US News - Best Colleges 2009 - Top Public Universities

<p>Not only that, but gpa & sat scores are used in these ratings. I think it should be pointed out that these scores are earned “before” you enter the univerisity. Therefore, these scores should be used mostly to see what it takes to get in a univeristy. But does it really tell you anything about the quality of education you will receive there? I don’t think so. I guess you could argue student quality and yes maybe when the difference is like 3.0 to a 4.0 gpa or an 1100 to 1400 sat then yes i think there is some measureable differenence on quality of student body. Anything closer is minimal and alot of things can cause a slight differenence that doesn’t equate to student quality. Even at a recent meeting of top admission advisors from top colleges this year(held at Wake Forrest) expressed the problem with the sat’s accuracy at predicting student quality. Their main agrument was how it was “coachable” , but at this point its the best tool they got.</p>