<p>
</p>
<p>Because the USNWR ranks it 12th, of course!</p>
<p>The sad thing is, I can totally imagine some naive kid going to WUSTL solely because of its USNWR rank. The joke’s going to be on the kid when s/he graduates though.</p>
<p>^^ The student will have received an excellent education and will have a lot of success with graduate and professional school admissions. Yes, WUSTL spams the general populace with admissions materials and probably manipulates data a little, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is an excellent university. You act like it is Northwest Mississippi U or something.</p>
<p>NYC: It’s a big country. You and your NYC high school classmates may hold scorn for WUSTL, but plenty of educators and employers in the rest of the country know the quality of the education being offered there and it is respected. I know one of the graduates of WUSTL’s interdisciplinary humanities program and he was recently admitted into a dual PhD, J.D. program at Stanford. No joke. </p>
<p>Also, you don’t seem to be aware that years before Washu, U-Penn blazed the trail for improving standing in USNWR rankings…Washu is simply following the master in looking for “demonstrated interest,” managing enrollment via early decision (wasn’t Penn at 50 percent for ED not long ago or was that Princeton?) and use of the waitlist. And why slam Washu for its yield, when it mirrors that of other fine universities? </p>
<p>USNWR 2009: </p>
<p>Yield , National University-Privates</p>
<p>79% , Harvard
70% , Stanford
69% , Yale
69% , MIT
68% , Princeton
66% , U Penn
65% , Yeshiva
59% , Columbia
56% , Brown
56% , Notre Dame
52% , Dartmouth
47% , Cornell
47% , Georgetown
42% , Duke
39% , Vanderbilt
39% , NYU
38% , Caltech
37% , Wake Forest
36% , U Chicago
35% , USC
34% , Northwestern
34% , Wash U
33% , Johns Hopkins
33% , Rice
32% , Tufts
30% , Emory
30% , Lehigh
29% , Boston Coll
27% , Brandeis
26% , Rensselaer
23% , Carnegie Mellon
22% , U Rochester
21% , Case Western
18% , Tulane</p>
<p>jazzymom,</p>
<p>I am very aware of Penn’s “improved standing” in the USNWR rankings. You’d have to ask its administrators HOW they improved their rankings. And at what cost? But what makes you think I have any respect for that school? So instead of emulating, say, HYPS, WUSTL wants to be like Penn? What a role model!</p>
<p>Yield accounts for less than 2% of US News rankings if I’m not mistaken. </p>
<p>I actually had no idea Penn (or Duke or Dartmouth) is so much better than UChicago, NU, WashU, and Rice. In what quantifiable ways besides the stats of admitted students?</p>
<p>MomofWC is biased towards Rice and UChicago because she has children who attended or strongly considered either. I love Rice though!</p>
<p>
Did you ever consider the possibility that both are emulating HYPS?</p>
<p>Yield rate is interrelated with acceptance rate, which by themselves don’t account for much in the overall USNWR rankings. However, they will affect how prospective students perceive a school. Such perceptions about the school can affect the USNWR selectivity index. For example, said school can receive more or fewer applications, a fact which will in turn, affect the yield and acceptance rates.</p>
<p>What I mean is, perceptions about a school affect how many applications that school receives (or not), a fact which in turn affects the original perceptions.</p>
<p>So when people say that yield and acceptance rates don’t matter much in the USNWR rankings, they neglect that these rates can indeed affect the rankings indirectly as well.</p>
<p>I am actually biased towards Rice because I know that it offers a tremendous educational experience. I am not as fond of other schools (over the years) that my kids have attended. I think highly of Chicago because I went there for law school and because one of my kids investigated it thoroughly. I strongly disagree with the slams against Penn and I DO have a kid there. Most of my family members (including summers for me) attended Penn, so I actually have some experience, unlike nyccard. We are not a Wharton family, I might add. I started out with a very negative impression of Penn, but the strengths and benefits have revealed themselves quite nicely.<br>
Those of us who have been on this forum longer than a month (yes, nyccard, that would be you) have learned a lot about many colleges, have visited many and have formed opinions. My impression is that we are here to share those and that our credibility can be assessed as desired by the reader.</p>
<p>" actually had no idea Penn (or Duke or Dartmouth) is so much better than UChicago, NU, WashU, and Rice. In what quantifiable ways besides the stats of admitted students?"</p>
<p>Stats of students from all those schools show nearly an identical student body.</p>
<p>Penn:1330-1530
duke:1340-1540
Chicago:1330-1530
Dartmouth:1330-1550
NU;1350-1520
WashU:1370-1530
I would expect the same range with Rice</p>
<p>Saying that, I think we are getting away from what the OP originally asked for, quality of profs and students across a wide range of fields. Chicago would rank right there at the top because they have boatloads of superstar profs across many fields that teach at both the grad and undergrad level. And further, the grad students you are in contact with will most likely be going on to be superstars in their own rights. Penn, JHU, and NU have big names on their staff as well. Chicago’s last Nobel prize Econ winner actually did most of his work at NU. Hopkins would suprise many people who believe it’s just a school for future docs…they are powerhouses in many fields. GT is strong in less fields but the ones they excel at, they really do excel at. While I don’t know much about Rice’s faculty, I have to believe they must be strong. I can’t speak for WashU or Tufts except that I know many professors hold both schools in high esteem.</p>
<p>So if I was foolish to rank them, I would probably say:
level 1: Chicago, Penn,JHU, NU
level 2:GT, Rice, WashU
level 3: Tufts</p>
<p>Full disclosure, I have two kids at Chicago. Further disclosure, I think all these schools are in the same first tier of elite schools. I know lots of kids at Yale, MIT and Princeton. They’re brillant…but they aren’t better.(I’ve known them since they were little kids…they don’t stand out from second tier elite schools that have lower yield. 
