Absolutely. Students also need to consider a dozen+ other factors such as region, size, campus culture, degree of Greek presence, urban/suburban/rural, LAC vs. Research U., academic strengths, etc. The spot on someone else’s list doesn’t mean that much.
What a nutty rating system. Gives Penn State 5 stars for selectivity when it admits over 50% of applicants and SAT scores average at 600. PSU gets almost 50,000 applications a year. Temple’s % and SAT scores are only slightly different yet Temple gets only 3 stars for selectivity. And State College gets 5 stars but Philadelphia only 3??? Come on. Nobody that graduates from PSU stays in State College unless they are going to grad school or teaching at PSU. They all move to Philly!
I stayed in State College to work at a “real job” after college! (but I know what you mean). I think the city rating is for the experience while in school, not the job prospects afterwards. I’ve spent tons of times in both and I give SC the nod, hands down.
Compared to the USNWR rankings, one of our NY state schools did pretty well–Binghamton at 18 while it’s #88 on USNWR. But Stony Brook, which is also #88, is just 32nd on this list and looking at the detailed scores I can’t quite figure out why Binghamton is so far ahead.