<p>Boyle, as in a large nasty thing that starts under your skin and starts pussing and all that. Oh, wait, that's spelled a different way I think.</p>
<p>what school do you really want to go to? What school, that you have researched about, appeals to you the most?</p>
<p>Britty's got the right idea.</p>
<p>I'd advise you to just stay away from saying you want to go to an ivy league or something just because it's an ivy league. Really research some colleges.</p>
<p>My criteria may be different than yours but I look at:</p>
<p>Size, I prefer small to medium.
Academics, I want smart people there but not a bunch that I'd feel inferior to because they're all geniuses or something.
I look at graduate schools I'm interested in and find the undergraduate schools that have good grad schools in the fields I choose.
Peer assessment ratings are pretty good to check out.</p>
<p>Texas,</p>
<p>I see some flaws in that criteria. 1) grad school hasn't that much to do with the quality of the undergrad. Why do you think the LACs do so well in grad placement without grad schools. 2) Peer Assessment ratings are completely tilted towards large research grad oriented schools. The overall rankings +/- a few schools (Michigan might be underrated, Penn to highly) are more accurate predictors of recruitment/ grad placement.</p>
<p>I figured it was obvious to look at the overall ratings. I did not once say that graduate school had anything to do with the quality of the undergraduate school. Obviously that is not true considering Baylor is a mediocre undergraduate school yet one of the top medical schools in the country. I said that peer assessment was a decent way to evaluate the students if you hadn't been to the school. And as for your last comment, if a school is ranked #20, it's not much different than a couple spots down the list, no one should be that interested in the numerology. Rankings are rankings, if it's in the top tier it's good, and each lower tier gets worse in terms of academics.</p>
<p>I didn't read the whole thread but I just want to say: Don't pick an Ivy because it is an Ivy.</p>
<p>It is just an old football league. None of them are bad schools but for about half of them its more of a "Come to us, we are an Ivy" rather than standing on their own reputation and saying..."Come to us, we are Harvard." If you go for the Ivy for the name, that is what you get. If you look at the Ivies and find one where you really like the atmosphere, adore the campus, has great stuff in the fields you are looking at...then by all means, go for it. </p>
<p>There are plenty of great and prestigious universities out there that are not Ivies but may be a much better fit fo you. Look at the forums on this site that are active and look at the rankings for the top schools (but take their actual position with a grain of salt, they are at the top but its really hard to compare between them). </p>
<p>I guess what I am saying is that you can find prestigious schools that fit YOU rather than being limited by a short group of letters (Ivy, HYPS, etc).</p>
<p>And dont forget to look at UChicago ;)</p>
<p>UChicago! I've considered it.</p>
<p>I've been getting the usual couple months after PSAT college mail hoard. I got one from a college in NC called Elon University so I looked it up like I usually do. It's the perfect size for me, and it's got all the majors I'm interested in. They have this list of the top ten most common majors and my top three are in the top five. The mid 50% SAT is like 1260, which could translate to a maximum of 2060 on the new one. Or if I take 630 and assume that is both scores, add another on and I've got 1890, which I'm guessing I'll get above on the SAT. It's a sweet school and has a realistic acceptance rate, I'm totally going to apply later.</p>
<p>Yes, Texasmathwhiz, that's a boil. Boyle is the guy with the gas law.</p>