)</p>
<p>
I wouldn’t say that either is trying to emulate HYPS. They’re simply trying to improve themselves and be as good as they can be…which I find rather admirable.</p>
<p>
Oh, please. The US News rankings are no more ridiculous and nit-picky than the “rankings” in this thread.</p>
<p>
“demonstrated interest” exists at most of those schools mentioned, but I concede that WUSTL may care more than most. Nonetheless its a lot harder to get into Wash U then Hopkins (which is a joke for top students to get into) and Chicago (which has a unique self-selective pool). They are all good and no one was bashing thse schools, but your ignorance on Wash U deserved attention</p>
<p>Finally whats wrong with a school improving its image like Penn or Wash U. Its admirable and its even healthy, expspeially if in improving their image they improve the education provided. </p>
<p>Finally US NEws is always attacked on this forum, but almost everyone considers it the best of the rankings and generally accurate to public perception. So get over it, kids listen to it, and thats that</p>
<p>It hardly improves the education, I’m not sure how you can draw that conclusion. </p>
<p>WUSTL is gaming the system, in the process, it tries to demonstrate improvement on paper, when deciding between a 1500 SAT scorer with no other outstanding attribute, and a very talented musician with a 1200 SAT, WUSTL is more likely to admit the 1500 scorer, while HYP are more likely to admit the 1200 scorer. The agenda is therefore not to admit the best, most well rounded class, but the “best sounding” freshman class.</p>
<p>
Yes, WUStL has high scorers, so clearly it MUST be rejecting well-rounded applicants in favor of high scoring automatons. </p>
<p>:rolleyes:</p>
<p>Bescraze, Your statements on JHU and Uchicago are the stupidest comments I have heard.</p>
<p>JUST from the early round, the following types of students, that I personally know, were turned down by JHU:</p>
<p>Student A: 3.85 GPA, ALL Honors and AP courses with 3 AP sciences this year, 2250+ SAT, 34 ACT, and President of three major clubs in school.</p>
<p>Student B: 3.9 GPA, All Honors and AP Courses with 2 AP Social Sciences courses this year, 2300 SAT, 32 ACT, Vice President of National Honors Society, and Co-Captain of the Varsity Tennis team.</p>
<p>Both turned down FROM EARLY DECISION.</p>
<p>For UChicago’s Early Action:</p>
<p>Student c: Top 10 (NUMBER, NOT PERCENT) of the class, 2350 SAT, one of the editors for the school newspaper, wealthy and needs no fin. aid.</p>
<p>Student d: Top 2% of class, 2150 SAT, Captain of the Varsity Girls Swimming Team.</p>
<p>Student E: Top 5% of class, 33 ACT, Co-Captain of Track with numerous medals, great personality and recommendations.</p>
<p>All three were DEFERRED, while others did GET IN.</p>
<p>so I think that your opinions are highly laughable at this point.</p>
<p>This thread has too many dimension to hold together. Here is one simplifying path. If you are enough of a force to be reckoned with to get into these schools, some of the qualities that are distinctive to each one should be decisive to you and some of the weakness should also be rule outs. What the landscape of choice would look like after you made such a determination remains to be seen. You are just as likely as not to be on the outgoing part of one of those yield statistics, and if you know that now, what’s the point of going on about that school?</p>
<p>Yeah, they’re all pretty good.</p>
<p>Bescraze, you’re not even in college yet, IIRC. “Prestige” among high schoolers is meaningless.</p>
<p>OP: There is no bad choice amongst the schools that you’ve listed. (I would tend to put Tufts at the lower end, but it’s not “low” by any stretch of the imagination.) This is a decision you need to make on personal fit and / or financial aid considerations (if those are relevant). Good luck!</p>