Unsure of colleges' reputations. Your two cents?

College Search & Selection
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<p>This thread does not concern fit or the rigor of specific programs. (Rest assured I am not neglecting these aspects of the college selection process!) Rather, I am wondering about the external reputations of the schools on my list...what will employers and grad schools think when they see a graduate from "College X"?</p>

<p>I plan to major in polisci and/or econ, and go into either government or government affairs. I have a decent (>25%) chance at almost every college on this list, with a couple of obvious reaches (e.g., Harvard).</p>

<p>From the perspective of reputation, which colleges would you consider the best? Which ones aren't worth looking into at all? Anything you've heard is helpful to me.</p>

<p>My (very broad, at this stage) college list is as follows:</p>

<p>Reed, GWU, Georgetown, William & Mary, U Richmond, Williams, Middlebury, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Tufts, Harvard, Carleton, Pomona, Princeton, Haverford, Swarthmore, Macalester, Kenyon, Hamilton, Bennington, Emory, Davidson, and Vanderbilt.</p>

<p>Thanks so much!</p>

2

<p>Can your family shell out $60,000 each year for all four years? If not, you need to identify some financial safeties at least one of which is a dead-on admissions safety.</p>

<p>Than re-post in the Parents Forum using “Shortening my list. Which are better for a career in government?”.</p>

3

<p>They are all prestigious, well-regarded schools. The larger ones will be known to a wider audience, but as for people in the know, they’re all going to be impressed.</p>

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<p>The average man on the street will not be aware of most of them, but high-profile employers and grad school admissions reps will know and respect all of those schools.</p>

5

<p>I think fit is by the far the most important part of the process. But if I had to rank by reputation, it would go like this (keep in mind I’m from the mid-Atlantic): </p>

<p>General Public
Harvard
Princeton
Georgetown
Vanderbilt
William and Mary
Emory
Swarthmore
Williams
Tufts
GWU
Middlebury
Davidson
Haverford
Richmond
Pomona
Reed
Kenyon
Bowdoin
Bates
Hamilton
Carleton
Macalester
Colby
Bennington</p>

<p>Grad Schools
Harvard
Princeton
Reed
Swarthmore
Williams
Vanderbilty
Tufts
William and Mary
Emory
Middlebury
Pomona
Davidson
Haverford
Georgetown
Kenyon
Carelton
Macalester
GWU
Richmond
Colby
Bennington</p>

<p>Grad school rankings are of course a hypothesis for me.</p>

6

<p>They are all great schools. GW, Georgetown, U Richmond jump out as the best known for polysci. W&M is most known for history/poly</p>

<p>You listed Pomona, but not Claremont McKenna. CMK has incredible politics/econ and great job placement. If you haven’t looked at, you should look at the PPE major (politics, philosophy & Econ).</p>

<p>Great stats at low acceptance rate schools does not mean you will be admitted. </p>

<p>I do NOT think you have a “decent chance” at most of these schools simply because the majority have admission stats <25% acceptance rate. I see many disappointed students post here every spring. </p>

<p>Consider some schools a bit lower. American, Dickinson</p>

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<p>Georgetown and URichmond are not good at Poli Sci. You should add CMK and Duke University to your list. They both have excellent Political Science and Economics programs.</p>

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<p>Ranking reputations has an undertone that implies that somehow the school makes the graduate and not the other way around. All the schools or your (somewhat obese) list have excellent academic reputations. While there might be some perceived differences at the graduate level, from an undergraduate perspective they are all well regarded. Therefore the question becomes where will you perform your best? I’m fairly certain that an employer would rather hire a “summa” from the least prestigious school on your list than someone who barely passed at the most prestigious.</p>

<p>To put it another way: It’s not about the size of the dog in the fight, it’s about the size of the fight in the dog.</p>

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<p>If grad school in economics is of interest, consider a school with decent math and statistics departments, from which you can take junior/senior level math and statistics courses like real analysis, probability, statistics, etc. that will be useful for preparing for grad school in economics. Of course, math intensive intermediate micro and macro economics and econometrics courses are desirable to have for this purpose.</p>

<p>For grad school admissions, the reputation of your major department at your undergraduate school likely has more effect than the reputation of the school overall.</p>

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<p>Every response to a topic pike this is bias in one direction or another – it’s fine to qualify your post by identifying location, but that doesn’t make the list any more accurate. If you’re aware of the fact that those mid-Atlantic schools (w&m, gwu) are overrated on your list because of your background… I’m not sure why you wouldn’t fix the list to reflect that.</p>

