<p>Maybe this has been posted before, but the truth is horrifying:</p>
<p>well, maybe some people still do, but a lot of CC parents here learned not to a looooooooog time ago!</p>
<p>I could not get to the article, but to respond to your title, I do not. I do find USNWR very useful because I am familiar with their format and they do have a lot of the information I seek in colleges. I don’t look at them as the final word at all. </p>
<p>Where I have found them to be the most useful is in getting some idea of a school for which I know nothing. For example, my son was getting information on schools in areas far from us, that were not even familiar sounding. </p>
<p>As for rankings I don’t look at them except to get some sort of idea where USNWR considers a given school. It is not an important part of school choice for our family.</p>
<p>For graduate programs, I am told that it is a good resource, but I have not yet used it for that purpose.</p>
<p>Wide swathes of the country pay little or no attention to USNWR. No one says you have to make your decisions based on. Don’t blame USNWR for sheeple thinking.</p>
<p>OK, so per the article Mr. Wallerstein (the guy with the $250,000 in debt for law school) went to a law school in the 4th (and bottom) tier of the USNWR rankings. So obviously, the USNWR rankings did not dominate his grad school decision. Looks like not much did except for the location in San Diego, especially since he concedes that he doesn’t remember much about the promotional materials sent from the school.</p>
<p>The guy didn’t do his homework, took out tons of debt that weren’t tuition related; pricey apt., study abroad, a loan to cover months of studying for the bar. Srsly? </p>
<p>While I agree that some schools game the system and aren’t as forthright about some of their data, using this guy as the face to slam the rankings isn’t that effective.</p>
<p>A lot of kids/parents don’t let USNWR influence their decision. My D and many of her friends at her college turned down higher ranked schools simply because they liked the whole package this school offered and affordability for IS students. I know some parents at her prep school who made their kids go to the highest ranked school on their acceptance list regardless if it was their #1 choice or not. She hung out with a few at Christmas, came home, and said, “Thank you for letting me pick the college I wanted and not saying anything to try and sway my decision.” 
Suffice to say, two of her friends are so miserable, they’re transferring this fall.</p>
<p>Ya know, USNWR isn’t the only place where the Ivy League seems to have a place of honor. Look at how this site is set up. There’s a separate category for Ivy League schools in College Confidential. I object to that much attention! It’s right there on the left side of your page.
</p>
<p>limabeans - they’re just selling what epeople are buying. A quick scan of posts on this site shows that many here are rabid for the ivy league.</p>
<p>There are many more of us who use US News as just one peice of the puzzle. Same as this forum and other internet college sites. All are good in the information gathering stage but none are worthy of basing your decision on.</p>
<p>Limabeans…You’re right; it seems like CC is also dominated by USNWR. The ivys have their own section and CC’s “Top Universities” correspond almost identically with USNWR. Of the top 25 according to USNWR, only two AREN’T mentioned: USC and Wake and only two that fall outside USNWR are mentioned: UNC and UMich.</p>
<p>Because there is a lot of truth and usefulness to the USNWR rankings - you get valuable data all together under the ease of a few clicks - until people blow it way out of proportions and come to think that somehow the ranking is the end-all be-all, and you come to see the ridiculousness as discussed in this thread:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1102979-manhattan-mom-sues-19k-yr-preschool-damaging-daughters-ivy-league-chances.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1102979-manhattan-mom-sues-19k-yr-preschool-damaging-daughters-ivy-league-chances.html</a> :eek:</p>
<p>Information is useful, but some people don’t know how to reason for themselves and use the information properly. Top schools are considered desirable for concrete reasons, but it isn’t that those schools are somehow the only ones worth attending or families should build their lives around college admissions!</p>
<p>jc40-</p>
<p>Those are the schools most searched by people browsing CC, so it’s quite natural and useful to have the forums be more accessible. CC conforms to the needs of its users.</p>
<p>I know that people who come on this website are interested in learning more about college (and the admission process, FA, etc.). But the fact that “Ivy League schools” have a separate category from all the other colleges makes me feel that the administrators of this site think those schools are more important. Or at least stand out somehow. Yet, some of the ivies aren’t as highly ranked as other schools.</p>
<p>Well, perhaps we should ask CC to rearrange the lists according to other criteria.</p>
<p>Let’s see … </p>
<p>AP NCAA Football Polls in the Fall?
