Lehigh to break the top 25?

[spicegirl707]

<p>Does anyone else think that Lehigh will be able to break the top 25 national universities according to the U.S. News and World Report in the next couple of years? Right now it’s ranked as number 34, and I think that with the right PR anything is possible!</p>

[StitchInTime]

<p><a href=“%5Burl=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061734977-post1.html]#1[/url]”>quote</a> Lehigh to break the top 25? </p>

<p>Does anyone else think that Lehigh will be able to break the top 25 national universities according to the U.S. News and World Report in the next couple of years? Right now it’s ranked as number 34, and I think that with the right PR anything is possible!

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<p>Let’s accept for the moment that PR would move the ranking, what does that say about a system of ranking so sensitive to PR?</p>

<p>Food for Thought:</p>

<p>[Prestige</a> Versus Education](<a href=“http://www.townhall.com/columnists/column.aspx?UrlTitle=prestige_versus_education&ns=ThomasSowell&dt=10/23/2007&page=1]Prestige”>http://www.townhall.com/columnists/column.aspx?UrlTitle=prestige_versus_education&ns=ThomasSowell&dt=10/23/2007&page=1) by [url=<a href=“http://www.tsowell.com/]Thomas”>http://www.tsowell.com/]Thomas</a> Sowell<a href=“Rose%20and%20Milton%20Friedman%20Senior%20Fellow:%20The%20Hoover%20Institution:%20Stanford%20University”>/url</a>:</p>

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…Some students may feel flattered that Harvard, Yale or M.I.T. seems to be dying to have them apply. But the brutal reality is that the reason for wanting so many youngsters to apply is so that they can be rejected. </p>

<p>Why? Because the prestige ranking of a college or university as a “selective” institution is measured by how small a percentage of its applicants are accepted. So they have to get thousands of young people to apply, so that they can be rejected.</p>

<p>While we are on the subject of reality and prestige, one of the tragic misconceptions of many students and their parents is that you have to go to a prestigious, big-name academic institution to really get ahead and reach the top…</p>

<p>…Stop and think: What is an academic institution’s prestige based on? </p>

<p>Academic prestige is based mostly on the research achievements of the faculty. Places like Harvard or Stanford have many professors who are among the leading experts in their respective fields, including some who have won Nobel Prizes. </p>

<p>Good for them. But is it good for you, if you are a student at Prestige U.? </p>

<p>Big-name professors are unlikely to be teaching you freshman English or introductory math. Some may not be teaching you anything at all, unless and until you go on to postgraduate study. </p>

<p>In other words, the people who generated the prestige which attracted you to the college may be seen walking about the campus but are less likely to be seen standing in front of your classroom when you begin your college education…</p>

<p>…By contrast, at a small college without the prestige of big-name research universities, the introductory courses which provide a foundation for higher courses are more likely to be taught by experienced professors who are teachers more so than researchers. </p>

<p>Maybe that is why graduates of such colleges often go on to do better than the graduates of big-name research universities. </p>

<p>You may never have heard of Harvey Mudd College but a higher percentage of its graduates go on to get Ph.D.s than do the graduates of Harvard, Yale, Stanford or M.I.T. So do the graduates of Grinnell, Reed, and various other small colleges…

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