<p>The new US News rankings are out.</p>
<p>National</a> Universities Rankings - Best College - Education - US News</p>
<p>Rice holds the number 17 spot once again, although our aggregate score went up from an 80 to an 82.</p>
<p>I thought they weren’t coming out till Friday! Great scoop, Antarius – I should have guessed you’d have the scoop! I read a while back that they were recalibrating the peer assessment section to include high school counselor ratings this year. I’m curious to look at my old USNW’s to see the changes. Looks like Columbia climbed, Emory dipped after sharing the 17 rung with us last year… we’re rooming with Vandy, this year… wait a second, I need to take a closer look.</p>
<p>it annoys me that WUSTL is still higher than us. I have about Zero respect for that school and their ranking bolstering tactics with the waitlist etc.</p>
<p>The fact that our raw score went up is still a good sign though</p>
<p>Yes, nice to see the raw score expand! And we’re right behind Brown and Cornell, again. Last year, Brown trailed Cornell. Next year, I want to see Rice … Brown … Cornell. And in '12 …</p>
<p>I needed these silly numbers to get my mind off Saturday – that’s when our Owl flies back to Rice-land. I miss him already. Well, at least our grocery bills will go down a few rungs.</p>
<p>Since the ratings that just came out are 2011 rankings – I’ll just to have wait till 2013
to see Houston take on Providence and Ithaca. And then it’s just a bit more time before
we claim a Top 10 spot. But I don’t want any of this to go to our Owls’ heads! That would be awful – forget the numbers, I don’t want the spirit to ever change… 17’s just fine.</p>
<p>i want to get WUSTL first. Then we make a move on the rest.</p>
<p>Stanford’s ranking always surprises me. In my book, they are probably the number 1. but thats just me</p>
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<p>There is no evidence that Wash U waitlists a significantly higher amount of people than they reject. This unfounded claim was brought about because people are more likely to post their waitlist than rejection. In many respects, Rice is very similar to Wash U–they are both great schools that go relatively unnoticed except in their respective states. They are both truly hidden gems when it comes to college selection.</p>
<p>To be candid, the difference between #13 and #17 is insignificant. I really don’t care that Wash U went down a spot from last year…it’s not a BFD.</p>
<p>WashU definitely sends out more of that annoying junk mail than any other college I’ve dealt with. I also have absolutely no trouble believing that they do yield protection, sure the sample size on CC is small but its enough to convince me. I don’t buy into the idea that people on an anonymous board are going to report waitlists more often than rejections. If this was the case why is only WUSTL accused of doing this? Random bad luck? I doubt it.</p>
<p>So anyway, I’m with Antarius, only reason I look at USNWR is in the hope that WUSTL drops.</p>
<p>phade makes an excellent point. On average more people report wl/acceptances than rejections across the board.</p>
<p>For WUSTL, it seems heavily skewed towards the wl, while it is significantly more balanced, imo, for places like Rice.</p>
<p>Regarding my personal bias - the mere fact that Rice is not in STL makes it a de facto winner</p>
<p>Having just gone through the application process with my so,. we used the Naviance Connection website with his highschool. There are scattergrams available for each college showing acceptances, rejections, waiting lists where students have applied. At his school, many people apply to WUSTL. WUSTL definitely chooses to waitlist instead of reject.</p>
<p>proudparents - could you post the links to those scattergrams? or are they not available?</p>
<p>That would be awesome!</p>
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<p>This “junk mail” helped Wash U get over 22,000 applicants last year. Rice had less than 10,000 applicants in the same year. Everyone knows that more applications = more money for the school, so maybe Rice should look into sending out more mail for prospective students.</p>
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<p>I’m not going to give credence to small sample sizes like CC or stats for a single high school. That’s how generalizations start. Even if it is true that Wash U waitlists more people than they reject, waitlistees should know that WashU hasn’t taken anyone off the waiting list in several years. It’s basically a rejection.</p>
<p>and that somehow makes their artificial wait listing acceptable? Next you will say that Rice will require two apps, to double the number of applications and halve our acceptance rate.</p>
<p>My point was that there is WUSTL exhibits minimal class, if any, out of the top schools. They definitely spend more time marketing and playing games than their peers. </p>
<p>and just to get your facts straight.
[Rice</a> University | News & Media](<a href=“http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=11993]Rice”>http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=11993)</p>
<p>Can’t we all agree that both Rice and WashU are peer universities? Personally, I think they are extremely similar. I’ve spent 4 days on WashU’s campus after I was admitted and have spent a year at Rice. Both are focused on undergraduates, both have tons of research opportunities for undergrads, and both are located in park/museum districts of their respective cities. And both are not as well-known outside of their regional area.</p>
<p>One word: weather. I know the rankings don’t consider it, but I’ll take the Houston heat over St. Louis snow any day.</p>
<p>Id take being safe to getting shot in STL as well.</p>
<p>slik nik - My argument is that they aren’t peer institutions. Its not like Im saying Rice should be number 1 either. WashU though, from what I have seen, has bolstered its rank through questionable means. </p>
<p>Shows a lack of ethics and makes one wonder why they need to do this in the first place.</p>
<p>You do realize that the acceptances/waitlists/rejections count for only 1.5% of the USNews ranking scores right? Even if you were to lower WashU’s score by 1.5% and increase Rice’s by the same amount, WashU would still be ahead of Rice. </p>
<p>They are clearly peer schools, and WashU’s waitlisting habits are certainly not the reason for their high ranking.</p>
<p>manarius, are you related to Antarius? (sorry, couldn’t resist… 
)</p>
<p>Twins separated at birth, eh patsmom?? :)</p>
<p>I’ll never reveal my secrets! >.></p>