<p>Does anyone know when the ACTUAL rankings will be out?</p>
<p>ME TOO I AM SO CURIOUS WHEN WILL THEY BE OUt...or at least, when were they out last year?</p>
<p>Lately, it has been coming out on the third Friday on August, which makes it the 19th of August. Of course, it could come out a week later...on the 26th of August. So I would say either the 19th or 26th of August. And that's the online version. The actual magazine will hit the Shelves on a Monday (either Monday the 22nd or the 29th).</p>
<p>get a life.</p>
<p>Alexandre . . .</p>
<p>Wow. After years of feeling like such a "taker" on the wonderful CC college resource (a far, far better resource for analyzing the subjective nature of colleges than USNWR could ever hope to be), I'm finally in a position to give back.</p>
<p>I was a subscriber to USNWR online service (highly recommended for the data) for 2004/2005. I just received an email TODAY telling me that the updated 2005/2006 online service will be available on Friday, August 19th.</p>
<p>I'll subscribe again because my D will be applying to schools this year and USNWR is a great place to find a lot of worthwhile statistical data. As far as their sacred "rankings" are concerned? Please. What a crock. You can't rank schools in a supposedly objective, numbered fashion any more than you could rank what is the best novel ever written. It depends on what you value and what you seek. It's all about fit and feel. Use the USNWR for stats; you can even use the USNWR (judiciously) to come up with your personal concept of "tiers"; but, ultimately, each student must rank their schools on their own idiosyncratic scale of which schools are best for them. </p>
<p>I firmly believe that if you cornered the USNWR editors, and administered truth serum, they would be the first to tell you that their ratings were never meant to be a be-all, end-all of which school is "better," rather an exercise in how you can rate schools by quantifying certain factors and manipulate the ratings by changing the factors or changing the weighting of each factor. Of course, since their ratings have become an amazing cash-cow, this would never be freely admitted.</p>
<p>Very nicely stated DudeDiligence. I agree that a ranking that professes to be able to rank universities in single file is indeed a crock. The USNWR is hilarious. Universities change very slowly. It usually takes decades for a university to really change vis-a-vis other universities. And yet, within 2 or 3 years, some universities have leapt and fallen 10 or so spots in the rankings. Cal, Michigan, Penn, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Cornell to name just a few. This tells me one of two things:</p>
<p>1) There is no difference between universities ranked within 20 or so spots of each other.</p>
<p>2) The ranking is completely off.</p>
<p>I am more likely to think it is #1, which basically means that instead of ranking universities, one should look to grouping schools. And in my eyes, those groupings are pretty large, with anywhere from 15-20 universities per group...with the exception of the top group, which I believe has 5 distinct universities.</p>
<p>So Dude...where is your D going to apply? Michigan had better be one of the places! hehe</p>
<p>i know that by frozen rain, you mean sleet/hail. but isn't frozen rain technically snow too? (im just saying)</p>
<p>i guess, either hail or freezing rain</p>
<p>The 2006 Premium Online Edition will be available when it launches on August 19, 2005. $14.95</p>
<p>Your copy of the 2006 America's Best Colleges guidebook will be shipped on August 23, 2005. $9.95 </p>
<p>Immediate access to the Premium Online Edition will be available on August 19, 2005. Your copy of the 2006 America's Best Colleges guidebook will be shipped on August 23, 2005. $19.95</p>
<p>And the ultimate package offers one personal pass to the Premium Online Edition of America's Best Colleges PLUS five copies of the America's Best Colleges print edition to share. $61.95</p>
<p>PS Should we really trust a company that displays such poor arithmetic skills not to notice that buying one $19.95 package and four $9.95 package is ... cheaper than $61.95. I wonder how they would rank the "best" package. Unless they invent a quick weighing system to penalize one of the component of the package. :)</p>
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I wonder how they would rank the "best" package. Unless they invent a quick weighing system to penalize one of the component of the package.:)
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<p>Very funny Xiggi. I think it's no coincidence that Xiggi and cynic are both five letter words. ;)</p>
<p>Hey</p>
<p>what's with that anti-UVa crap? (ex: "UVa should be a tier lower"). UVa is a school of profound tradition and deserves some respect.</p>
<p>I agree with IVY_GRAD's first ranking, UVa is THE public ivy, as William Faulkner put it.</p>
<p>Everyone thinks their own schools is tops, and UVA is a good school alongside places like Vanderbilt and WashU, but putting UVA alongside places like Duke and Columbia is crazy.</p>
<p>Untilted, UVA is an awesome school. In fact, I am applying there (for sure) for law school and I really hope i get in. It is one of my first choices. The campus is gorgeous, there is great tradition, and the area was ranked as one of the most livable in the country. </p>
<p>Cheers. :)</p>
<p>Though I do agree that educational institutions cannot truly be ranked numerically, I believe that the fact that they still are does have an impact on their success. For many high school students, school rankings (i.e. US News) are their first exposure to higher education brand names. As such, top students may not even consider certain schools, regardless of their quality of education, due to their relatively low rank. Naturally, students will tend to prefer the universities that are ranked higher, and thus the overall quality of the institution will rise. There was a certain girl in my graduating class who applied to all of the top 12 or so universities, hoping that at least one would accept her. Now I am not saying that this is a prevalent attitude of most graduating students; nor am I agreeing with this attitude, but the fact remains that higher ranked institutions will be considered "better schools." For this reason, though I am sure that certain schools such as Michigan and UW Madison would provide a comparable, if not superior, education, they will be considered "second rate" by a large portion of applying students, and so their student bodies will tend to be weaker than higher ranked schools.</p>
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I agree with IVY_GRAD's first ranking UVa is THE public ivy, as William Faulkner put it.
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<p>For the record, I have not put up a ranking on this thread.</p>
<p>There was a "grade" ranking which was posted right after my post about "Tiering" ranks as a better ranking system as opposed to an absolute numerical one.</p>
<p>This mistake is, of course, due to Slipper's initial comment when posting his list connecting me to this list - and added to that was a comment about my actually being a UVA grad in disguise -- a mistake btw for which he has not been man enough to acknowledge.</p>
<p>uva, michigan, berkeley, unc and ucla are the public Ivies</p>
<p>if you wanna make it seven, go ahead and add ucsd and wisconsin, but I only like those 5</p>
<p>Harvard, well said. Wisconsin doesn't qualify and CERTAINLY not ucsd, the only other public that could possibly qualify would be College of William and Mary.</p>
<p>honestly, in my mind, only 3 public ivies exist which are Michigan, Berk, and UVA. </p>
<p>that is the top group.</p>
<p>UCLA/UNC/Wisconsin is the second group</p>
<p>what do you guys think of top 5 Liberal Arts College IVIES..?</p>
<p>what rankings indicate that UCLA is a "public ivy"? Other than the awesome and flawless USNews lists, of course.</p>