<p>When is a school considered elite?</p>
<p>The second you open the acceptance letter.</p>
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<p>This is just…I won’t say it. Who appointed the editors of a magazine the “deciders” of what is elite and what isn’t? Why is USNWR the decider and not WSJ’s list of the top schools for recruiting according to corporations? Or Forbes’ list? Heck, SPIN Magazine and People could producer their own lists. What would make their very different lists less valid than USNWR?</p>
<p>Why do people so cavalierly grant “authority” to someone else? It’s crazy. Like the parents who tell their kids to shut up and do as Father Flanagan says because he’s a man of God. Yeah, then after the kid is molested… People accept “authority” too readily for my taste. </p>
<p>Who the hell is USNWR? How many people here on CC even bother to read that rag except when they published their annual college rankings?</p>
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<p>How does Reed make your list and not Oberlin? Their acceptance rates and overall selectivity are practically identical.</p>
<p>Harvard is hardly elite, it is crawling with sub-700 SATs, legacies, and jocks.</p>
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<p>LOL! So true. A co-worker recently told me that Susquehanna University is an elite school. She said this a day after her son got his acceptance letter.</p>
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<p>…and Princeton rejects.</p>
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The methodology of each ranking authority has been meticulously scrutinized and critiqued. While USNWR may not use the most ideal methodology, alternatives such as Forbes could never be accepted as a serious study. </p>
<p>For example, 17.5% of Forbes’ ranking comes from ratemyoprofessor.com. 15% of their ranking comes from Payscale.com. Another 5% comes from MyPlan.com. These are voluntary response surveys with unrandom, select internet audiences. Furthermore, these websites are not well-respected and their use is highly arbitrary. The methodology is so ridiculous a statistician’s eyes is bleeding.</p>
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It’s a prestigious news magazine which has garnered an audience of highly informed and intellectual readers.</p>
<p>Unlike counterparts such as Newsweek and Time, USNWR fosters more sophisticated and deep discussion in the areas of politics, economics, health and education.</p>
<p>This is idea is really growing on me. How wonderful that finally, after all these years, we will know for sure which colleges and universities are elite! There will be no more debate on the subject, no more petty disagreements. It will be so easy to know exactly whom to hire and give awards to, whom to call for interviews about world events, whom to look to for guidance and wisdom in this crazy world: Graduates of the elite schools, as determined by the exacting statistical standards determined by this discussion. Whew, thank goodness. Please continue…I’m dying to know which schools are elite, at long last.</p>
<p>the schools ppl mean when they say “ivies and ivy equivalents”</p>
<p>"It’s a prestigious news magazine which has garnered an audience of highly informed and intellectual readers.</p>
<p>Unlike counterparts such as Newsweek and Time, USNWR fosters more sophisticated and deep discussion in the areas of politics, economics, health and education."</p>
<p>You’re joking, of course…right?</p>
<p>i dont know why people are hating on USNWR
its an amazing resource that tells you about prestige and name recognition
which is what a lot of people want from their colleges
the ‘exact’ rankings might not be entirely accurate
bc at some point rankings have to be subjective
but its still usefull in that colleges far apart on the list are not comprable to eachother</p>
<p>A college is elite if a son and daughter of an Elite, Privilege, Aristocrate, Senator, Corporate titan get rejected by the college strictly on merits.
A college is elite if an alumnae billionaire wants to donate a couple of millions dollar to endow a particular department, school or whatever.
A college is elite if a strict ‘A’ student with challenging background that hail from a poor family get full ride to attend that college.
A college is elite if a strict ‘A’ student from a rich family get rejected over other strict ‘A’ student who has more interesting accomplishments.
A college is elite if you know that your friend who is so much smarter than you got accepted and you are not.
A college is elite if the faculties comprise of Award winning professors ie Nobel, Math etc.
