<p>Having a strong department in your intended major is the most important part of finding a good fit. The point of this thread was to generate ideas that would help prospective freshmen choose a college that is strong in their major. At the beginning of this discussion board there is a poll “What are the most important factors in selecting a college?”</p>
<p>Strong program in intended major = 50%
Prestige/Overall reputation = 40%
Good vibes/feels like home = 37%</p>
<p>I rank the oreder good vibes as most important, strong program second, and prestige third. All three are important, but I would hate to be at the school with an incredibly strong program in my major and an amazing reputation if i hated the place. Does anyone disagree?</p>
<p>I agree-happiness comes first. A good program is important, but not the most important factor. That’s partly why so many people end up as transfers.</p>
<p>Fit always comes first. College is a very important time in one’s life, and fitting in and having a great time is paramount. I would give fit a 40% wright.</p>
<p>Overall quality of education, name recognition and pretige and quality of the department of the intended major each gets 20%. That’s the way I look at it.</p>
<p>Of course, the relative importance of these factors depends on the individual. For the small minority of high school seniors who are absolutely certain about their majors and career paths, and who are right that they will not change their minds, then the quality and depth of program is more important. For the far more common case of students who have some ideas, but really don’t know, then departmental quality differences are of little importance unless the differences are huge. For most students the overal student experience, the physcial location, and the extracurricular scene are more important.</p>
<p>By the way, of course the number of grads with a degree in a field predicts the number of PhD’s with a degree in the field. If you use this as a quality measure, then use the PhD’s per undergrad degree rate. This would tell you what proportion of English majors end up with doctoral degrees, a far more meaningful indicator of the intellectual environment than the raw number. You can get the doctoral degree production and the undergrad degree production from WebCASPAR. The tricky part is dealing with people who move from one field to another- comp lit majors who get doctoral degrees in English, and vice versa. Liberal arts collegs, esp those with lots of distribution requirements turn out people who major in history but go on to doctoral degrees in science, physics majors who become philosophers, etc. </p>
<p>It is safer to limit the analysis to fields in which a very strong undergrad background is required for doctoral studies. Thus, there are not many English majors who get doctoral degrees in engineering, simply because of the course volume required as an undergrad to be ready to enter an engineering grad program. But there are math, chem, physics, and other non engineering majors in engineering grad schools.</p>
<p>But back to the main point. A high PhD production, even per captia, does not mean a great department. It might mean a good department for someone who wants a PhD, but it might not mean a great department for someone who wants to end education at the BA level. Or who wants to devote most of their time to the orchestra, while getting a solid education.</p>
<p>College choice is really an optimization problem, weighing lots of factors and trying to choose the college that’s most attractive overall. Yes, each person has their own priorities. But, based on the 724 people who responded to the poll at the beginning of the discussion board, strength in one’s intended major is the most important factor for the most people. There are probably several good “fits” for everyone but they should all have a decent department in your major. And, if it’s otherwise a toss-up between two or more colleges, go to the one with the strongest major.</p>
<p>POLL RESULTS
strength in intended major 50%
prestige/overall reputation 40%
good vibes…felt at home 37%
location + geography 26%
price 18%
climate 5%
friends 3%
athletics 2%</p>
<p>afan-
Within this small sample of LAC English departments, the raw number of PhDs produced and the PhD-to-enrollment ratio mean about the same thing because the enrollments at these few LACs are pretty similar. There isn’t much need to adjust the raw number. The correlation between the raw number of PhDs and the PhD/enrollment ratio was .94. They mean the same thing because enrollment is nearly the same at these LACs. If there were wide differences in enrollment, then the PhD ratios would be the only way to go. The correlation between the PhD/enrollment ratio and the bachelors/enrollment ratio was .58, significant at .05 but not as high as I thought it would be. The correlation between PhD/enrollment ratio and PhD/bachelors ratio was .71, significant at .01. Enrollment was the current enrollment, not the enrollment 15 or 20 years ago when the PhDs started as undergrads.</p>
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<p>I think you have to be very careful using raw totals because the differences in undergrad enrollment between LACs can be huge. For example, Smith and Wesleyan each have double the number of undergrads compared to Haverford. Double is a pretty signficant difference!</p>