<p>bumbumpbump</p>
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<p>I’ve checked 5 sources: USNWR (national university rankings), Times Higher Education World University Rankings, stateuniversity.com, and Washington Monthly (national university rankings). The highest overall rank I see for Clark is #56, by Washington Monthly. Which is pretty good, but not #3. As for NE universities alone, the rankings typically would place more than 2 of them ahead of Clark (including Harvard, MIT, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Tufts, Brandeis … and possibly Connecticut, BU, UMass, and BC). I don’t know how you wold distinguish “research” universities from “universities in general” among these schools. Virtually all universities conduct research.</p>
<p>I’m not denying Clark is a good school or that it might be a good fit for you, or even a better choice than the alternative. I’m only suggesting you should not base a decision to pay much more to attend Clark on an opinion that it’s the third best research university in New England. Maybe it is, by some definition, in psychology (if that’s what you mean). But even there, the NRC/Chronicle graduate department rankings for psychology seem to place it behind a dozen or so other New England research universities ([NRC</a> Rankings Overview: Psychology - Faculty - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124708/]NRC”>http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124708/)).</p>
<p>In fact I’ve read good things about Clark. With the free fifth year it might be a better choice for you than Fairfield. To work in psych counseling, you’re probably going to want a Masters degree anyway. If you have to pay for that yourself after college, much of the Fairfield cost advantage could disappear (depending on where you get the degree and how it’s financed). So think about these issues again and whether, all things considered, Clark is worth an additional $14K/year up front for you.</p>