<p>Jw,
If your point is that people are drawn to the Ivies, sometimes at the expense of a better fit elsewhere, then I completely agree. And I think that is too bad for the prospective student. I do believe in and think I understand college prestige, but I think in the case of the Ivy colleges, it is grossly overdone. They are good colleges, but it’s not like there aren’t plenty of other places equally good and, when factored for personal fit, there are dozens that are better. </p>
<p>The good news on the American college scene is that there are a lot of terrific colleges and they’re found all over the USA. The bad news is that some prestige hounds and the conventional wisdom of the MSM persist in pushing the myth that the Ivies are automatically superior. They’re not. </p>
<p>As for bclintonk’s contention that low Freshmen Retention rates have indicative value, I would agree. However, I’m not sure I agree with your examples, particularly those at the 94% level. Given the small size of some of these schools, these are very small numbers of students (eg, Wake Forest at 94% means 67 students out of their freshmen class of 1124 did not return for their sophomore year). </p>
<p>I’d probably also distinguish between the privates and the publics in how I interpret this data. I’d give more leeway to the publics due to a variety of factors.</p>