A college is elite if the students consistently win Fulbright, Rhodes scholarship program etc.</p>
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<p>Hate on? Does anyone know the origin of that expression?</p>
<p>PS Sorry for the OT comment, but then we all know that this topic will finds its little niche among the dumbest, silliest, and least helpful threads hosted by CC. The only question is how long it takes us to get to there. </p>
<p>I really feel bad for poor RML who must be working fewerishly on all his tables. ;)</p>
<p>I guess an elite college is whichever one that makes it onto the front page of Princeton Review’s guide to elite colleges, in this case it’s Dartmouth:</p>
<p>[America’s</a> elite colleges: the smart … - Google Libri](<a href=“America's Elite Colleges: The Smart Applicant's Guide to the Ivy League and ... - Dave Berry, David Hawsey - Google Libri”>America's Elite Colleges: The Smart Applicant's Guide to the Ivy League and ... - Dave Berry, David Hawsey - Google Libri)</p>
<p>“i dont know why people are hating on USNWR”</p>
<p>Hmmm, must be a semi-literate, any educated person would have said ‘hating upon’. ;)</p>
<p>"A college is elite if a son and daughter of an Elite, Privilege, Aristocrate, Senator, Corporate titan get rejected by the college strictly on merits.
A college is elite if an alumnae billionaire wants to donate a couple of millions dollar to endow a particular department, school or whatever.
A college is elite if a strict ‘A’ student with challenging background that hail from a poor family get full ride to attend that college.
A college is elite if a strict ‘A’ student from a rich family get rejected over other strict ‘A’ student who has more interesting accomplishments.
A college is elite if you know that your friend who is so much smarter than you got accepted and you are not.
A college is elite if the faculties comprise of Award winning professors ie Nobel, Math etc.
A college is elite if the students consistently win Fulbright, Rhodes scholarship program etc. "</p>
<p>By this set of guidelines, the University of Maryland College Park is considered an “elite” school. (With the exception of Nobel prize winners, I don’t believe we have any) I go there, and I love it, but it’s not “elite”, nor would I want it to be.</p>
<p>@44,</p>
<p>Would say the same about people who think GW, W&J,and W&L are all one…</p>
<p>I don’t have specific references at hand, but I thought I read that some acceptance rates are doctored.
For example, at certain schools, it is known upfront a lot of kids will be taken off the (lengthy) wait lists each year. This permits a school to cite a “low” acceptance rate which does not reflect reality. People should be careful about those #s and putting too much stock in them! Better to check out the school in person and determine possible matches for the applicant.
Also, I recently posted a reference to a student-written article about a super prestigious near Ivy that indicated a large # of legacy admits at that particular university (contrasted with a much lower figure for Princeton, according to the article, by comparison). Frankly, I think this should be taken into consideration.
I also read about certain universities doing extreme, massive marketing, I think the idea is to snap up national merit finalists. This is not a top 10, but striving uni.
The point: universities, to a greater or lesser extent are in the “marketing business” and public perception of a university’s standing can be affected by USNWR as well as various other factors which may reflect publicity efforts.
IMO about topflight U.S. music conservatories: while one is KNOWN to be “elite” to the general public – surprise, it’s Juilliard - in reality there are various others that consitute elites, they just haven’t advertised as much to the general public! Even if you want to argue with me, you can’t disagree that there are several in that VERY top-perceived realm: NEC, MSM, Eastman, Curtis, BoCo, Oberlin. I regret these are not as well known to regular folks outside classical music.</p>
<p>I agree that schools do probably manipulate their numbers in order to market themselves, but there is a limit as to how much they can actually affect the numbers</p>
<p>@ 76:</p>
<p>I don’t think UMD fits the first or fourth qualifications there, and I’m not sure whether it fulfills the third one out-of-state. Their website does list several Nobel laureates, including four who were professors/adjunct professors at the time the Nobel was awarded (though it’s not clear if any of them are still there, I’d guess the 2006 and 2005 winners have a good chance of still being there).</p>