<p>This is a really interesting question. As a family of academics who have 1 in college and another starting to look, we look at quality of institution in terms of academic offerings and academic opportunities. So – first and foremost, quality of the faculty – where are their Ph.Ds from (as academics, and with friends who are academics in different disciplines, we are fortunate to have a rough sense of which are strong programs in core disciplines – they are not always the US news top 20 schools, for instance, Rutgers and Pitt Philosophy or Univ Cincinnati Classical Archaeology). Among those faculty, are they active in their disciplines? Publishing and presenting at top journals, conferences? </p>
<p>Then, what are the opportunities for student engagement – undergrad research, small upper level classes etc. Selectivity and admitted student test scores are not really on our list of priorities. As neither we nor our kids are STEM types, we aren’t concerned about acclaimed faculty who may be running labs rather than lecturing – top notch History, Poli Sci, Philosophy profs are generally in the classroom during the year unless they are on leave. They may teach only upper level courses and skip the intro level, but that’s not something we have a concern about as long as students are able to take classes from them at the upper level. </p>
<p>Another consideration that matters to us is administrative effectiveness. We lost interest in our instate flagship when we encountered repeated examples of ineffective communication and bumbling bureaucracy, not just in admissions but in substantive programs. Other flagships were not that way, and now that we have an enrolled student at another public flagship, that attention to detail and efficiency is apparent in the way the entire institution runs. All things being equal, I would rather deal with an institution that is well-organized and works. Now that is NOT a way to judge the overall quality of an institution, but it certainly can matter to parents when dealing with Bursar etc. </p>