<p>i am sorry you were so offended by my opinion. i know many at each school. and i guess some of the party students are very happy. some of the ones that are there for the education are a little tired and may not be a happy with the courseload. so i guess your study is about happy as related to parties, less studying, passing without hard work, etc and not about happy as i can’t believe i am so lucky to go to this great school, i will get a great job and this school is top notch. tell me this, happy to an 18 is far from happy to an adult.</p>
<p>There are a few things to keep in mind:</p>
<p>1) The students polled were required to provide a numerical assessment of the quality of various aspects of university life. Students rank by comparing what they have to what they expect/know exists elsewhere. Many of the students at the top universities may hold high expectations. Most students only experience life at one university, giving them no real insight into how well off or how poorly off they are in comparison to their peers at other universities. Just because one school ranks above another in these polls does not mean it necessarily offers the better student experience. An unhappy Princeton kid may not be any happier at Michigan or Georgia. </p>
<p>2) These schools vary considerably in the size and the overall composition of the student body. A direct comparison can be misleading.</p>
<p>I really don’t mean to knock down the schools that ranked at the top of this poll nor do I mean to elevate the low-ranked Ivies on the list. These were just some things I thought about while taking a look at the list.</p>
<p>This is intersting stuff, good work. But i think 1500 surveys is not enough for all the colleges in the nation (or was it 1500 for just your top 50?). Either way, i think more data would be needed.</p>
<p>HS: Can you provide a link to Part One? I missed it. </p>
<p>How did the MIT grad student conducting the survey feel about the #48 position for MIT? I guess he/she didn’t feel compelled to go back to the drawing board to redesign it for better results for the alma mater. Interesting.</p>
<p>Could you perhaps post a copy of the survey they took. I would like to see what you guys weighted this on. In my opinion, the happiest students aren’t the ones receiving the best education; they are the ones getting laid.</p>
<p>also, typically when there is a tie, you skip the next number so that you dont have 52 schools in the top 50</p>
<p>mom2007,</p>
<p>what on earth? are you saying that students at UGA and Wisconsin are just spending their time partying and not recieving a noteworthy education and not recieving the opportunity for jobs afterwards? what?! if you read the OP’s post, it clearly states what the students were surveyed on - do you see “how do you like the parties?” on there? get off of your pretentious high horse.</p>
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<p>Tulane is, in fact, “getting them” and in historic numbers. A 100 percent increase in applications this year.</p>
<p>[Tulane</a> University - Undergraduate Applications at Record Level](<a href=“http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/030308_admissions.cfm]Tulane”>http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/030308_admissions.cfm)</p>
<p>How many kids from each school responded to the survey? This would influence outcome. Also, it is likely that people who are either really happy or unhappy with their school would respond most often, again making the results questionable. But’s this survey is an admirable effort…And it goes to show that rank doesn’t necessarily correlate with happiness, (which everybody probably knows.) Just look at Eliot Spitzer today, Princeton, Harvard and now washed up. (But that’s really a whole other thread.)</p>
<p>What would be interesting is to see the breakdown of ratings for each category ---- professors, student body, administration, location, social scene, etc. That would be more telling than the overall score. For example, I could see where students who love, love, love the college location (say, Boston) could give the highest rating to that criteria and not so high to others, but the overall rating is skewed due to one category.</p>