<p>WMonMTDad and Ericsmom,</p>
<p>Hmm...you two may be good at math but a lot of CPAs aren't and CPA exam requires only basic math. I'd reserve "math person/geek" to actuaries (and to less extent, engineers), not accountants. Sorry to digress. ;)</p>
<p>As I said in my original post "Now please don't get all hot and bothered. Clearly this is preliminary data and only possible one way to view these schools." My only intent was to tease some meaning out of a large group of numbers.</p>
<p>Maybe the lack of numbers available for the different programs stimulated this. I actually don't even know the class sizes for all the programs my child applied to this year. Sometimes you even get different answers on the same questions from the various people at a program. They usually won't even give a straight answer on the total number of applications that they received.</p>
<p>What I was trying to do here was to estimate what is referred to as the yields of the various programs. Yes, I do realize that we have data from only 2 or the 60 people at NYU BUT we have data from about 20% of those at CMU. I had hoped that this would stimulate greater participation from "lurkers" in our midst and that this in turn would produce some more meaningful data.</p>
<p>I was not prepared for the anger that seems to be expressed by so many respondents and in particular, I'm saddened that certain posters seem determined to make this a personal fight. </p>
<p>At this point I think it best to withdraw from this thread and this board. Thanks you to those who appreciated what I was attempting. I wish everybody the best of luck with their future plans.</p>
<p>Broadway Dad - please don't withdraw. I'm a nerdy math teacher AND former accountant, and let me tell you, I had to take ALL kinds of math classes (including multivariable statistics and up through Calc 4) to get my accounting degree, so I KNOW you're good at math. You did qualify your data with the fact that you had a limited sample and it was "just for fun", so I see nothing wrong with that! I'm quite interested in your analyses!</p>
<p>Broadwaydad - It's sad that you feel the need to withdraw from the board. Over and over I've seen (especially this time of year when acceptances/rejections are coming in) people get worked up over even the tiniest things. I can certainly see that you were not trying to make anyone upset or try to make one school look better than the next. I can tell you were just trying to make sense out of this sometimes non-sensical process. What I've learned over the past three years (why I still come on and read posts?) is that you simply have to ignore the negative nellies. There are some who like to pick apart every single post written on a thread. Why? I don't know...The best thing to do is use College Confidential's MT Thread for its vast amount of factual, helpful information and try to ignore the negative aspects (which can sometimes be difficult). In other words, be a "user". We used to joke about "lurkers". I think there are a lot of other terms which we could come up with, some of them not too positive... maybe "pickers", "prodders" "ambushers" "hold accountablers"...I'll leave it at that. Please don't leave because you attempted to pass the time trying to make sense out of all these schools and were knocked. Try to ignore and move on, but don't leave. Your insights are just as valuable as anothers.</p>
<p>Lynnm - I too have noticed every spring that contoversy stirs on cc!!! After everything we have all been through this year of auditioning there is an understandable void and excess energy with no where to direct it. And for those who are approaching their senior year next, anxiety levels are beginning to mount making people more "touchy".
Typing is not the same as talking and EVERYONE take everything everywhere with a big grain of sand, please!</p>
<p>Yeah, guys, this board is such a wonderful resource and the information and support offered here are invaluable. Let's keep it that way. Email and message boards are great, but they have their limitations, and one of those limitations is that it's tough to accurately gauge the intended tone of a post or message. How about we just assume that the writer's intentions were good, and give him or her the benefit of the doubt whenever we can?</p>
<p>"Grain of SALT" ... not "sand"! Oy vey! There is too much snow here ... my mind must be on the beach!</p>
<p>I realize BroadwayDad started this as a way to channel his energy and curiosity. His posts make it clear he's thinking of this as a puzzle. I hope my comment indicating I'd rather not create "one more ranking" was not seen as personally directed. As much a hobby and support group as CC has become for me, like it has for many others who have lived this experience over the past 18-24 months, I do think we need to voice concern about some aspects of examining to the "nth" degree the schools, kids' chances and their relative chances of success longterm. Don't you think we could just be contributing to our own increased stress and to our kids'? </p>
<p>BroadwayDad made it clear at the beginning that he was just working with the numbers availlable and trying to see if his model produced any results that might be interesting. Unfortunately, that's probably how the USNews approach also got started. Most people on this board already have their own sense of an MT ranking, augmented by the specific factors that their child and their family circumstances bring to the evaluation; most maintain those personal lists privately. An audience for any ranking system can't help itself stay away from making it competitive; then it hurts someone. As parents, we should be able to take the discussion of a ranking of these schools with a grain of salt but I'm not sure it's reasonable for kids to be able to see it that objectively. They are not only trying to test themselves in this extremely difficult process but are trying to make their parents proud. BroadwayDad shouldn't feel attacked for something as simple as modeling with limited data, but neither should families already feeling anxious by the process to come or by the choices they are currently facing. Perhaps we could agree to deep breaths all around....</p>
<p>To me this exercise was interesting to read through, reallly not more than just that, interesting. I actually feel that most of our kids have their "own" list of top MT schools, and this list is likely influenced by one's personal interests (conservatory or not, big school/small school, big city/rural campus etc.). I agree with Kedstuff let's "take a deep breath" and let people post their thoughts without jumping all over them :)</p>
<p>I'm really sorry Broadwaydad felt like he had to leave. I am not a math person, its like some kind of foggy mystery to me, but I found myself interested in what he had to say, and I agree that he seemed to be approaching it like a puzzle. I think that sometimes people get upset about this sort of thing because they don't want the school their child is going to or considering going to, to be "devalued". And I certainly understand the tension and frustration many feel at this time of the year. This proccess, is amazingly difficult on the emotions, lots of hopes and dreams are elevated or crashed and unfortunately lots of people end up feeling bad about themselves and their child, it is horrible to watch your child suffer great disapointments. But the way the system is set up, there is no way everybody will come out happy, no matter what training they've had or how talented they are, and it really is a shame, but I don't know what can be done about it. But I strongly believe that through adversity character is built and the more internal character one has the better person (or actor) they will become. And we all know that all successful performers did not get to where they are in a neat tidy little package. As far as bringing out the "lurkers", I think that was a noble attempt, I was looking at the numbers of "veiwers" on the right side of the main thread page and it is enormous! Many more than post, even thousands more! It would be great if some of these folks would weigh in! I love this forum and admire it's members and their dedication and willingness to be of help to others.:)</p>
<p>I like BroadwayDad's analysis and find it to be a very fun & interesting way to analyze the programs. I'll end this post with a smiley face like the last 2 posts, lol... :)</p>