Penn State news

soozievt
Fri, 02 Mar 2007 23:19:57 +0000

HH…having not been the person who created those subforums, I can’t totally answer how those schools were chosen for those forums. My guess is that, like a guidebook that selects a group of schools, CC chose a group of well known schools that are selective to have their own forums since these schools were in demand by the readership. CC also has forums from A to Z on lots more schools. The demand is high for discussions on those selective schools. Likewise, not all MT programs have their own subforums on the MT board. Some were chosen as ones that are either well known or talked about frequently on CC. When those subforums were created, CC looked at existing threads and which schools were being discussed and creating sub forums for 30 MT programs. They are not ranked, however. It is a grouping, but it is not a ranking. A ranking, ala USNews and World Report, numerically ranks schools in order by certain criteria. A college directory that choses a few hundred schools or CC choosing to create a subforum for well known schools talked about a lot on CC, is creating a grouping, but is not ranking them in any order.

CC, however, has a LOT of forums that discuss ALL aspects of college selection and admissions, as well as many related topics, and for that matter also has subforums on MANY colleges (see the alphabetical listing). So, I don’t think CC is ALL about rankings, as you asserted.

In any case, while I have been responding to you, and I understand how a discussion can morph to a new or related topic, I am cognizant that this thread was started to be about PSU. So, I’m not sure how much more we should be discussing whether CC is all about rankings and whether people start with rankings to find colleges. I have proferred my point of view and method for choosing colleges. I certainly am aware of which schools are most selective, selective and least selective. That is not necessarily the same list as a ranking. Back to MT colleges, which have no numerical ranking, there are “groups” of schools that are well known and considered more selective than others. Again, that is not a ranking but is a comment on their selectivity. In an actual “ranking system” like US News puts out, a school that has a lower admit rate (more selective) could conceivably be ranked lower than a school with a higher admit rate. US News has several criteria for ranking the schools. I personally do not need to know a college’s rank to find appropriate schools for my own kids or for clients. I do need to know how selective the schools are and the stats of admitted students. I don’t need to know any “order” of the schools by USNews, however.

A forum for very selective schools is warranted for those seeking out that level of school (often top students). That is a special interest group, so to speak. I see it as no different from having a forum for musical theater applicants which is another special interest group. Just within my own family with two kids, I had one seeking selective schools for a BA degree and one seeking BFA in MT schools. So, subforums that discussed those groups of schools would be helpful to me. If you read CC long enough and the various forums, there is a large contingent of students who are TOP students and so our forums cater to the different needs of the membership. Read the stats some time of the kids who post on the Ivy forums. There are a lot of extremely well qualified students and their parents reading CC. But we also have forums that discuss many schools and many issues related to admissions. We have learning disability forums, homeschooling forums, and so on.

CC’s counselors get a lot of clients who are applying to very selective colleges. My own training with CC dealt a great deal with elite college admissions even though I advise a wide range of applicants. But for certain, CC has many clients in the ballpark of highly selective colleges.