<p>Just as what the title says. Do you think Boston College is on the rise academically and becoming more prestigious? It’s 31st ranking was the best in the history of the University, but this year’s acceptance rate was a little higher than last year’s. This year’s SAT scores were the highest in the history of the University at about a 2100, and the admissions committe sent an email congratulating its incoming class that is is THE most selective class in the school’s history. So do you think it is on the rise? Will it see a top 30 ranking or even a top 25 ranking in the near future?</p>
<p>Think about your question: for BC (or any school) to rise, means another school has to decline. So before assuming that a selective class translates into a higher ranking, one must look at the others in the top 30 to see if any of those had a poor year and would lose ranking points. (Hint, apps up are across the board.) </p>
<p>In sum, sure, BC could move up a couple of spots. The negative press with Tufts going need-award might cost it some applications, for example. But BC could also drop a couple of spots, depending on what the competition do. Brandeis could offer more merit money to enhance its desirability and break the tie with BC.</p>
<p>But in the end the Peer Assessment score is the largest single piece of USNews, and the PA moves real slowly.</p>
<p>At many of the top 50 schools admissions become more and more select because more and more people are A) applying to college and B) since most schools are now using the common app, there are more applicants.
BC’s peer schools are becoming more selective as well, Holy cross, Villanova, and Georgetown have lower acceptance rates this year than previous years. Many of the public ivys have lower rates too, Umich dropped from 50% accept to about 35-40%. Most of the ivys have become more selective, Penn dropped from 14% to 12%, Yale dropped from 8% to 6%, etc…even the schools typically considered to be strong but high acceptance rates are becoming more selective. For instance about each year Uchicago has more applicants than any single year previously. In fact 2012 was chicagos most selective year with an 18% acceptance rate when just five years ago it was 30-35%…</p>
<p>SAT scores also are rising at the top 50 schools which means that BC probably is not going to fare better in USnews rankings than previous years. It will most likely remain between 28-34…And i wouldn’t consider either a drop to 28 or a rise to 34 too significant considering USnews rankings, or any rankings for that matter, do not truly represent the academic quality or prestige of an institution.</p>
<p>just feel good about competing in the most selective class .</p>
<p>UChicago’s Fall 2012 acceptance rate was 13.2% not 18%.</p>
<p>^I stand corrected chicago’s 2011 rate was 18% and 2012 is 13%…wow that is even a greater fall than I thought.</p>
<p>My brother saw this on the USC forum, and I felt like asking. lol I guess USC has more school spirit than us! :O</p>
<p>I think BC’s prestige is always on the rise. Every year more and more people learn about what a great school it is, as seen with the rise in applications. However, I also think rankings are largely irrelevant, at least for the top 40 schools. What’s to say a school ranked 5-10 spots above BC is really 5-10 spots greater than BC? The rankings are part of a business, like most things in this world.</p>
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<p>Personally, I think this is where USNews provides real value – not in the final rankings per se, but in the details of the respective rankings. </p>
<p>By comparing the individual colleges’ details (class size, test scores alumni giving, PA, etc), one can decide what is important to him/her. If small class size is really important, for example, then Emory jumps out in the Uni category. (Emory caps many classes at 30. Even traditionally large intro courses like Calc 1 are capped and taught by a faculty member not a TA – like a few of the Intro courses at BC.) For other people, small class size may not be so important, but faculty reputation (Peer Assessment score), is…</p>
<p>What a shame if someone focuses on USNWR rankings (or any single set of rankings) in deciding where to attend or apply to college. </p>
<p>College is an “experience” and as something holistic making decisions should be approached in a similar fashion. The consumer should collect as many disparate datapoints as possible and them distill them using whatever formula makes sense for them. </p>
<p>You shouldn’t rely on USNWR to the exclusion of College Pro*ler or College Confidential (or Playboy’s List of Top 10 Party Schools?) or any of the other dozens of guides and lists and catalogues.</p>
<p>That’s what my D did in choosing BC. And one other set of datapoints that was extremely valuable - speaking with alumni. All I can tell you about that is that neither of us ever talked to someone who wasn’t unequivocably and unabashedly enthusiastic about BC. That says volumes.</p>
<p>I agree stanford78, but like it or not with some 3,000 schools in the US, parents and students need something to base decisions on and USN&WR has become the de facto go-to source for this. There are different college guides that more or less rates schools, with the BEST guides usually taking the top 10% of all the schools in the nation and rating things like quality of life, academics, location etc. on a 1-5 range. Then there are silly ratings, like Forbes, that people misuse all the time; their criteria is affordability with other things like academics taking a lessor role. Forbes rankings make no sense when you see tier 1 schools ranked below tier 2 or 3 schools, yet folks quote them as a overall rating of schools .</p>
<p>No school should be selected without at least one visit, much research, talking to people etc. but USN&WR is one of the best ways to objectively compare one school to another in making decisions. If you only go by the marketing hype of college websites or fanbases, you’d think each school is the best possible selection for everyone. USN&WR even categorizes schools by their size and research, so you can compare apples to apples and not apples to grapes, ie a tiny liberal arts college to a mega state school. USN&WR is a good tool, but it should never be the only tool when making this important decision.</p>