UA Freshman Academic Profile

mom2collegekids
Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:58:32 +0000

No problem

I thought you were thinking that the schools that I listed were 3rd tier. I tried to pick higher ranked or similarly ranked schools in my post.

As for some 3rd tiers…

There are some 3rd tier schools that are ranked that way for other reasons - not necessarily because they have “lower stat” kids. Some 3rd tiers get that lower ranking because of “other” issues…such as: not enough major offerings, poor freshman retention rating, larger class-sizes, etc.

For instance…UCF…it may be able to attract lots of strong stats kids, but it has a poor retention rate (maybe WDW is a distraction ). It also has less full-time faculty, larger classes, and a low alumni giving rate. Those things are probably causing it to have a lower ranking.

I know that a state school by my home is “3rd tier” but it has entering freshmen with good stats. It gets its 3rd tier ranking because it doesn’t offer a wide range of majors/programs. It’s very good in a few majors, but it has little depth in the others that it offers.

So, the ranking doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story. :)