<p>Check em out…surprisingly even some ivies are very low such as dartmouth and brown. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/94/colleges-09_Americas-Best-Colleges_Rank.html[/url]”>http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/94/colleges-09_Americas-Best-Colleges_Rank.html</a></p>
<p>Curse you soccersamdude, you beat me to it. I was surprised too! But I think BC teaching oriented philosophy got it the high ranking. With the exception of MIT, CalTech and HYP, most of the schools ranked at liberal arts colleges that teach more than they research.</p>
<p>Ha, my old school is #593, looks like I made the right switch.</p>
<p>How is Northeastern ranked #593? That’s absolute crap.</p>
<p>I didn’t make the list, however I do feel they did rank these schools a bit strangely. As to why NEU is #593, I have no idea. Personally the idea of co-op is good on paper, but practically it allows for very little freedom in terms of broadening ones mind (in a liberal arts sense). If you know exactly what you want to do in life and want to get a jump start in terms of a job and making connections, then its great. However, if you are unsure and want to dip into different academic fields, then it (to me) is not a great choice. This is just from my personal experience. I do not fully regret attending Northeastern (minus the $45,000+ I am out) and I may have done it again given the same circumstances, however I do feel that it was not for me and am excited to become a member of the BC community.</p>
<p>^^ pinkslip, I think you have a very narrow view of college rankings and have completely missed the point of Forbes. Each ranking looks at different aspects of a university. For example, the Shanghai ranking looks at how much research a university produces. In that case, universities that churn out scientific papers win. BC is ranked in the 400s in that ranking because it’s a teaching oriented university. Its science departments can’t compare with those of BU or Tufts (although BC chemistry is pretty damn good). USNews is about reputation and it measures prestige (i.e. standing with the public at large). The Washington ranking is about how much social benefit school’s graduates bring to the country. Forbes takes a different route, it measures what incoming students care about (i.e. teaching quality, indebtedness, graduation rates, salary after graduation) and NOT prestige or research. That is the main reason why liberal arts colleges dominate the ranking while many research oriented universities (e.g. UCLA, Wisconsin-Madison), with their big and impersonal classes, red-tape bureaucracy, etc, are not doing well. </p>
<p>You have the right to hate all college rankings because none of them can be everything to everyone. But to declare one ranking is worse than or better than another is absurd. There is simply no golden standard to measure one against the other.</p>
<p>Did pinkslip just delete his post??</p>
<p>lol you’re imagining things. rdsoxman did you transfer to bc from neu? </p>
<p>technically bc is 14 because the only reason army and air force is up there is because its free</p>
<p>Just playing devil’s advocate here, but I dont think it’s fair judging schools by average student debt coming out of college. I feel a school like BC, where many kids dont need to take on debt (family has enough money) to attend, can only benefit from this.</p>
<p>These are just different metrics some firms use to rank colleges. Just read what Reddune posted, he is right on target. The Forbes ranking ranks colleges from a student perspective. Clearly if you’re a student, you would care about financial aid and taking on debt to attend college. In statistics you learn that you would treat everything as is if you have a sample size of greater than 30. I’m sure there are more than 30 students who are concerned about their debt coming out of college.</p>
<p>If you’re unhappy, try your hand at a ranking system. :)</p>
<p>collegebound yes I did… I didn’t like the idea of the co-op program and was not happy with how my academics were going. They made it terribly hard to switch my major and tried to talk me into staying an engineer major when I told them I did not want to continue with it.</p>
<p>The ranking system doesn’t accurately reflect the schools at all. If one is out of whack, of which there are many (Dartmouth, Brown, etc.) - then the rest are. You can’t take to heart that BC is # 16. Sure you’d like to say the Forbes list is so great because of it, but it’s not and your a fool if you think so. Don’t believe in the lie haha</p>
<p>Yeah Duke at 104? Penn at 98? The ranking is highly questionable.</p>
<p>thats interesting red sox. </p>
<p>^^lol slipper the duke one is debateable. i think its fine =p</p>
<p>"Sure you’d like to say the Forbes list is so great because of it, but it’s not and your a fool if you think so. Don’t believe in the lie haha "</p>
<p>Your maturity and spelling add so much to the debate davematthewsxvii.</p>
<p>You have to take all rankings with a grain of salt. As Reddune stated earlier, if youat look the school’s rankings based on research, BC would be far down that list. Does that accurately reflect how well the school performs? The answer is no, because every school has their niche. If you actually took the time to read and understand what these rankings target, you would see that they measure a student’s educational experience through college. </p>
<p>As with any piece of data, you can use it in such a way that it skews the outcome of certain things to your favor. No ranking is a perfect and actual reflection of how well a college performs. As I said earlier, if you’re unhappy with these rankings, simply create your own metric at measuring a school’s performance.</p>
<p>collegebound… Ya, Northeastern is not a bad school and I wont ever bash it, however the co-op program was not for me. I also wanted a more liberal education and really like BC’s core requirements (Theology, Philosophy, Arts, etc) as I am a hard science major (Physics now, but am looking at Bio/Chem) and want to expand my education. I would have probably stayed at Northeastern ( I also applied and was accepted into Gonzaga University) due to its location in Boston as well as I was able to switch to a physics major (however I was not impressed with the department, smart professors but terrible in the classroom). So NEU is not a bad school per se, but it was just not a good fit for me.</p>
<p>Reddune…really? Relax my friend. I know quick posts might bother you when you’re on all the time with that post count…
go breath some fresh air</p>
<p>^The same can be said about you dave. I have an average daily post of 0.86 while yours is double that (1.51). Between the two of us, I think I am breathing better. While everyone has the right to their opinion, posting like a little child does not bring you much respect. You might have a case regarding Brown and Dartmouth, but surely there is a better way to convey your thought (as many who think the same way you do and have posted on this thread)? Calling everyone who disagrees with you a “fool” and then taunt them with a “haha,” doesn’t do much for your argument. Maybe you were only semi-serious/half-joking when you posted or maybe you were not. Better be cautious with your language where tone and inflection aren’t factors in communication.</p>
<p>Sarcasm is difficult to interpret through text on the web- I did not refer to any one as a fool specifically. For you to jump to such a defensive position though with such a negative tone, personally attacking me, shows some of your shortcomings. If you don’t like what someone says on a public forum…let it go, and ignore it.</p>