<p>Tufts, Boston College, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, University of Virginia, Emory, Georgetown, Brandeis are all schools you might want to check out.</p>
<p>UNC, UVa and maybe Cornell. But none of those schools is located in a major city like LA.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the responses. It doesn’t have to be a major city like LA, I’d just prefer something thats not in the complete middle of nowhere…if that expands the criteria even more?</p>
<p>No Brown is 91. These are on line so you don’t have to guess. Here is the link.</p>
<p>[Test</a> Prep: GMAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT, SAT, ACT, and More | The Princeton Review](<a href=“College Search | Find Colleges | The Princeton Review”>College Search | Find Colleges | The Princeton Review)</p>
<p>Perhaps now, but in the 2007 edition, I am pretty sure it had an academic rating of 72.</p>
<p>The Princeton Review, a for-profit publisher of achievement tests and college guidebooks, has backed their ratings, claiming that criticism is unfounded and originates mostly from schools that have not scored well.</p>
<p>As a transfer student you need to really be aware of the cost of attendance. You may not see a lot of financial aid. Make sure you can afford these schools before you get into the application process.</p>
<p>I’m aware of the high costs, which is also part of the reason why I would want to go to a JC first. But it seems like a catch-22 situation since out of state private schools don’t care if I came from a JC…but then again going to a JC would save me money, anyone else have any suggestions of schools?</p>
<p>Don’t listen to the recommendations of 1980collegegrad, who seems to be on CC only to promote the endless glory of the College of the Holy Cross. Since PR gives HC the best press (98 academic rating), he feels that it is the benchmark upon which all colleges should be evaluated. Please don’t try to convince me that Holy Cross has better academics than Amherst, Brown, Dartmouth, Yale, the University of Chicago, and Georgetown, among others.</p>
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<p>1980collegegrad,</p>
<p>But what I am interested is whether YOU know HOW it’s derived and WHAT it means or measures; I also want to know WHY you think it’s so great. I hope you are not blindly using and defending it only because it gives Holy Cross a 98 (hence better than most Ivies).</p>
<p>This is what PR says: In calculating a university’s Academic Rating, The Princeton Review considered how hard students work and how much they get back for their efforts. Student survey results coupled with statistical information reported by administrators contributed to the equation. Factors weighed include how many hours students study outside of the classroom and the quality of students the school attracts. Students’ assessments of their professors, class size, student-teacher ratio, use of teaching assistants, amount of class discussion, registration, and resources also played a large role in the category of the Review’s evaluation. On a scale of 60-99.</p>
<p>Like all methodologies and rankings (USNews, PR, Gourman, Ruggs, Barrons, etc), none individually are perfect and often subjective to some degree but collectively will hopefully provide some good guidance.</p>
<p>Then why do you trust it so much more than the other rankings?</p>
<p>Because it is freely available on-line and provides two different main ratings one for Admissions and one for Academics and of course rankings for a wide variety of other characteristics. It is a richer source of information than just the US News single ranking. I’m too cheap to pay for the full fare US News & World Reports info.</p>
<p>Because free things are usually better quality than costly things, I understand. [sarcasm]</p>
<p>My point is that basing your recommendations on such an arbitrary number is rather ridiculous. At least US news rankings include some valuable information. PR rankings are just surveys.</p>
<p>Arbitrary rating systems aside, you will definitely be at an advantage applying from a California community college to a University of California school. UCLA, Cal and other UCs give top priority to students transferring from California community colleges. Other than that, coming from a cc makes you somewhat less competitive although cc students go on to some very, very impressive schools. Over in the transfer forums there are all sorts of cc kids applying to, and getting into, top tier schools. </p>
<p>Total anecdote- the kids I know who are successful at UCLA are on par with successful kids I know at Tufts, BC, Colby, Bates and USC. As far as public schools go UCLA is probably second only to Cal but you will find, as the above discussion highlights, that there is a huge disparity among rankings and opinions. UCLA is a huge public school and none of the powerhouse Northeast schools can compare in that respect.</p>
<p>Thanks for clarifying, I wasn’t aware that going to a JC in CA helped more to get into UC school. I’m very well aware of the prestige and academic rating of UCLA and Cal, I was just looking for schools in a different location. What about schools in NE that may not be rated as high as UCLA/Cal but at least rated higher than SDSU?</p>
<p>Upon further analysis of PR, I have to agree with you. I just noticed that PR gives Middlebury the best press (98 academic rating) and there is no way that Middlebury has better academics than Amherst, Brown, Dartmouth, Yale, the University of Chicago, and Georgetown, among others. This simple fact completely invaldates their methodology to me.</p>
<p>I think one must interpret the PR data as it is intended to be; not as a ranking or indication of actual quality, but rather, a loose rating of student sentiment.</p>
<p>So does anyone have any suggestions on preferably public schools in NE that are at least better than SDSU?</p>
<p>OP – got to a JC, then apply to UCSB, UCLA, etc. It is way easier to get into those schools out of JC than out of high school. The acceptance rate is almost 50% by that route.</p>