Student Opinions on the USNWR Top 30 Nat’l Universities

[kyledavid80]

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I concur that it is irresponsible to dismiss these data as “useless” simply because of the voluntary nature of the survey.

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<p>Of course you would—the data pumps up ND and its reputation. Believe me, nobody who knows anything about statistics would really take voluntary response data seriously. It’s usually just something to muse about (like all the Princeton Review rankings, which are all mostly bogus, though fun to look at, largely because they’re based on voluntary response—not to mention they inherently commit the fallacy of interpersonal comparison).</p>

<p>(Now you see what it’s like to have your claims dismissed simply because you consistently support a certain school. :))</p>

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So, I would think that the data would then skew towards the side that has more support (i.e. the side that more frequently represents reality).

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<p>Naively simplistic logic like that really doesn’t reflect reality at all.</p>

<p>[Opinion</a> poll - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_poll]Opinion”>Opinion poll - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>That has some good info on it.</p>

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I know that at MIT, faculty are somewhat distant, but this is not a huge problem, since MIT students are EXTREMELY, HIGHLY, and INFINITELY motivated and utterly brilliant.

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<p>Sweep, sweep, sweep with those generalizations.</p>

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MIT does not fare too well in this survey, but that is not something to be held against it

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<p>Isn’t it funny that 61% of MIT’s courses are under 20, and 14% are over 50, and it doesn’t “fare too well” in this survey? And that 61% of Berkeley’s courses are under 20 and 14% are over 50, and it doesn’t fair too well either? Yet you don’t hold it against MIT?</p>

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as much out-of-class faculty assistance as, say, students at Notre Dame, who are, on average, less brilliant.

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<p>Honestly, the students at ND are going to be no more “needy” than students at MIT; the same can be said of Berkeley and many other schools.</p>

<p>Really, such sweeping generalizations don’t help your case much…</p>

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So don’t accuse me of trying to place my school on a pedestal, like it seems a disproportionate number of Cornell and Berkeley students seem to do around here.

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<p>And Berkeley isn’t my school; I don’t place it on a “pedestal”; and “reality” is completely subjective here. I don’t have a bias so much for Berkeley as for a multitude of schools that are, in my opinion, underrated here on CC. I’m not here to bash or put down ND, though, like you seem to be for Berkeley.</p>

<p>Stating our skepticism doesn’t mean that we’re attempting to bring up Berkeley or bring down ND. Let’s look at it: ND has 55% of its courses under 20 and 11% of its courses over 50. Stanford has 74% of its courses under 20 and 10% of its courses over 50. And yet it’s ranked far below on this? If that makes sense to you… well, okay.</p>

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Northstarmom does not promote a school in the way you guys promote Cal.

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<p>Er, I’m sorry, but you missed the point of that example. The point was: Northstarmom is an example of one of the 30+ year-olds on CC who are successful graduates of top colleges (UCBChemEGrad being one too) and who also find the time to come on CC and help students out.</p>

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I see a lot more help and a lot less arguing or selective picking threads/posts that have something to do with a school(defending/arguing for said school)

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<p>Methinks you’re generalizing based on few observations. Search our posts; you won’t see it very much.</p>

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As indicated in the opening post, the sampling here was not part of a scientific process. Many of the objections about the statistical basis of these results have some merit. I didn’t make up the question or the responses.

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<p>Of course, hawkette, I know you have the maturity and the knowledge not to put forth such data as completely accurate and definitive, but rather as more data to think about in comparing universities.</p>