An Interesting Dilemma (Prestige vs. Fit)

<p>Just to clarify our rankings, the undergrad biz program is currently ranked # 35 by BusinessWeek. Senior2B, just so you know, every ranking is incredibly subjective. Take them all with a huge grain of salt. </p>

<p>I’d also respectfully submit that using television game show results is not a very good way to evaluate a college.</p>

<p>To the OP, welcome to SCU! Since you have a full ride, I’m assuming you’re an outstanding student. If you do as well here as you did in high school, your future is limitless.</p>

<p>Uh, pain, I think that was my point: that if someone was going to put so much weight on the rankings, then they might as well tally up Jeopardy as well. -.-</p>

<p>Yes turtlerock I was aware that the ranking is for a graduate MBA which I agree is better for MBA prospects, I was just agreeing with someone that the #4 ranking makes sense since Santa Clara graduates do well in there career prospects. </p>

<p>As for undergrad they have been ranked #23 for Mid-Career Median Salary which is higher than Yale, Brown, UC Berkeley, Cornell, USC, Rice, Boston, Georgetown, etc. They have been for undergraduate among the highest salaries in the country since the ranking began in 2008. So they also do extremely well in undergrad alumni salaries as well as graduate salaries where they were #4. I do agree with you that rankings are subjective, I was just stating that “this” particular ranking the salary ranking is less subjective as it is based a lot more on fact(salaries of alumni), sorry about the confusion, I wasn’t all that clear initially. </p>

<p>Also what I meant by their prestige is on the rise is that their prestige or shall I say strong academic quality which is very well respected regionally is growing in national awareness. Hope that clears some things up.</p>

<p>Great contributions everyone. It really is helping me in my decision. This forum is wonderful resource.</p>

<p>cougar23, I also agree this thread is giving me a great insight about SCU.
One thing I’m wondering is whether your scholarship is full tuition or full ride. Someone in the thread mentioned it is full ride, but you said full tuition, so I just wanted to clarify. If it’s the full tuition, I wonder if they ever give full ride as well.</p>

<p>GoodDaddy - Between scholarships and grants I have a full-tuition scholarship. We’re still on the hook for room and board, but that will end up being cheaper than any state school. Pretty sweet deal! I was surprised by my award - people who worry about tuition costs should really focus on applying to private schools. So far most privates I’ve applied to have brought my educational costs down tremendously.</p>

<p>Do murders add to school notoriety? I just saw an E! Investigates featuring Dana Ewell . . .</p>

<p>[Dana</a> Ewell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Ewell]Dana”>Dana Ewell - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>You went from mildly helpful to rather irritating, turtlerock. We can always come up with alumni that schools would rather not remember (since USC was mentioned, why not post OJ’s white bronco chase in their forum), yet I don’t see why that needs to be part of the discussion. Insofar as prestige, I would have to agree that rankings are…rankings. If Santa Clara has a high ranking, that would suggest that it is increasing in notoriety, but I hesitate to engage in the “my school is ranked higher than yours, therefore it is better” business. All I will say is that the two members of the Cabinet that are SCU grads, Leon Panetta and Janet Napolitano, clearly did not suffer for having less recognition on the East Coast. Santa Clara is also the most well-known school of its type in California. It has better recognition than LMU, Chapman, USD, St. Mary’s, USF, Pepperdine, etc. Yes, Stanford and Berkeley are bigger names. But name and presitge are not based on undergraduate education. What we consider to be college prestige is based on grad school. As for Santa Clara being a school on the rise, look at that Forbes ranking. Santa Clara went from 300-something to 67 in four years or so. Now I don’t think we improved so much in four years that we leapfrogged some 200 schools (we were probably always closer to where we have ended up, but were not initially recognized as such), but it shows that we get a little more respected every year. We are not TOMS shoes. That was a ridiculous comment. The school is making very visible efforts to adjust and improve its education constantly. Santa Clara provides an undergraduate education designed to have a wholistic effect on the student. You must remember that it is a Catholic school, so the idea is that the student will make a positive impact on society in order to advance toward the realization of God’s kingdom. Whether or not you believe in the end of that mission, you will certainly appreciate the means. By the way, waytooinvolved, I’m actually pretty good friends with your daughter. Heck of a small world. Haha.</p>

<p>tell her to clean her room, her mother and will be there this weekend to inspect. please come up and say hi this weekend</p>

<p>Toast, you are really taking me too seriously. I DO like to try to entertain 1/2 the people who actually read this stuff. If you are taking me as irritating, then I oblige you to not read and/or respond to me or my posts. Thanks for your time though.</p>

<p>Sooo, I’m pretty sure Janet and Leon didn’t get to where they are only because they attended SCU as undergraduate (LP went on to SCU Law, but then the Army and then politics). There may have been so many things inbetween that helped then get to where they are now. I’m glad you mentioned them though. Much better than Steve Nash (he’s a great guy, just more recent and cliche to mention as an alum).</p>

<p>“We are not TOMS shoes. That was a ridiculous comment.” - See first above. If fashion doesn’t tickle your fancy, then I’ll offer the comparison of Lin in the NBA currently. He’s done/is doing great things for his team. He’s worked hard. Is he all the rage in some areas of sports? Yes. Will he break some records? Maybe, there is always a possibility. Will those records be broken by someone else that eventually comes along? Will the Knicks ever get someone else that can help support the team from out of obscurity? Most definitely.</p>

<p>“Santa Clara provides an undergraduate education designed to have a wholistic effect on the student.” - And so claims every other LAC in America. Not saying they do not provide this, I’m pointing out that that effect is not exclusive to SCU.</p>

<p>Okay, Toast, this is where you can take me seriously: For the record, I think SCU is an amazing and unique (not because it’s an LAC, of ocurse) educational institution that provides a lot for it’s student body. However, there are always things that can be improved on, so some of the comments by others hailing SCU higher than it really is are misleading.</p>