POLL: Parents/Students' Use of Rankings in College Selection

Parents Forum
1

<p>A poll. HS seniors can take part too. No comments on this thread please. I did this 3 years ago. I might be doing this too late this time. The board is a lot quieter this time of year. If the poll gets a lot of play we can start a thread with comments. Anyway here are the unscientific questions.</p>

<p>Did your kid ever look at USNWR?
Did your kid choose the highest ranked school according to USNWR?
Do you know the PA (peer assessment) of your kid's school?
What part of the country do you live?</p>

<p>I'll go first.
Yes
No
No
West Coast
yes.</p>

2

<p>Yes
No
What's PA?
Florida</p>

3

<p>PA is the Peer Assessment part of the rankings.</p>

4

<p>No.
Yes.
No.
Tennessee</p>

5

<p>No
Yes
No
Midwest
Yes</p>

6

<p>No
Yes
No
Florida</p>

7

<p>Yes
Yes
Vaguely, I have some idea as to the figure
International</p>

<p>Edited for the new question,
Yes, briefly.</p>

8

<p>No
No
No
Vermont</p>

9

<p>No
Yes
No
California</p>

10

<p>Ok. I see I have to add a question. These are the questions. I'm sorry about this.
If anyone who has participated so far wants to add the answer to the fifth question at any time, that's fine.</p>

<p>Did your kid ever look at USNWR?
Did your kid choose the highest ranked school according to USNWR?
Do you know the PA (peer assessment) of your kid's school?
What part of the country do you live?</p>

<p>Did one of the parents ever look at USNWR?</p>

11

<p>So far...</p>

<p>Did your kid ever look at USNWR? 3 Yes 5 No
Did your kid choose the highest ranked school according to USNWR? 4Y 4N
Do you know the PA (peer assessment) of your kid's school? 1Y 7N
What part of the country do you live? Tabulated later</p>

<p>Did one of the parents ever look at USNWR? 3Y</p>

12

<p>Yes
No
No
East Coast</p>

13

<p>Yes
No
No
East Coast
Yes</p>

14

<p>No
No
No
East Coast
Yes</p>

15

<p>I think I'm past edit time.</p>

<p>Yes, I've looked at the LAC rankings but not the individual breakdown in the different categories.</p>

<p>But, I hasten to add, I never bought the magazine.</p>

16

<p>No
Yes
Yes
Pacific Northwest
Yes</p>

17

<p>Yes
No
No
Pennsylvania
Yes</p>

18

<p>No
No
No
California
Sort of - To compare 2 schools that offer merit aid</p>

19

<p>Do you mean chose from those applied to or chose from those that accepted the student? Some kids' choice may have been the highest out of the acceptances, but not the highest that the child actually applied to and wanted to attend. I believe that what I am hearing in the question is: Did the rankings affect your child's decision? If it were "applied to," then No, D didn't pick the highest ranked. If it were chosen from acceptances, then yes. Did they affect D's choices? In choosing reaches, yes. But she also chose fits and safeties. Based on the type of education she wanted, the rank (=quality and type of education) did affect her final decision, plus the perqs at the school vs. other schools.</p>

20

<p>-Kid looked at USNWR (with disdain) for 5 minutes when it came out, not thereafter
-Kid chose highest ranking USNWR school without paying attention to USNWR (USNWR ranking unmentioned during two weeks of agonized decisionmaking)
-Kid not aware of school's PA specifically but very aware of factors that produced PA
-East Coast</p>

<p>-Parents looked as USNWR (with disdain) for 20 minutes when it came out, not thereafter. Parents were aware of PA; it was pretty much all we cared about. USNWR might have figured into parents' thinking in the even S had a different choice to make, but only in the sense of confirming that Schools A and B were of comparable quality and reputation, where one parent initially thought there was a significant difference.</p>