threads: 5
Posts: 450
| After saying, "I think the U.S. News rankings ought to get a D", Vedder proceeds to use the USNWR rankings to determine the list of schools he will rank. Notice that he only ranks USNWR's top two tiers of schools in each category and leaves out third-tier schools. If a school such as Samford on the Nat Univs. list can move from 118 (USN) to 27 (CCAP), then it stands to reason that some third-tier schools might well move up into the top 100, or top 50. The same is true for the LAC list where Bennington jumped from 106 (USN) to 33 (CCAP).
While imperfect, maybe the CCAP can be improved upon by Vedder or others. At least it's a start. Unfortunately, Forbes has the same motive that USNWR does in putting together these rankings: selling magazines. | |
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05-05-2008, 02:37 PM
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#26 | | Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
Threads: 70
Posts: 569
| Wow! Guess I need to start bragging about that degree I have from SMU. And Baylor 15 places ahead of UT! | |
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05-05-2008, 03:23 PM
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#27 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Apr 2008
Threads: 1
Posts: 116
| Yes!
..... | |
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05-07-2008, 11:12 AM
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#28 | | New Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Threads: 2
Posts: 8
| Forbes: The most popular rankings use the wrong measures.
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05-07-2008, 01:31 PM
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#29 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Apr 2008 Gender: Female
Threads: 16
Posts: 209
| Why do they depend on Who's who? | |
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05-10-2008, 10:13 AM
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#30 | | New Member
Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: the loop
Threads: 4
Posts: 23
| A refreshing new ranking by Forbes
How to Choose a College - Forbes.com
I have to say, it is good to finally see some of the nation's most underrated but excellent schools, namely Brown, U of C, Northwestern, ranked on par with the big names.
Check here for the complete article and links to LAC and public rankings as well. How to Choose a College - Forbes.com | |
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