how do you compare national universities versus a universities-masters?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>For example, where would I top three school in each university-masters stand among the national universities rankings?</p>

<p>Where would schools like Villanova (#1 in the North) and Santa Clara (#2 in the West) stand?</p>

2

<p>based on SAT scores and graduation rate</p>

3

<p>how about reputation?</p>

4

<p>I do not think the US News Peer Assessment rating for National Universities and LACs is on the same scale as for the Masters and Comprehensive groups. They are on different scales and not comparable. </p>

<p>One of the beauties of the SAT is that it is standardized. Reputation is closely associated with student quality which can be measured by SATs. Or, you can ask the knowledgeable posters on CC to offer their opinion.</p>

5

<p>One big difference is that schools that limit grad degrees to masters focus very heavily on undergraduate studies more than schools that offer a lot of doctorate degrees. There are exceptions,but that is a good general rule. The larger schools that offer doctorate programs may be more research oriented and usually have better and more extensive research facilities. However, there are exceptions here too. RIT generally offers only masters degrees ( with two exceptions) but has very good research facilities for undergraduates. I am sure the same can be said of some other similar types of schools.</p>

<p>Also,don't just go by US News rankings of schools overall. They place a lot of points into area that I and others find questionable such as 6 year graduation rates etc. Check out the peer review ratings, which are probably more important that other factors. I would also check out the endowment at the school. Generally the higher the endowment, the more the school can do with scholarships, maintenance, endowed chairs, facilities etc.</p>

6

<p>I def. agree. If I am aiming to go beyond an undergraduate education, is it base case scenario to choose a school like santa clara (<a href="http://www.scu.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.scu.edu&lt;/a&gt;) over the UCs because of the access of faculty and research opportunities?</p>