<p>In a few weeks, the U.S. News ranking issue will hit the shelves and deliver the very helpful and invaluable raw numbers that are help evaluate the various U.S. colleges. </p>
<p>However, this year will also unveil two new “features” that hardly provide legitimate or helpful information to students and families in the college search process. The new features will probably please the crowd that still believes there is much value in polling people who have admitted lacking the qualification --or integrity-- to evaluate schools that are not their own. </p>
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U.S. News has officially announced that they will have two new features in the 2009 edition of America’s Best Colleges. The first new feature is that U.S. News has asked college presidents, provosts and admissions deans to name schools that are “up and coming” colleges. Given that one of the greatest criticism’s of the U.S. News rankings is that top college officials have little basis for rating other colleges, the peer assessment portion of the ratings, it is curious to see how these same officials will name “up and coming” colleges. Moreover, many top college officials have announced that they will no longer participate in the peer assessment ratings and presumably these same officials will refuse to participate in the “up and coming” rating.</p>
<p>The second new feature is that U.S. News has asked high school counselors for their views on undergraduate programs. While some high school counselors have a good understanding of many of the colleges to which their students apply, many more are too overworked to devote as much time as they would like to their students counseling needs. To think that these same counselors are going to have time to rank colleges or have the knowledge to adequately rank colleges is absurd.
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<p>Anyway, should we start speculating about the differences between the objective data that might support the "up and coming" schools and what will appear in the printed version in a few weeks? </p>
<p>And, for that matter, should we speculate about changes in rankings?</p>
<p>I’m hoping Tulane moves up a little, at least to their pre-Katrina ranking. The school is at an all-time low ranking thanks to the hurricane, but it has rebounded quite nicely and appears to be stronger in some ways now. 2006, the year used for the current rankings, was easily the worst year for the school in many ways so a move up would be logical. Other than that I don’t really follow the rankings very closely.</p>
<p>While I’m not smart enough to respond to Chances, I can’t speculate about the Aug 15 rankings either. But, I will suggest that one poster (not name xiggi) will have a non-PA, non-up&coming, ranking posted and sorted by 12:01 am. Unless, of course, that up&coming survey ranks Tufts, Wake, Vandy & Duke highly. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I like the new changes, especially since they include counselor input. They serve as a really good gauge on what students may have to say about schools, and their input should more accurately reflect on how applicants view a school’s prestige.</p>
<p>Guidance counselors seems to be the ones advocating against the use of the USNWR rankings as a strict guide to college admissions. Um…</p>
<p>They are pretty much the ones who are advocating for best fit etc… My guidance counselor has steered me plenty of times against top schools because he said it was not the one of best fit for me and that there are plenty of good schools to go to.</p>
<p>Note, my guidance counselor went to Umass, I can see he may have a grudge against those aiming for the most pretigious of colleges. so… I personally don’t think its a great idea.</p>
<p>My best guess is that admissions deans would see “up and comers” as schools that appear to be gaining more traction with their usual applicant pool. Provosts and presidents might name schools which have received recent attention for interesting initiatives, and/or schools which seem to be doing a good job recruiting faculty.</p>
<p>I completely agree that giving our h.s. counselors a “say” in the USNWR rankings is absurd. Our public school counselors devote much of their professional time to problem students, not college knowledge. Several of them have given my kids bad advice in selecting courses at their own high school. Even our own principal did not know that the ACT is accepted at virtually every college in the country. Ridiculous.</p>
<p>My high school GC had this philosophy (we’re top 100 in most major rankings):
Why do all these high achieving kids want to apply to all these expensive private schools like Harvard and Northwestern? Maryland is good enough for all of them. If they can’t get into Maryland another school like UMBC, GMU, Towson, etc. is good enough. If all else fails, they can go to MC (community college). If other public school counselors are like this, expect Cal to skyrocket to the top 5 and state schools as a whole to all move up 5 or so spaces.</p>
<p>Totally agree with that assessment. Guidance counselors are baffled at this whole prestige matter. For them, they don’t give shizzle since they’ve lived through life, surely they don’t believe its THAT important to land into an elite university. Thats the sad part. At my school, 50-60% of the students go to a state school. Only the top 15% make it to the top 25 schools. So like its no wonder my GC keeps advocating for me to go to a state school, since pretty much the vast majority of students he deals with go to a lower tier school anyways. Why not fit the norm says GC. I’d say, FU GC. lol jk. not like that.</p>
<p>Oh the web they weave when they practice to deceive…lol.</p>
<p>Public High School counselors are almost under a threat of losing their jobs if they DONT emphasize their local state schools. Many of them have a cynical view of private schools particularly the elite schools and I suspect that some of them write mediocre recommendations in secret. Private school counselors write really HIGH recommendations and emphasize only the prestigious private schools. Its a game. Everyone knows it. So what happens? The priviledged kids in private schools have an advantage at the prestigious private colleges…sometimes a HUGE advantage because someone knows someone in the admissions office, wink wink…Yep, I heard it MANY times. And yes, those kids got in. Princeton, Harvard, Dartmouth Columbia and Yale. Followed by Duke and WashU. I can name names. </p>
<p>So you better believe what UNSWR did…they likely interviewed the private high school counselors what they thought. </p>
<p>What did we do? We used USNWR as a BLUNT INSTRUMENT…a starting point for a general perception. We visited colleges in the upper tier, 2nd and 3rd tiers and made our OWN judgment based upon our own needs, wishes, and perceptions. </p>
<p>What USNWR and some prominent college admissions counselors forget is that there is a price to pay for getting into an uber prestigious top tier school like the Ivy League. That student will forever have the burden of high expectations and some will always harbor a bit of jealousy and a view the student is “privileged”. That can work in favor of finding jobs but also work against them. I would far prefer my kids go to a college that has an excellent reputation for producing WELL ROUNDED, HARD WORKING, WELL PREPARED, ETHICAL students. </p>
<p>In our case, we know we made the right decision. I often wear a ballcap with the name of the university my D attends. I can’t tell you often people have stopped me (and we DONT live there) and said, “I know that school…its a great school. Congratulations! Fine kids. Hard workers!” Etc etc. That makes me VERY proud and she is only a rising sophomore. But when you mention the Ivy League in a casual conversation at the neighborhood pool you get polite smiles and often mumbling and sometimes people who turn away. Its not sour grapes (we did NOT apply to a single Ivy.) Its just a reassuring comment from people.</p>
<p>So I am very anxious to see the “Up and Coming” category. Because I know in my heart who SHOULD be on that list…because I know in my heart what kind of kids come from those schools: Hard working, ethical, well rounded, well prepared kids. And that, in the end, is what EVERY parent wishes for their kids when they graduate, a complete vote of confidence.</p>