Why do people on CC always say top 25 Universities?

College Search & Lists
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<p>I am wondering why CC people always say top 25 Universities. USNWR aside, I just wonder why it’s top 25. If you look at their rankings website:</p>

<p>[National</a> Universities Rankings - Best College - Education - US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-universities-rankings/]National”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-universities-rankings/)</p>

<p>You will notice a pattern with the individual universities scores. Harvard, number one, has a score of 100. Dartmouth, Duke, and U of Chicago, which are tied for 9, have a score of 90. Emory, which is ranked 20th, has a score of 80. UNC, which is ranked 30th, has a score of 70. This pattern gets distorted once you reach the 50’s.</p>

<p>Thus, I wondered why do people say the top 25 universities? Shouldn’t it be the top 30 universities? I ask because the difference between Tufts (ranked 28th) and UCLA, Virginia, and WF (ranked 25th) is one point. While the difference between UNC and BC is 3 points.</p>

<p>So my question is really why is it always the top 25 Universities? Is it just a norm? Or is there some other reason? Because if there was a phrase, wouldn’t top 20 make sense (since the difference between Emory, ranked 20th with 80 points, and Georgetown, ranked 21st with 77 points is 3)? Or is it because people want to include Georgetown and Berkeley? Or maybe it’s because people want to say top 25 and then 26-50…in which case I think that’s kind of odd because I feel even schools ranked 26-30 are still up to par with schools in the 20’s, or whatever.</p>

<p>I really don’t care for rankings (the way i see it, once you get to the top 35-ish schools, more or less you should just choose on what is the best fit, because you will get a great education at wherever). I am just curious as to why people always said “top 25 Universities.”</p>

<p>Discuss.</p>

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<p>Well the actual cutoff is rather arbitrary, for instance, some people say top 20 instead of top 25. For the most part, I think it’s just because it is what people are used to saying.</p>

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<p>I really don’t think it means anything definite. If you tell someone they should be looking at top 25 universities, I seriously doubt either person will interpret it as “completely disregard anything from 26 onwards”. It’s just a general phrase that people are used to saying, like jgraider said.</p>

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<p>Gotta be because 25 is the smallest composite non-sociable number whose aliquot sequence does not terminate. I mean, why else?</p>

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<p>There are few universities past the top 25 people regard highly. To be honest, Boston College and Tufts are part of the reason why some people say “top 25”. You’re right that people also try to include Berkeley (and Michigan but it plummeted to obscurity anyways).</p>

<p>The demographics were different when people first started saying “top 25” so the list of schools may have made more sense. Over the years, schools have shifted around and all the three historically top publics (Berkeley, Virginia, and Michigan) which the cutoff was partly designed around have not fared well.</p>

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<p>“You’re right that people also try to include Berkeley (and Michigan but it plummeted to obscurity anyways).”</p>

<p>Thanks for making it easy for me to finally put you on ignore.</p>

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<p>

I don’t get it. Do we have a problem counting? Tufts has always been ranked below Michigan except for this year where it is at #28. Boston College has always been ranked between 31-40. Are you saying CC people say “top 25” to purposedly exclude both of these schools?</p>

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<p>The number 25 has a lot of popular usage:</p>

<ol>
<li>Our coinage has a piece worth 25 cents</li>
<li>SAT scores are given in quartiles…</li>
<li>College Confidential has a list established many years ago called “Top 25 Universities”.</li>
<li>College football’s popular poles are 1-25.</li>
</ol>

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<p>Actually, Tufts ranked above Michigan in the 90’s. Yet that was a longggggggg time ago. I don’t think BC and Tufts are part of the reason. Especially since Tufts has been as low as 29 and as high as 22. BC has been 31-40 range:</p>

<p>[U.S&lt;/a&gt;. News Rankings Through the Years](<a href=“http://sylvester.math.nthu.edu.tw/d2/app-10/ranking/U.S.%20News%20Rankings%20Through%20the%20Years.htm]U.S”>http://sylvester.math.nthu.edu.tw/d2/app-10/ranking/U.S.%20News%20Rankings%20Through%20the%20Years.htm)</p>

<p>Regardless, I think coinage is kind of silly (we have 10 cents?), SAT scores in quartiles is interesting because that relates more to statistics (first quartile, second quartile, etc. Yet in that context, that’s percentile, and this would only apply if USNWR did 100 Universities), CC is ‘lol’ and goes back to that norm argument, and college football is interesting yet I feel sports and academics are different. Interesting thoughts though!</p>

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<p>

Tufts ranked above Michigan ONCE in the 90’s.</p>

<p>The answer is simple. There are 25 schools on the Top page of the USNWR ranking.</p>

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<p>Still, this year wasn’t the only year. Again, that’s besides the point and a futile conversation.</p>

<p>The problem I have with the first page argument is that the second page also contains the University of Virginia and Wake Forest (both ranked 25). The reason they are on the second page is that they rank ties alphabetically.</p>

<p>I also agree with you though that it isn’t top 25 as to exclude other schools or to include the top public universities.</p>

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<p>Top 25 just has better ring to it than say Top 17 or Top 53.</p>

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<p>Because no matter what number you pick, someone will ask why it wasn’t some other arbitrary number, and the “why isn’t my school listed in this group because its better than your school” posts will follow :rolleyes:</p>

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<p>Search String (number of hits on CC posts) </p>

<p>“top<em>20</em>university” (at least 200 hits)
“top<em>25</em>university” (at least 200 hits)
“top<em>30</em>university” (103 hits)
“top<em>40</em>university” (37 hits)
“top<em>50</em>university” (194 hits)
“top<em>100</em>university” (78 hits)</p>

<p>This does not even include variant forms such as "“top<em>100</em>universities” or “top<em>33</em>college”. So it seems people on CC always say all sorts of things. I think the official formula is to always make N equal to or greater than the ranking of one’s favored school.</p>

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<p>Tufts and BC are better schools than Michigan. I believe the ranking of College Counselors put Tufts at 22. Michigan has lower standards for in-state applicants. Tufts and BC are harder to gain admission than Michigan, especially Tufts. Michigan’s classes are too large. IMHO Tufts and University of Rochester are very underrated.</p>

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<p>By your logic, the College of the Ozarks is one of the best colleges in the country. Also, UVA isn’t a good school either because the in state acceptance rate is around 50%. Good job using flawed logic.</p>

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<p>^^ Just chiming in here, UVA’s acceptance rate is in the mid-high 30s. </p>

<p>Continue :)</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>

UVa in-state acceptance rates were 46.1%, 45.1% and 44.9% in 2010-2008 respectively.
[IAS</a> Historical Data: First-Time First-Year Applicants by Residency](<a href=“http://www.web.virginia.edu/iaas/data_catalog/institutional/historical/admission/first_by_residency.htm]IAS”>http://www.web.virginia.edu/iaas/data_catalog/institutional/historical/admission/first_by_residency.htm)</p>

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<p>It’s overall acceptance rate is 33%, I was close.</p>

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<p>Except if you look at classclown’s logic for why Michigan isn’t impressive, he cites the ease of in-state vs. out-of-state students. I was refuting that claim, not overall acceptance.</p>