COFHE Membership in the Winter?
March Madness Brackets in the Spring?
Colleges with beaches in the Summer?</p>
<p>xrCalico: it could be that the list is easier to access. Certainly they are well known. Keep in mind that there are many users from different countries who come onto this site to learn about colleges. Many go to “ivy league” and stop there. </p>
<p>I know this because so many students write to me and ask for help with their essays. They feel pressure from their parents to apply to those ivies because their parents don’t know of any other college names. Wouldn’t it so much better if those ivies didn’t have that cache that is perpetutated here? </p>
<p>For goodness sake, treat those colleges like the other privates!</p>
<p>xiggi: I note a bit of sarcasm</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Still, one of the major points of the article elucidates as to how desperate law deans are to raise their USNWR “ranking” which motivates them to manipulate the data on the performance of their recent graduates (which included such tactics as hiring their unemployed students in low paid temp work in Feb. just to artificially prop up their employment stats). That is borderline fraud, especially when you are asking individuals to fork over $150k based off of false pretenses that publications like USNWR use to do their rankings. If a major publicly traded company on the stock market got caught cooking their books like the way colleges and universities do in order to artificially raise their ranking, they would get hammered by the SEC, so why are colleges and universities allowed to get away with it with departments such as law schools?</p>
<p>I love these kids who are obsessed with the ivies. They are soooo incredibly different from my own kids, I adore them. I have no idea how one creates a child like this, except I have kids obsesed with other highly competitive endeavors, things which have their own rankings. My kids just aren’t competitve schoolers, so to speak. </p>
<p>It is very American to want the “best.” It is very American to want to “win.” It just is. Even if Xiggi thinks he is joking. ;)</p>
<p>I love to watch the action unfold on the Ivy boards, the same way I love to watch the road to the final four, and the Academiy awards. Sometimes I go to see movies just to make sure I’ve seen all the nominees. Doesn’t mean I think they don’t miss some really great films, or that they are always right…doesn’t mean I believe the best basketball team (Tarheels!) is going to win this year, but we love this narrative. We just do.</p>
<p>Agree with Poet, also Americans love to rank things even David Letterman has made a career of ranking things. Americans love to validate their decisions, think about JD Powers, Good Housekeeping seal of approval etc. USNWR just happened to be in the right place at the right time with the concept of ranking colleges right at the time the first baby boomers were sending their darlings off to college and those parents were starting to watching the market make a steady climb upward adding to financial euphoria. Thoseo parent wanted to validate what “the best” encompassed. The staying power of USNWR, remember the magazine is all but gone, is that rankings simply play into American sensibilities. </p>
<p>In general, thouogh, the outcome of which college, for most people is not which school is ranked higher on USNWR and is shaped more by what can be afforded or where the student is able and willing to attend.</p>
<p>When we(my family) look at schools, we may not go by USNWR 100%, but it is a good indicator and a good starting point. There is a difference between a school that’s ranked top 20 vs top 50. I believe where one goes to UG has impact on future employment and graduate school.</p>
<p>As a consumer, most of private schools cost about the same (regardless of ranking), so I would rather my kids go to a higher ranking school. Higher ranking schools do attract better students (or students who take school work more seriously), and I do believe it makes learning more interesting. Graduating from a higher ranking school will not guarantee better experience or higher paying job, but it will certainly give people more options.</p>
<p>It is not just about overall ranking of a school, it can be ranking of a specific major. If a student wants to study CS, CMU maybe a better choice than Brown, Yale, Harvard…On the other hand, if a student wants to go into finance, Wharton is a better choice than CMU business school.</p>
<p>All rankings and CC discussions are useful information in the decision making process. However, if you use them like a Bible, then your head need to be checked. Common sense is what you should be counting on.</p>
<p>I think most parents know not to take USNWR rankings too seriously. But many HS seniors still base their decisions on it.</p>