<p>This begs a recurring question. Name recognition by whom? The average joe six-pack on the street, or someone familair with your field of study, or more involved in academia ?</p>
<p>For many years on cc, we have been told that name recognition is not important. It shouldn’t define the “quality” of an institution. And schools that are recognized may be simply recognized because they have good sports teams, etc. </p>
<p>Some schools are recognized because of historic events. Kent State.</p>
<p>Re: Post #11, BigAppleDaddy, St. Lawrence University is down to one frat, so no longer can be considered “fratty.” One of my children just graduated from SLU. </p>
<p>Sally, is it possible to have it both ways? Not so competitive but has national recognition?</p>
<p>When March Madness comes along (In March, of course!) how selective are the 65 schools who get into the “Big Dance” ? There’s an idea for another thread!</p>
<p>That’s why there is a lot of gray area–one can define this question many ways. We intentionally left it vague. Nonetheless, I still take issue with a few of the suggestions–schools that really aren’t known by many beyond their immediate region or by those without some expertise and/or experience in this area.</p>
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<p>This thread is not designed to offer college recommendations to prospective students who often should indeed look beyond the places with name recognition. It will be used in combination with other research to help determine how or why college names become known. Kent State is a very good example of one way that a college name becomes recognized. Sadly, tragedy will do that, as the events at Virginia Tech have also shown us.</p>
<p>Sally, so which of the suggestions in particular would you separate out as schools that really aren’t known by many beyond their immediate region or by those without some expertise and/or experience in this area?</p>
<p>I am still confused about the purpose of the “list”.</p>
<p>There is another thread addressing this issue. Someone else just posted someting that applies here as well.</p>
<p>"“Must not be very good. I’ve never heard of it.” "</p>
<p>The initial inquiry (Post #1) equates “repuation” and “respect” to name recognition by inference.</p>
<p>Who is it that is qualified to recognize a school’s name. Most of us recognize a lot more names because we have gone through the colleeg process, or are in the midst of it. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Colleges that fare especially well in the NCAA basketball finals often report significant increases in applicant pools (and thus also selectivity) in the following year or years. I remember that this happened in a big way at both University of Maryland and Syracuse. </p>
<p>U of FL got on my son’s radar screen via hoop success, too. He’s still only 12 so he hasn’t applied yet ;). But he does wear his Gator sweatshirt with great pride. </p>
<p>And when a little-known underdog school manages to upset one of the big guns, even in the early rounds, I suspect that their admission folks start turning cartwheels.</p>
<p>'I agree using acceptance rates as a gauge to being accepted can be quite misleading, especially if you just use standardized test scores. UChicago, for instance, may appear to be ‘less selective’ vs an ivy, but I believe that’s because they are self-selective. That is, many who apply there have the high caliber stats, the fit, and really want to go. UChicago’s reputation as a ‘very academic environment’ and the application isn’t an easy one to complete. Compare that to some of the ivies: how many students applied to those just because their parents thought, “they should”."</p>
<p>Nope–not going there. Will just lead to more parsing, which we’re trying to discourage. But just to prove that I’m not a total chicken, I’ll send you a few names via Private Message. ;)</p>
<p>I would add Auburn to the list as well. Down south, Clemson and Auburn are as well respected as Tulane, and not as selective or pricey as Tulane. In fact, my husband and I were surprised to learn that both were state schools. Very nice for us, as one gave my son a full scholarship, and the other gave him an out of state waiver so far. It’s nice that he’s got good choices that won’t break the bank.</p>
<p>Kalamazoo
Albion (I haven’t seen this one at all… very good school and pretty decent with merit aid)
Michigan Tech- engineering (a VERY underrated school IMO)
Michigan State University (Yes, personal plug, but it has one of the top political science departments, vet programs, and a vast study abroad program)
Cornell College
Macalester </p>
<p>There was one in Wisconsin that I visited… but for the life of me I can not remember the name… I’ll find it.
EDIT: Found it
Lawrence University</p>
<p>I’m surprised no one has mentioned any CUNY (City University of New York) schools. I would put City College and Hunter on this list, but maybe that’s my East-Coast roots shining through.</p>
<p>With respect for Sally’s many helpful contributions, the criterion “realistic options for most good students” combined with the criterion “well known and respected on the national level (or even the international level)” has caused a lot of the confusion reflected in the posts.</p>
<p>Part of this comes from the vagueness of “most good students”–in the absence of either a GPA or SAT/ACT celing or floor, this provides much less guidance than, for example, the “B+ students” and “3.0-3.3 students” threads on the Parents forum.</p>
<p>Following that, the references to Ithaca, Lafayette and Beloit caused further confusion, as Lafayette is significantly more difficult to get into than Ithaca and the small schools given as examples of being “well known and respected on the national level (or even the international level)” are mostly good schools which are not well known nationally, much less internationally. The digression into sports muddied the waters further, making it seem that being well known for sports was, in this context, the same as being well known for academic quality. Outside of college conselors and CC addict, are more than a handful of LACs known nationally? I grew up 10 miles from Swarthmore and the majority of kids in my top suburban high school had never heard of it, much less Oberlin, Beloit or Pomona.</p>
<p>This leaves us with posters aptly asking which schools other than the 40 most selective are not included; why any flagship is not included; and hundreds of possibilities.</p>
<p>How will the end result differ form taking Princeton Review’s “Best 771 Colleges” guide and taking out the most selective, other than by using “nationally known” which will favor the top sports schools over the very Gouchers, Beloits, etc post appeared to be seeking?</p>
<p>i think this forum should be changed to something like:
“schools that are not highly selective and not (necessarily) well known, but will give you and AMAZING education.”
i would add lake forest college and the college of florida to this list!
and Berea College
and CUNY city college…any CUNY, actually</p>
<p>but there’s some schools like Case Western, Northeastern, and Fordham that are well known but give a pretty mediocre education AND college experience…</p>
<p>UT Austin
Trinity [TX]
Syracuse
Purdue
UC San Diego</p>
<p>^^ i see ur looking for international recognition. all of my relatives in my home country know and respect these schools. im sure there are more, so i could ask them i guess.</p>
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