<p>vossron, I think USnews helps you build a strong college application list, not choose colleges. The student in question would never have seen either top 30 or top 60 so she is still better off because of the ranking. I only think it can help you consider more schools, not consider less. I really don’t think (m)any people choose based purely on the ranking. Sure people may choose Princeton over Penn five out of six times, but that’s probably not because Princeton is ranked better.</p>
<p>How many people really select a school based on ranking? Don’t most people out there go to a local university/college/community college? Do people belive that anyone chooses college X over college Y becuase X was ranked #37 while Y was ranked #39?</p>
<p>For some students, the USNWR rankins are a good way to find out about other schools. For example, let’s say a kid is from Texas and really interested in Rice. He may not know about schools outside of Texas, but USNWR ranks Rice next to Emory, WashU, Vandy, and other top private schools. The student then researches these other schools and has a better idea of where to apply to college and what he is looking for in a college (at least that was how I used the rankings). Without the rankings, the student might get adivce from a GC or parents telling him to look at Texas privates like SMU, which IMO is farter off from Rice in atmosphere than the schools USNWR ranks near Rice.</p>
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Why is #60 better for this student? USNWR is a good way to sort of guage how prestigious a college is outside of your area. If a school ranks in the top 10 you know it is well respected in the US. If everyone living near you touts a college and you see that it is ranked #100 you have an idea that it might not carry as much weight if you wanted to move elsewhere after graduation.</p>
<p>^ Yes, thank you, that is exactly my point: College choice is subjective, and an “objective” list according to editors’ one-size-fits-none criteria does few any good.</p>
<p>I second ncmentor’s statement about Forbes. The rankings are horrible. Cornell College ahead of Cornell University? Vanderbilt not cracking the top 100? My local college ranked 560 something, that accepts people with a 1100/2400 SAT and has absolutely NO research facilities is ranked above Northeastern?</p>
<p>It’s ridiculous. I’d love to know what geniuses work for Forbes.</p>
<p>rogracer
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<p>Interesting how you failed to see what you did not want to see. President Eastman’s quote, " To say that Florida is better than Harvard or Columbia **or such places **is an exercise in hubris," he said. The money is in the “such places”. You know the ones, right…?</p>
<p>The rankings are only partially legitimate. Here is a list of problems I have with this ranking:</p>
<p>They rank partially based on admission rate. Admission rates do not determine the quality of the school: maybe 1000 geniuses applied for the 1000 spots at a school, so they lost points because they had a high admission rate, even though they have a brilliant student body.</p>
<p>Another factor is the student/faculty ratio. Well, some colleges include TA’s, research-only professors, librarians, and part-time professors in their number of faculty, so there is a skewed ratio.</p>
<p>Another problem is that they include the size of a school’s Alumnae club in relation to the school’s size. The SCHOOL should be ranked, not the GRADUATES. They also rank based on alumnae donations to the school.</p>
<p>Speaking of donations, they rank based on donations in general. If science buildings cost 100 million dollars to make while history buildings cost only 10 million dollars to make, then a science-based college would receive larger grants and it would APPEAR that it is a “better college.”</p>
<p>The achievements of current students in sports, academics, published papers, etc. are not factored into the ranking, even though they should be because a school’s excellence is shown through its students’ excellence. The location and condition of the schools are not factored in either: some schools are in bad neighborhoods where students are affected, some are in the middle of nowhere with no opportunities to search for jobs or internships. Other schools are in the perfect location (i.e. Johns Hopkins University is in Baltimore, a huge medical city, so students can find plenty of jobs and interships in a close proximity).</p>
<p>The U.S. report has a poor ranking system. It should take into consideration factors affecting their criteria. The ranking system can be found on their website! It says what percentage of the score each criteria makes up.</p>
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<p>Yeah.<br>
It has a really great ring to it though, and might even make a good premise for a sequel to The Omen or some such. Like, say a charismatic future presidential candidate is deceived by Satan into transferring to Co… (oh, forget it.)</p>
<p>“The U.S. report has a poor ranking system. It should take into consideration factors affecting their criteria. The ranking system can be found on their website! It says what percentage of the score each criteria makes up.”</p>
<p>The whole idea seems outmoded. Here we are on a web site talking about problems with a print publication. What we need is for USNWR to add dynamic ranking to their web site (similar to College Board’s criteria choices) so that each student can choose the criteria important to her, and get a meaningful customized ranking. </p>
<p>They could even have a default button: Traditional USNWR One-Size-Fits-None Factors</p>
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<p>That’s the best laugh I’ve had all day. :-)</p>
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Eh? What exactly are you trying to say?</p>