To a degree, I agree. However, I have to ask if, even at a public “competitive HS”, do ALL students end up at T50 colleges? Isn’t it true that in a graduating class of 1000 students from a competitive HS, only 50-100 at most will attend T50 universities? I might be out of touch, but I can’t imagine that most public “competitive HS” send 500 kids a year to highly ranked universities. Don’t the majority of students at the vast majority of public HS attend public universities in their own states?
6 Likes
I don’t disagree with any of that.
It also depends how you define ‘highly ranked’. To me, easily the top 10% of four year colleges count (I know that’s not how everyone looks at it) which is about 300 schools (there are around 3000 four year colleges). So, at our local HS, nearly the entire class would attend the top 10% of four year colleges. I would think 500 of the 1,000 of them had aspirations at some point for a T50 school.
Don’t know the proportion of students who attend publics in their own state, but I am sure it’s high, as is the proportion who attend CC instead of a 4 year school.
1 Like
The top four matriculating universities from our HS are UT-Austin, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Arkansas.
2 Likes
But were they aware of the school’s ranking, or do they just “know” it’s a good school?
1 Like
Me too! I just want to give them a hug!
2 Likes
I think it’s largely parent-driven (especially if parents are alumni at T25’s).
My kids went to a competitive private school and there’s definitely a demographic of maybe the top 30 kids in each class that are vying for the T-25’s but I don’t even know if they are aware of what the rankings of each are - just that mom & dad went there or brother and sister went there or they grew up tailgating at football games there, etc. The other 200 kids may have one or two of those schools in their mix, but they seem happy with the acceptances they get and most end up at one of our state universities or one in a neighboring state. Once September hits each year, no one remembers where anyone got in anyway, and the whole cycle begins again with the next class.
3 Likes
If you are talking top 300, you are not talking highly selective schools, right? Many in the top 300 have acceptance rates higher than 75%.
And as noted, how many people with aspirations for top 50 schools knew their rankings versus knew them to be good schools?
And of kids with aspirations for top 50 schools, how many were do or die type kids in terms of top 50? In my experience, many of the kids who focus on top 50 schools are totally fine going to one outside the top 50.
On this site, you could think that there are less than 100 colleges in the US and 1/3 or more of all college students go to top 25 schools. Then there is reality.
4 Likes
I know one of the kids on that list, he ended in MIT right after he finished his Junior year in high school. I’ve also met lots of other kids accepted into MIT and they are no different than kids you will find in public flagships (and/or international public colleges around the world) where there is tremendous talent at or even above some HS math olympian medalists (obviously much more talented than the vast majority MIT accepted kids). Just look at Fields Medal winners and where they went to college, not a single one is an MIT alumni.
2 Likes
Above post was in reply to @hebegebe list on USA IMO team members.
My freshman D is looking into transferring as soon as possible since her Txx school dropped below that designation.
(yes, this is a joke)
3 Likes
This USNWR ranking has “jumped the shark”. It has served to fuel cynicism among applicants and parents. One of the biggest success stories of working the system IMHO has been Northeastern - look at how they have come up since the rankings began.
Schools are so aggressive in marketing now to attract increased number of applicants who have no chance of ever getting accepted. This is a big game. It would be nice if some of the schools cut their marketing budgets in half and targeted the money toward giving scholarships or FA to deserving students.
9 Likes
I was talking about the people that fill out the polls and how they only need to really focus on getting the top-5 or top 2 right because that was how the system was setup, before the new playoffs were put in. Yes the fans, bowls, colleges, are concerned with rankings beyond that, my point was if you only need to get the top-5 right, you can pretty much blow off having to really analyze the rest.
“This focus comes from parents, the media, and even some counselors.”
Alumni seem pretty focused on it as well. Seems like the discussion on how the president is doing among the alumni is partly based on rankings.
I think the answer to your question is “no” - half the class at most competitive public schools do not end up at a top 50 college. At our LPS each year about 60 students will attend a top 50 school (including 20 who go to Ivy or other top 20 schools). That is about 15% of the class which seems about right to me and is pretty consistent with a lot of public schools in MA (some of the most competitive publics will send more like 20% to a top 50, but that is still way less than half).
2 Likes
Thanks for the link…looks like all UC’s went up except Santa Cruz. My alma mater of UC Riverside up 5 spots, the most of any UC (now #83)…#1 in Social Mobility for the third year in a row. Santa Cruz is now the only UC now outside of the Top 100 at #103…hopefully they can get back up there soon…
130 posts in, I doubt this is true.
1 Like
I suppose this depends on what a “competitive” school is. Our LPS is typically in the top 50-70 or so among 1400+ HSs in PA, per various sources. I’d estimate about 20 of 550 graduates go to schools in the USN top 50. That would grow substantially, to 70-80, if it extended to top 65, including Pitt and Penn State. Beyond those top two, the most attended schools on the HS profile are the local CC and schools no one from out of the area has probably heard of (Duquesne, Robert Morris, Slippery Rock, Chatham, IUP).
1 Like
Why was this list considered “infamous”?
And speaking of California public schools, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo moved up one spot in the regional rankings to #2 overall in the West.
I wonder if USNews announced that colleges with vaccine and mask requirements would get a 10 point boost how many colleges would institute those changes? Even if it meant defying state orders!
3 Likes
Impressive moves up by Duke to #9 and Washington University St Louis to #14. I wonder how they did it?
1 Like