<p>I did not even say if I agree or disagree with the high school counselor rankings. All I said is that they have the same top 5 as everybody on this site always has, so they seem to agree with posters on this site more than top academic officials at schools agree with posters on this site. Hence, the winky face(s). You could certainly argue that people on this site don’t know what they’re talking about either, and I have no argument with you there! </p>
<p>Pointing out a couple of seemingly strange placements, though, is quite easy on any list…including the PA list filled out by provosts, deans, etc. Counselor ratings aren’t THAT much different that the overall rankings last year and only count for 7.5% of the total; it’s not responsible for super huge movements. I would have thought Brown would have benefited more, but it only moved from #16 to #15. Georgetown, which you all say is rated way too high, moved to #21 from #23, so it’s not like earth-shattering movements. </p>
<p>My guess is that counselors rated Gtown that high because they recommend it to students where government, pub pol, politics, etc. are high on their interest list and the SFS is second to none. But I suppose the same could be said with business at Wharton, and that didn’t seem to help UPenn as much so who knows. Caltech is lower in guidance counselor’s minds since they probably don’t recommend it to as many students since it’s more of a niche school. (I’m not saying that’s a valid reason or not, just stating it as a possibility. GC’s like more “well-rounded” schools like Stanford.)</p>
<p>I would be interested in hearing the defense of the following:</p>
<p>UC Davis #39</p>
<p>SAT 25-75 range</p>
<p>CR 490(!!! below the national average!!!)-630
M 540-660
W 500-630</p>
<p>ACT 25-75%: 21-27</p>
<p>Tulane #51</p>
<p>CR 630-720
M 630-700
W 630-730</p>
<p>ACT 29-32</p>
<p>Yes, I realize test scores are not the only thing to look at in a college, but doesn’t this seem just a tad absurd? I mean, their 75% for CR is Tulane’s 25%!! I could have put GWU there instead of Tulane to avoid the appearance of sour grapes, but their numbers are not as high as Tulane’s so not as dramatic a difference. No surprise, the HSGC rating for UCD is 4.2, for Tulane it is 4.0, which I think is a pretty clear demonstration that this methodology is highly flawed.</p>
<p>Why don’t more researchers measure cross-admit yield rates (I know there’s that one, but it seemed like a small sample size from a while back)? Although certainly there’s more to it than cross-admit yield, I certainly think that a weight should be put on what students actually decide when given an option. Of course there’s the problem of control, especially with very significant factors such as cost, but that probably balances out a bit in the grand scheme of things.</p>
<p>This is a great day for USC and all of California, and the PAC-10 in particular. Not only are there now two world-class, top ranked universities in L.A., but all of the hard work of the Trojan Family has paid off handsomely. Steven Sample, the outgoing president, is a genius and deserves congratulations for a job well done. What a gift to the incoming freshman class, which begins classes tomorrow.</p>
<p>I don’t. If school A is located in a rough neighborhood with ugly dorms, and school B is located in a posh neighborhood with beautiful dorms and chocolate flowing from the fountains, and school B wins more cross admit battles, it says nothing about school quality.</p>
<p>I predict that USC will overtake Berkeley in a couple of years. For at least 7 years, according to the UCB admissions data and USC admissions data, USC’s SATs have eclipsed Cal’s by several points, widening each year, and adjusted GPAs are virtually identical. The momentum is on USC’s side, and in the next couple of years, based in large part on USC’s ranking today, the admission rate will plummet to well below 20 percent, donations will skyrocket, the endowment per student will increase modestly, PA will increase, transfer admits will decrease, as well as the entering class size, making USC even more selective.</p>