USNEWS 2010 Rankings

College Search & Lists
101

<p>

Not really.</p>

102

<p>You run admissions. Say 10,000 people apply, and you have 1000 spots to fill.
If you have a 40% yield rate, you must accept 2500 people,and will have a 25% acceptance rate.
If you have a 60% yield rate, you accept 1660, for a 17% acceptance rate.</p>

103

<p>exactly. yield rates are very much related to acceptance rates. If Harvard had a 30% yield rate, they would probably accept double to triple the amount they currently do, but they don’t ;)</p>

104

<p>Connected, yes, but not the same. A university that has a small, self-selected applicant pool can have a high yield and high acceptance rate.</p>

105

<p>Interestingly, Caltech and Chicago, the schools most often called self-selective, have relatively low yield rates.</p>

106

<p>^ exactly. Self-selective doesn’t really apply to any of the top colleges. The onnly place where self selective might come in is for those super uber out-of-the-mainstream schools like Deep Springs college, but no one cares because it’s not exactly ranked or considered on par as the top universities and colleges.</p>

107

<p>Some of these so called yield rates are self perpetuating. The second and third tier schools are most often the safety schools for applicants to the top 25 schools. Breaking out of that mould is very difficult. </p>

<p>Another question for contemplation is whether you would rather be a big fish in a smaller pond (both for stress as well as for perception when they apply to graduate school), or to be in the middle of the class (or lower) if they went to an Ivy?</p>

108

<p>Being at the bottom of my school has helped me tremendously. For others, this would not be helpful.</p>

109

<p>

50% PA
25% Test Scores
25% Financial Resources</p>

110

<p>^ i somewhat agree withyour angle.</p>

<p>However, for me:</p>

<p>40% PA
10% Test Scores
5% Retention
5% Graduation Rate
10% Acceptance Rate
5% Faculty Resources
5% Research Output
5% Spending
5% Alumni giving rate
10% Employer Review</p>

111

<p>what are these test scores?</p>

<p>I think there should be a separate ranking for desirability and a ranking that really measures the strength of academic institutions.</p>

112

<p>Could anything be better than Revealed Preferences for desirability?</p>

113

<p>UCBChemEGrad. You always make me smile when i read your posts. I assume that 50% score for PA, along with the other scores, would put Berkeley solidly in the top 6. Of course, since Berkeley and Michigan get screwed by USNWR every year, I naturally would agree with you. :-)</p>

114

<p>

A PA-free ranking has already been produced.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/220855-peer-assessment-free-rankings.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/220855-peer-assessment-free-rankings.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

115

<p>As I have said many times, larger public schools get the short end at USNWR.</p>

116

<p>^ Not much difference…but WAYYY too heavily weighted to privates.</p>

117

<p>honestly, ANYONE who thinks PA isn’t CRUCIAL to rankings will think again after that “PA-FRee” ranking.
Hoenstly…: WUSTL as 6th place???
lmao.</p>

<p>PA should be given a TON more weight.</p>

118

<p>The problem is that there is no way to quantify quality of education. Everything in the USNews is some sort of obscure proxy for it - salary of faculty, graduation rate, etc.</p>

<p>These numbers can’t possibly tell the whole story, but PA adds a bit of humanity to it.</p>

119

<p>Agreed Hope2getrice. IBClass06 thanks for sending that old thread. It was entertaining to read. Berkeley might not make it to the top 6 UCB, but it seems it would easily be in the top 15.</p>

120

<p>100% PA would be preferable…</p>

<p>I give the list again…(all the posts I see are praise for it):</p>

<p>100% PA ranking:

  1. Harvard, Stanford, MIT
  2. Princeton, Yale
  3. Berkeley
  4. Chicago, Caltech
  5. Penn, Columbia, Cornell, Johns Hopkins
  6. Duke, Michigan
  7. Brown, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Virginia
  8. UCLA
  9. UNC, Wisconsin, WUSTL, Carnegie Mellon
  10. Texas, UIUC, Georgia Tech, Rice, Vanderbilt, Georgetown
  11. USC, Notre Dame, Washington</p>

<p>Gives a good mix of publics and privates. IMO, these are the Top 30 national universities…rearrange anyway you see fit.</p>