Colleges Ranked By Overall Satisfaction/Happiness with Choice

Parents Forum
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<p>Here is a surprising list of the top 100 colleges ranked based on a survey designed to capture "overall satisfaction and happiness with school choice." Of course, for those who know me, you can be sure that I was not surprised to see which school was number 1. No wonder the students are so friendly... They're happy there:</p>

<p>College</a> Rankings :: Overall Satisfaction</p>

<ol>
<li>Ohio University</li>
<li>Williams</li>
<li>Elon</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Notre Dame</li>
<li>Smith</li>
<li>Appalachian State</li>
<li>Carleton</li>
<li>Vassar</li>
<li>Yale</li>
</ol>

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<p>well, it wasn’t a very scientific survey. it is based on the people who used this myplan service.</p>

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<p>Interesting, thanks for sharing.</p>

<p>May not be totally “scientific,” but it does say there were 11,000+ responders and it’s a fluid poll, it changes over time.</p>

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<p>AHHH…Smith is on there which is where I"m going. I can’t imagine a happier group of kids</p>

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<p>Great to see App State on the list - my son will be there this fall and I have only heard great things about it!</p>

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<p>Not surprised to see Elon on the list either.</p>

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<p>What a fun site! I enjoyed seeing the political affiliation and the campus setting lists. No big surprises but a few small ones. Thanks for posting it.</p>

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<p>made my day…hehehehehe…even if it’s not “scientific”…!</p>

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<p>Oh, Fitchburg State College…</p>

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<p>It’s not every day you see a college ranking list where the U.S. Naval Academy is precisely tied with Evergreen State College, or Harvard with Abilene Christian!</p>

<p>Of course, this is sort of a BS, unsystematic survey. But it does bring home that students in a wide variety of institutions are basically pretty darn satisfied with their experience. MIT, the home of “IHTFP”, comes in only 5 points below the top, and slightly ahead of Dartmouth, Harvard AND Abilene Christian. And who dreamed that there were 56 colleges with more satisfied students than Princeton?</p>

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<p>“ihtfp”… Lmao!!!</p>

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<p>Regarding MIT, it’s a love-hate relationship. Students may say “ihtfp”, but they often can’t imagine being anyplace else. I have this on good authority. ;)</p>

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<p>Of course. But you don’t necessarily expect them to express warm-kitten satisfaction. That’s my point: everyone is actually pretty happy. There’s only 12 points (about 13%) separating #1 from #100.</p>

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<p>I thought that UNC would be higher than App State, honestly… but that’s very interesting, regardless. Maybe it’s because App State has done a better job of recruiting top students that they have in the past? I got three scholarships there, and I know a ton of other people who were also heavily recruited.</p>

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<p>Georgia Tech is ranked ahead of UGA. Georgians should have a field day on that! :)</p>

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<p>When did they do this survey? Mary Washington College became the University of Mary Washington back in 2004!</p>

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<p>It doesn’t matter how big the sample size if it isn’t randomly drawn from the relevant population. A larger sample size doesn’t make an unscientific, non-representative poll any better.</p>

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<p>Interesting that Goucher–which has gotten a lot of marketing mileage out of a Newsweek piece from several years ago that ranked it #1 in student happiness–didn’t even make the list. How does that happen? (Since my son is going there, I’m going to assume it’s because they were off the scale. :))</p>