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<p>I did not fix the list to reflect that. I am going by how people I know (which means people who live in my area) react to different schools. Nobody has heard of Bennington but everyone has heard of Richmond and William and Mary. As someone who hasn’t spent much time out West, I can’t say what the reputations of the schools are like out there. Reputation is all relative and by definition has to be.</p>

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<p>[30</a> Rock-Bennington College - YouTube](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krlP1OWFunA]30”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krlP1OWFunA)</p>

<p>haha. And in terms of general public, I’d place Swarthmore MUCH further down on the list. And I also live in the Mid-Atlantic.</p>

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<p>Again, this is based on my own experience. For general public Swarthmore is nearly half-way down the list. Most people from my community (upper-middle class, typically college educated) have heard of it. That said I do live literally a half an hour from Swarthmore which I’m sure makes an obvious difference.</p>

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<p>Not entirely sure what the person who said Georgetown wasn’t good at polysci was saying, seeing as they have the SFS which is one of the top schools in the country for PolySci/IR</p>

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<p>Georgetown, from my belief, is an interesting case. Some higher academia that I have spoken with have said that G-Town’s other programs are, to put it bluntly, not very good. They do have SFS, which raises the overall reputation of the school, kind of like Wharton and Penn. SFS’s focus is mostly on IR and not polysci, which falls under their Arts and Sciences College unless you count the Culture and Politics major, which doesn’t appear to be very popular. </p>

<p>@#5 where is Bates on the second list?</p>

<p>The question of reputation is certainly regional also. Since you are planning to go into gov., then DC is your destination. Therefore, schools closer to DC will have a slight raise in reputation. GWU might seem better than Reed College or W&M over Emory. Its definitively a subjective topic to be sure.</p>

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<p>The SFS is a unique mixture of PolySci and International Relations that is hard to rate, just look at the majors list, as almost none of them are offered anywhere else. In any case, ranking Gtown’s Polysci reputation based off of the stripped down program for the College is wholly misleading </p>

<p>Culture & Politics
International Economics
International History
International Politics
International Political Economy
Regional & Comparative Studies
Science, Technology, & International Affairs</p>

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<p>PolySci is a differing field than the ones offered by SFS in my view. Of course political science is the root for these studies but the SFS school is pre-professional. You learn how to become a member of the Foreign Service. I would think (obviously I do not know because I do not go to Georgetown’s SFS) that political science is taught very differently in SFS than at LACs and other universities among the list the OP provided. That’s why I mentioned that Georgetown is an interesting case. </p>

<p>Instead of speaking in academic terms as I have described, the general public (and many employers) will still link G-Town with high quality social science teachings regardless of major. This in it of itself is the key to reputation. What does the majority think? And certainly they agree that G-Town is a high leader in the fields of the social sciences. </p>

<p>But if I were going for an education for the sake of an education I would go to a LAC highly ranked in social sciences than G-Town, unless I were planning to go into FS.</p>

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<p>That’s a really common misconception. Almost no one at Georgetown actually goes into the foreign service simply because they dont take very many people, although in terms of government jobs, Goergetown is by far the best place to go as they have triple the amount of people as the next closest school I believe. The SFS is somewhat pre-professional yes, but it is very much like a Polysci education mixed with IR as something like 50% of SFS students go to law school, and the biggest employers of students out of the school are banks and consulting firms incidentally.</p>

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<p>I am aware that they do not send many to the FS (due to constraints) and send many to IBs and JDs as any top school would. Of course G-Town has high connections with the political system in the US and has a high placement within. The pre-professional aspect of the situation cannot be underestimated. The OP says they are interested in governmental affairs. </p>

<p>Of course G-Town has great placement but what is the goal? Grad school? Law school? Professional job after UG? A LAC would fit better with grad school goals and ideas of intellectual pursuit (not necessarily out ruling a governmental job of course) while G-Town would definitely work better for connections right into the government. </p>

<p>It all comes down to what your goals are and how you would think you’d fit. The list the OP provided seems quite varied in student body and in environment. A list with Reed and G-Town, a list with Swarthmore and Colby, a list with Bates and GWU does not seem very oriented (not sure if that’s the right word). Have you visited? Have you made the distinction between the types of student bodies you would enjoy? URichmond and Macalester are very differing social atmospheres. There seems to be a clash of intellectualism/liberalism and pre-prof./conservatism in the list (sorry for all the -isms). A “frat” and “preppy” lifestyle vs. a “granola bar” and “activist” lifestyle. Its up to you to decide which one fits best and is more appropriate to your needs.</p>