<p>you might want to run a regression analysis with questions #1 & #2. :D</p>
<p>For example, how many kids said No to question 1, but still ended up at a higher ranked school, perhaps incidentally? Conversely, how many did look at the rankings but still chose a lower ranked school.</p>
<p>PS -- You also shouuld pull out any ED'ers, who will, almost by definition, attend the highest ranked school regardless of rankings, (unless, for example, they ED to Penn and EA to MIT and are accepted to both).</p>
<p>USNWR is a useful tool but the rankings only go so far.</p>
<p>My D had a profile in mind of the college she wanted to attend. I used the USNWR selection functionality to come up with a list of schools meeting the criteria. In her case all schools were LACs. Out of a list of about 20 schools I recall about 10 being ranked in the top 100 or so schools. So we looked at USNWR and the rankings but it was only to come up with a list of possibilities. </p>
<p>D (and I) considered all 10 schools to be of equal strength and she looked for the school that fit her best. She ended up selecting a school ranked in the 90's although she was also accepted at 3 other higher ranked schools. All offered similar merit packages...she just thought her final choice was better for her.</p>
<p>I did read USWNR- but not for the rankings aspect (which I find to be irrelevant for the most part, at least within many places) but more for information and objective stats. S never read it. </p>
<p>I was aware of the PA (peer assessment= rating of other top college administrators, ie presidents, provosts and deans of admission on a scale of 1-5) number from having seen it, but PA is so subjective and no doubt based in large part on accepted perceptions and past reputation (and probably lobbying and marketing one school to another).</p>
<p>To me, it's as a resource for objective stats and info (though dated by a couple of years)all in one place , that USNWR can be useful.</p>
<p>bluebayou: There was discussion of that earlier in thread. There are a lot more No/Yes's (didn't look at the rankings but chose the highest ranked school) than there are Yes/Yes's. Percentage-wise, however, it's not an overwhelming difference. As of last night, about 15-20% of the kids who had looked at the rankings had chosen the highest ranked school (one kid would be in dispute, because he said he chose the highest ranked school, but he had a very public decision process so everyone knows he didn't, although he may well have chosen the school with the highest ranked graduate program in his area of interest), versus a little less than 25% of the kids who said they didn't look at the rankings but chose the highest ranked school anyway.</p>
<p>weenie...dstark tallied the poll results as of almost midnight last night and posted them in post #2 on THIS thread. However, more have entered the poll and so the results may eventually be updated, but dstark said he will be offline for a few days.</p>
<p>Fwiw, I find it interesting that so many people discovered College Confidential during their research phase but would have ignored the ubiquitous US News magazine and online tools. </p>
<p>As far as I am concerned, I would not be surprised if DStark's poll had similar low ratio for a question about the FAFSA. While EVERY student who files for financial aid had to sign the FAFSA, I'd wager that 43.56% would declare never have heard about it. Of course, the great number of dedicated private secretaries and overzealous document compilers (aka parents) must play a role! </p>
<p>All I know is that is the USNews rankings, and despite its glaring shortcomings, should be a cornerstone of anyone's research, especially for the parties interested in the elusive best fit. The online tools offered by USNews are simply wonderful and nobody comes close. Nobody!</p>
<p>I'll freely admit having read at least 5 years of USNews ... cover to cover. I'll freely admit having dissected the methodology to such a degree that I'll have to call myself a USNewsaholic. </p>
<p>This said I still hate the ranking part with a passion, and still find the Peer Assessment to be an entirely stomach churning exercise in dishonesty and futility.</p>
<p>I would think that even without studying USNWR cover to cover, most people on this site know what the tippy-top schools are (you can't miss it will all the references to HYP and SWAP, etc.); and "all things being equal" one would expect that people would go with the "best" school. All things are not equal, though -- so obviously someone with a speciality interest might well not pick the "best" school -- e.g., someone with an interest in computer science or engineering might not go to Harvard; in my kid's case, music performance and money were the key factors in not choosing H or P. On the other hand, most kids at his school went with the "top" school they were admitted into regardless of money and most chose private colleges over UC's, even with Regent's Scholarships.</p>
<p>I didn't know until I asked him for this poll whether son had ever seen the rankings. He said he hadn't. He picked his school, Grinnell, over Carleton, Pomona, Haverford and Vassar, all higher ranked by US News. He chose based on the intellectual curiosity and "weirdness" (his word) of the students. He was looking for a certain brand of weird and believes he's found it at Grinnell. We urged him not to consider the financial part because we had the money saved up, but he also picked the cheapest option (thrifty young lad!). I'm pretty sure he'll be happy there.</p>
<p>my kid's starting list of schools was H/Y/P/Columbia/Dartmouth/Brown and MIT</p>
<p>Did he really need rankings to help him with that list? </p>
<p>He eliminated MIT after visiting all of the schools. His top three choices were Harvard/Princeton and Columbia in no particular order, but he would have been happy to get into any of the six. When he got into Harvard Early, he eliminated Brown, Yale and Dartmouth - then after mulling things over decided on Harvard so did not send his already completed applications in to Columbia and Princeton. </p>
<p>Don't know what role USNWR could have played in the whole process.</p>