<p>It’s been explained quite often that those asked to rank all schools for PA may have only a passing familiarity with a handful of schools they rank. They end up ranking by reputationthe same as John Doe from Podunk knows HYP are good schools. There is nothing that guaranties the person filling out the PA forms for school X has any pertinent knowledge of schools A-through-Z other than X and X’s similar schools. The PA is usually done by prestige just as John Doe would do it. In other words, it ain’t worth much. Certainly not worth basing your or your child’s future on unless you’re only interested in which schools have the most prestige attached to their names (many are). That’s why I like fit rather than rankings. </p>
<p>And even Token’s list doesn’t compare in some ways to my kids’ real-life experiences, though I understand anomalies. They both go to schools without asterisks (their first choices), though they each got in to at least five schools with the two-asterisk designation, and for both the no-asterisk school was the only “not-selective” school on their list. The beauty of great LAC is that you just can’t paint with such a broad brush and self-selection plays such a great role you can’t go just on stats, either. One kid was accepted at five two-asterisk schools (top 25 U’s, top 10 LACs) but waiting-listed at the non-asterisk school on the list and had to transfer there a year later, since it was her first choice. Nothing is certain except possibly that statistics “lie”. ;)</p>