<p>My D is looking at several schools. One of them is Mary Washington University which appears in the US News rankings as a Masters University. She visited, and aside from a few graduate students on a separate campus, it looks just like a LAC to us. Does anyone know how to map across categories to determine roughly where a school like Mary Washington would fall had it been classified as a LAC. (I also noticed that the University of Richmond, which had a similar status last year, has been moved to the LAC category this year).</p>
<p>A standardized test like the SAT allows for comparisons between all colleges and universities. I think SAT is the most important single indicator of quality. Other indicators of quality are correlated with the SAT, such as graduation and retention rates.</p>
<p>I've noticed that some LACs are now SAT optional. In fact that's the case for one of the schools I'm trying to compare with Mary Washington. I imagine that the reported scores for those schools are inflated. It could be that rankings within a category are meaningless, but for some reason, I'd really like to merge them and at least find a relative peer group. I probably just like lists.</p>
<p>nvdad, I think that you are correct about the sat optional schools, regarding the inflation of sat scores. My S applied to one of these schools, and did submit his scores. They were very interested in those numbers, so much so that they asked him what his scores were on his interview, before he even had a chance to decide if he wanted to submit the scores. It all worked out b/c his scores are very strong for this school, and he would have submitted had they not asked for his scores on his interview.</p>
<p>Nvdad, First, you may be interested in learning how schools get placed in the various Carnegie Classifications. It has nothing to do with US News, it is determined by the Carnegie Foundation - here is the link:
<a href="http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/</a> Be sure to read the article in the perspectives section that describes why and how changes are being made to how certain schools are classified.</p>
<p>I've found that schools ranked about the same in the various classifications to be remarkably similar in terms of academic quality; the differences usually lie more in how the academic services are delivered than in the quality. So that's where I'd focus.</p>
<p>Rather than compare SAT scores and other factors across classifications, I think it would be a better bet to compare the actual undergraduate experience your daughter might have at various schools. Look at class sizes, availability of classes (and by this, I don't just mean reading the college catalog - find out how many classes in various areas are typically offered each semester and how difficult it is to get into them), per student spending, faculty size, quality of student life, specific departments of interest, and whatever other factors your daughter ranks high in importance for a satisfying education. That is probably the best way to go if your daughter already has a specific list of schools in mind.</p>
<p>I read the classification materials at the Carnagie site. From their description, it seems that USNews has gone beyond their scheme when they use regional and national draw as a classification factor. They also recognize problems in classifying schools such as the University of Mary Washington that have remote graduate schools but zero graduate students on the main campus.</p>
<p>I think my daughter likes Mary Washington but we're all concerned about some of the rankings it gets in Princeton Review (e.g., least happy students). She's talked to a few kids who go there and they seem happy but the negative quality of life indicators in Princeton Review must come from somewhere. She's going to visit, but a day on campus may not be enough to make a decision she has to live with for four years and beyond.</p>
<p>I looked at the USNews rankings and they compute a magic number for each school. I'm using that to map Mary Washington to the other LACs she is considering. I know this isn't exact, but the entire educational process seems to be warped by the USNews ratings. Just as SATs measure a students ability to take the SAT, USNews ratings probably just measure a schools ability to get a high USNews ranking. Given all that, everyone -- me included -- wants to know the numbers and how they compare.</p>
<p>In what subject does your daughter want to major? What is she looking for in a college?
geographic location?
size?
university or LAC?
public or private?</p>
<p>What were her SAT scores? extracurricular activities? class rank? gpa?</p>
<p>Maybe folks on this board could make some suggestions for you.</p>
<p>She wants a school with less than 5000 students in the Mid-Atlantic region. She plans to major in business or economics but isn't that far from undecided. She wants a school with zero TAs. Public or private doesn't matter.</p>
<p>Her SAT M+V is 1380, GPA=3.7, and class rank is (barely) top 10%.</p>
<p>She plays both varsity volleyball and basketball (starter and captain for both) and wants to play in college. She's also interested in theater.</p>
<p>Wake Forest sounds lika a good fit. Their Average SAT is about 1340, under 5000 kids in Winston Salem. They are the smallest ACC school. Other schools to look at: Richmond, Furman, Elon, Davidson, Emory, William and Mary, and Washington and Lee.</p>
<p>for business:
Georgetown U
Emory
Carnegie Mellon
Clark
James Madison
Boston C
Bucknell
Colby
Franklin and Marshall
Lehigh
U Richmond
Villanova
Washington and Lee
William and Mary</p>
<p>If your daughter is willing to major in economics and forget about the business major, there are many more possibilities. The business major criterion is a constraint.</p>
<p>nvdad, what you have written is quite troubling to me, in that you have quoted two surveys, US News and Princeton Review. Althought Princeton Review is an okay reference (I use it to look up various colleges), I think that relying on such subjective results is dangerous when picking a college.
To paraphrase from "College Rankings Exposed," the US News ranking is based on college and university presidents' opinion on other colleges and universities. This is a system that is based on rumor and</p>
<p>sorry, my messed-up computer posted too early</p>
<p>cont'd
- sometimes uninformed opinion. This is why Reed College, one of the most highly sought after LAC's, pulled out of the ranking system altogether, not wishing to participate.
In my opinion (I am a college student who has done college apps far too many seasons to speak of), there is no definitive guide on colleges. Sad, because it would make like so much easier, but I would say talking with trusted people and visiting the campus (which is a major pr venture as well, but its better than surveys) are a couple of good solid ways to figure out if a college is good.
Prestige can only go so far and give you so much education. A good school can fill in the rest. PEACE</p>