2011 PA Scores

xiggi
Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:28:13 +0000

Tufts, Wake, ND lose on the PA because they are very strong undergraduate institutions with mostly weak grad schools. Since there’s no clear direction to rank say undergraduate quality the grad programs are factored into the PA. Counselors send kids off for undergrad not grad school so they rank based on perceived undergrad strength.



What does this say about the PA?

However, although the instructions of USNews are clearly lacking, the DO specifically ask to measure the quality of the UNDERGRADUATE. The problem remains that the responders pay little to attention to that CLEAR distinction, and this to the great joy and glee of the PA supporters who benefit from a PA that reflects both relevant and irrelevant intangibles.

As far as the counselors, I believe their source of information is last year’s edition of the USNews. This could explain why the range of the first 20-40 schools is much narrower than the PA.