<p>Notre Dame seems to be getting a bad rep on these forums. People are even putting Berkley and WashU over it. To me, they are better than those two unis and deserve a higher ranking (like Georgetown).</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>Notre Dame is around where it should be.</p>
<p>The ranking does not matter anyway.</p>
<p>Disagree, ND has a crappy peer assessment score which is BS when you compare it to other schools. If you eliminate that one score, ND ranks 12th. I believe that is more where it belongs.</p>
<p>What do you mean around where it should be? Below Emory + Vandy? Are you kidding me?</p>
<p>That is based on U.S. News & World Report's ranking.</p>
<p>Again, I do not care about rankings.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt, Emory, and Notre Dame are at 18, 19, and 20.</p>
<p>All these colleges have their own pros and cons, but they can be seen as peers.</p>
<p>I cannot go into details because I do not know how to dissect each category and scrutinize every aspect of a specific college. </p>
<p>However, I just believe that Notre Dame is recognized appropriately regardless of its spot on that ridiculous ranking.</p>
<p>According to irish68178, Notre Dame's peer assessment score could be higher.</p>
<p>I am sure other colleges ranked above or below Notre Dame could use the same argument about their ranking and state that they should be ranked higher.</p>
<p>It just never ends.</p>
<p>All I know is that Notre Dame is a fine institution. And I could not give a crap whether someone thinks it is a bad school or not.</p>
<p>I just want to get in.</p>
<p>As Irish said, ND gets taken down a bit by its peer assessment. This is fairly true across the board for Catholic schools, or schools with a religious affiliation.</p>
<p>While I agree that the rankings do not provide a full picture of a school students often start their search with these lists. I think US News should enable individuals to personalize the rankings. To do this I would allow an individual to put their own weights on each of the categories and then the web software would re-sort the list accordingly.</p>
<p>I don't understand why its peer assessment would be so low...just because its catholic? Im sure there are many prominent catholic people in high places at the top colleges, why would ND be "bad" in thier eyes? I can understand NYU, a school that loves gays as opposed to ND, but others?</p>
<p>No, because the truth is that most academic institutions avoid religion like the plague. Most people in acadamia are very liberal and ND isn't and our ratings suffer b/c of it.</p>
<p>The peer assessment argument comes directly from Fr. Jenkins during a speech in Fisher Hall. Unfortunately a lot of our "peers" think we can't be serious about academics because we are a religious school and actually practice what we say we are (unlike Georgetown). I do think there is a bias against Catholic schools, and I do think it is a vaild criticism in this case.</p>
<p>Eagle, I agree, that would be great if you could. At the end of the day though, I think rankings mean little. They are only important because people like you all look at them :). If you go where you fit best, you will do very well!</p>
<p>shellzie,</p>
<p>I agree, though I also find it quite interesting that Harvard's major new revamped curriculum includes required classes in religion. Could signal a change in other peer institutions view of ND and other religiously oriented schools.</p>
<p>Though, as Irish said, the ratings are overrated. Particularly because they do not take into account the different programs the schools offer. For example, would you choose to go to Harvard or ND for Irish Studies? US News does provide a limited version of program ranking in their professional school rankings but these are done purely on peer assessment. </p>
<p>It becomes difficult when they overlook the programs that the schools offer. For example, they did not rank Santa Clara Universities engineering program until last year though they have had one for quite some time.</p>
<p>Thats bs I think. Georgetown is a fine university but it should suffer because of its religion? BC too?</p>
<p>notre dame has a low peer assesment score because there are 2 opinions which float around about ND.</p>
<p>1) Notre Dame is the most amazing place in the universe and no school could ever be as good. This is usually thought by people who either go to Notre Dame, went to Notre Dame, or have some sort of ND fetish for some reason or another, usually revolving around football.</p>
<p>2) Notre Dame thought of by academia, which gives it its current PA rating. Ask yourself honestly, what is Notre Dame "known" for. I've never heard anyone say "ND has a great phyics department" or "Notre Dame sure puts out great engineers" like you do for people who went to a school everyone here was bashing before...aka berkeley. I've never heard anyone say "gee that Notre Dame puts out outstanding biologists" like WashU. </p>
<p>Notre Dame is a great school, but unlike the schools it ranks with, it doesn't have a standout department (or stand out departments) like its peer institutions do, which is why it has an "average" PA rating.</p>
<p>Lets see. Ill just take one off the top of my head. Business-Mendoza, ranked as high as no.3 last year, down to 7 this year.</p>
<p>Great alumni network helps place jobs.</p>
<p>SweetLax,</p>
<p>I love those businessweek rankings as much as the next person...UVa ranked no. 2 2 years in a row. </p>
<p>Notre Dame was ranked 20 (undergrad) and 39 (grad) by USnews for business. Not exactly "stand out" when you consider it is ranked overall no. 20.</p>
<p>And by Businessweek it was ranked no. 3. Your point is?</p>
<p>How come ND isn't considered one of the new 25 Ivies?</p>
<p>weird...</p>
<p>BTW, do you think ND would go up higher on the ranking
next year? did it go up from 2006?</p>
<p>Where isnt it considered one of the 25 Ivies? And I have no clue whether itll go up or not. I turned down schools that were ranked higher than ND so w/e</p>
<p>SweetLax,</p>
<p>as you pointed out just a post earlier...its actually ranked 7 in businessweek...but thats besides the point. </p>
<p>You're arguing that Notre Dame is underrated in USnews...yet everything "USnews" about Notre Dame points to it being overrated in its overall rankings. Academically, Notre Dame fairs rather poorly compared to the rest of the schools in the top 25 USnews rankings. Look at all of USnews departmental rankings, or graduate school rankings. I don't see Notre Dame showing up in the top of any lists really...which is why it gets a 3.8 (i think i don't have the book infront of me) PA. However, Notre Dame gets pushed up in the rankings because it scores high in other areas such as selectivity, financial resources, and alumni support.</p>
<p>Like I said before, Notre Dame is a solid solid school. But I don't think you'll see it moving up anytime soon (except for the usual yearly fluctuation of 1 or 2 spots). The lack of a hallmark program, which isn't football, is a pretty big part of that.</p>
<p>Ok. Whats Georgetown's hallmark program? Whats Browns hallmark program? Whats WashU's hallmark program (for undergrads)? Whats Vanderbilts hallmark program? How about Emory? Rice? Northwestern? They really don't have hallmark programs.</p>
<p>Georgetown: International relations
Brown: PLME
Emory: Goizueta (You could argue that Mendoza is close.)
Rice: Architecture (Once again, Notre Dame has a good one.)
Northwestern: Medill</p>
<p>I do not know what Washington and Vanderbilt are good at though. You could say that their engineering departments are strong.</p>
<p>I have a feeling that Notre Dame will continue to push up its science departments.</p>