Do I have any chance at Swarthmore?

[A.E]

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@johnwesley

you do realize that you have an irritating habit of accusing people of misquoting you then going right ahead and saying exactly what they said you did in the first place, right?

It seems now you’re just ■■■■■■■■; you can’t actually believe what you’re posting.</p>

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@dramatica

A.E.</p>

<p>I am glad that you mentioned Reed. It is an excellent example of how the rankings are flawed, and in my humble opinion, meaningless. </p>

<p>At 54 in the USNWR rankings, Reed is often passed over by the straight “A” elite conscious student that might be helped if we were to accept that the rankings are a good starting point. Reed is not top 10 or even top 50 in the rankings, yet it is recognized by those who work in academia as an intellectual powerhouse.

This is precisely my point. Maybe it’s not fair, but you can’t deny that USN&WR has totally changed the landscape of higher education. Many straight-A elite students don’t even look at Reed. Many people hiring college graduates don’t give Reed graduates serious consideration. You may see these things as meaningless, but status symbols, such as a USN&WR ranking, are prevalent in the minds of many people.</p>

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Why is Reed 54, way behind less academically rigorous institutions? Because to its credit, it has refused to play the USNWR game by not submitting any data. An explanation of Reed’s relationship with the magazine can be found in its admissions site: Reed College Admission Office

Why won’t other colleges get on board? I’m sure in some cases the admissions personnel naively believe that USN&WR provides an invaluable service and that it is their duty to participate, but I think for most, especially those near the top, like Swarthmore, they continue to participate because they fear losing out on the benefits such a status symbol affords them.</p>

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And by the way, although I had not heard of Pomona when I was in high school, I did know of Reed and it is one of the schools that my d seriously considered and could have easily picked over Swarthmore. It was a hard decision for her and geographic location tipped the scales in favor of Swarthmore as the May 1st decision deadline loomed closer and closer. My d is very happy at Swarthmore and I believe that she would have been quite happy at Reed too. In reality, there are many “perfect” schools if an effort is made to learn more about them.

Right. The problem is there are just too many schools out there for anyone to ever be certain that he has found one of the “perfect” ones. At best, you can narrow it down with the available tools such as USN&WR or the various guides and then start an in-depth examination from there. Perhaps Pomona was really the best choice for you. Perhaps Swarthmore would have been the best choice for my dad. My point is that USN&WR is one of the contributing factors to why I had those among my choices and those in your generation did not. I will go as far as to say that there isn’t a single domestic, non-legacy student at Swarthmore who didn’t at some point look at the USN&WR rankings when he was making his decision of where to attend college, nor has there been for the past ~20 years.</p>

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Reed and Swarthmore are both outstanding institutions. I find the gap in rank between the two, disconcerting, particularly when taking into consideration some of the schools that outranked Reed. I am too much of a cynic to accept that a number of those schools made their way to the top without data manipulation and admissions strategies specifically designed to boost the numbers.

Indeed. This is another component of what I was talking about when I said it has irrevocably altered higher education in America. I also agree that it’s irresponsible journalism on their part to rank Reed where they have. I think they should list schools that have refused to send in information in a group, not give them a rank, and leave it at that. To those in the know, Reed is a top ten school. It’s baccalaureate origin of Ph.D.s even exceeds that of Swarthmore.</p>

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And so, without naming publications, I will continue to insist that there are much better alternatives to the USNWR as a source of information, some of which have been around longer than USNWR rankings, and may, in fact, have been the source of inspiration for the magazine to embark on this enterpri$$$e.

Yes, probably so, but none of them have left the mark on higher education that USN&WR has.</p>