<p>This entire discussion of ranking got me wondering. Generally, people agree that instead of looking for the "best" school, rising college-bound seniors should instead search for the the
"best fit" school, but what, exactly, constitutes a good fit is left up to the imagination.
I'm a math person; I like numbers. So, though I have a basic idea of what I want in a college, it became very difficult to evaluate colleges equally and compare them without some sort of system. Websites that offer comparisons between schools and searches for "matching" schools usually turn up diverse results, and I'm left more confused than when I began. So I decided to experiment a bit.
Disclaimer: By no means is this a serious "experiment." My methodology is probably completely topsy-turvy. What I did here had little bearing on where I am planning to go to college. It's just good fun, people.
So I developed a points-system to evaluate colleges. The maximum a school could get was 15 points (Very low, I know, but remember, this isn't something very serious). In each category, the number of points received depended on what I wanted. I did not consider my chances of actually being admitted to the college.
For example, I knew I wanted a school with 5000-10000 people: not too big, not too small. Having the number of students within that range earned a school 2 points. <5000 gave 1 point because I think that, though it's not ideal, I could deal with and possibly benefit from a smaller school. 10000-15,000 was worth the same. Anything above 15,000 earned no points.
I compiled a list of schools that I had even the slightest interest in and put them to the test. Any school that got a majority of points (at least 8) made it to my theoretical college list, and I also ranked that list based upon points.
I found that some schools, which were "high ranked" didn't even make the list. Tufts University for example didn't even come close to making the cut (with a measly 4/15 points).</p>
<p>Other schools that, surprisingly, didn't make the cut:
University of Iowa
Denison
Mercer
University of Miami
Washington & Lee
University of Maryland</p>
<p>The College List (in order from highest to lowest score):
University of Richmond (13/15)
American University (12/15)
Tulane University--a school that I wasn't even planning on applying to (11/15)
Howard University (11/15)
Hawaii Pacific University (10/15)
George Mason University (8/15)
Norfolk State University (8/15)</p>
<p>My list in order of preference before this:
American
Howard
George Mason (I hadn't stopped to consider how HUGE it is.)
U Richmond
Hawaii Pacific
Norfolk State</p>
<p>(So I guess I did okay forming it without the points. Or maybe the points are just a reflection of what I already thought. Or maybe both my point-system and I are just dead-wrong.)</p>
<p>Based upon what percentile my GPA & SAT put me in for the schools on the list:
University of Richmond--Reach
American University--Reach
Tulane University--Reach
Howard University--Match
Hawaii Pacific University--Safety
George Mason--Match
Norfolk State--Financial Safety</p>
<p>Where the US News and World Report puts these schools:
University of Richmond
Tulane
American
Howard
George Mason--Tier 3
HPU--Tier 3 (different category)
Norfolk State--Tier 4 (different category)</p>
<p>In order of posts on CC (college forums, threads in the last year):
Tulane
American
U Richmond
George Mason
Howard
HPU (no CC forum)
Norfolk State (no CC forum)</p>
<p>Remember, this is just ha-ha fun. I don't want to get into any convoluted arguments that won't bring either of us any benefits.</p>