Top 10 versus Top 25

Plainsman
Tue, 19 May 2009 16:44:46 +0000

Agree with TheDad and Andale. You need to be very careful with rankings. While few would disagree that there is a difference between Stanford and Slippery Rock State, when you’re trying to distinguish #1 from #25, or #6 from #19, it gets to be kind of, well, silly.

Focus on what you want to study and where you can get in. If you want a degree in creative writing, #25 might be a better choice than say MIT. If you want a degree in engineering or science, it may be the reverse decision is better.

It doesn’t make sense to say you want “prestige,” so the higher ranked school is always best. What do you want to study? Harvard isn’t #1 at everything. In reality, it might not be #1 at anything, other than showing up in a ranking by a magazine that I’ve heard referred to for other reasons as “Useless News and World Distort.”

And don’t forget the Liberal Arts Colleges. Any of the Top 20 LACs might be better for your purposes than the Top 20 national universities. Or not.