<p>ddjones,</p>
<p>I’m not trying to get a “rise” out of people. Its just, everyone who goes to a school has made some comment about how their school is “underrated”–and notre dame is one of the places where this happens the most. Most people, if they had it there way would have their school tied for no. 1 with harvard (or whatever is no.1 this year) and then the rest of the list doesn’t have the change.</p>
<p>I was just trying to make an observation that Notre Dame is a very good school (which i have continuously said), but the reason why its PA score is low compared to its peer schools is because it doesn’t have a “hallmark” program that outsiders would know about. A lot of people, especially University Presidents who are supposed to know how good the “competition” is, know what schools have hallmark programs. I’ll bet that when people see Notre Dame, they say “solid across the board, but nothing blows us away.” People don’t say that about Berkeley, Georgetown, or Michigan, 3 schools which rank right next to Notre Dame.</p>
<p>Also, I don’t think Notre Dame puts out a lot of research compared to its peer schools, which also hurts its PA score.</p>
<p>Also, I did not apply to ND. I didn’t apply because I didn’t want to be in South Bend, not because ND isn’t a good school. South Bend just seemed like a miserable place to be, and from what I understand, is once football season is over.</p>
<p>Sweetlax,</p>
<p>I wasn’t joking about Vanderbilt. It has the best education program. You know .Ed degrees…B.Ed., M.Ed., P.Ed… program in the country. I don’t know why you think thats funny. Regardless, prominence of grad schools do play a huge part in the PA score. Schools are known for things which are published, invented, discovered, etc. Those things happen 99% of the time via the grad schools and professors. Of course thats what would be “known” about the schools. Also, it can be inferred that if the grad school is strong, then the undergrad division would be strong, too.</p>
<p>irish,</p>
<p>the washu “waitlist” syndrome is not the case at all, at least not in the past several years that I’ve paid attention to it. If WashU were taking 500 people off the waitlist to fill a 1500 person class, I can see your point, but it doesn’t. You’ll find that it takes less than 100 a year, which is normal for most schools–Notre Dame, too, I bet.</p>