<p>The University of Washington is my state university (the one where EVERYONE applies to no matter what) and to my knowledge, it's not that hard to get into. About half of my high school's senior class (~130 students) is always accepted, and around 1/4 end up going to this school each year. </p>
<p>With that being said, it's acceptance rate is also over 50% and it's not regarded as a prestigious university AT ALL. In fact, the mentality of my school is that UW should be the back up school. </p>
<p>So, how is it possible that national lists put UW somewhere in between top 50-60 on their college rankings list while international lists puts the school at top 30? This makes no sense to me whatsoever. I'm talking 3.4, 3.5 GPAs that are accepted to this university. I know these aren't extremely low GPAs, but for a school that is ranked TOP 30 IN THE WORLD, is this normal?</p>
<p>On a side note: I applied to the UW and would really like to go there. However, I was accepted to NYU and must confirm my decision by March 11. If I accept their decision, I need to withdraw all apps, etc by this date which means I don't get to wait and find out if I got into UW.</p>
<p>I don't know which school I want to go to more. I'm not going to choose based on the ranking, however... This question is just something I'm curious about because it seems really illogical to me.</p>
<p>Each organization that ranks colleges and universities decides for itself what thing should factor into their own rating scale. So yes, for one set of factors an institution can be #1, but for another set of factors it could be #100000.</p>
<p>Dig a bit deeper into the information about these different systems, find out what factors they use in their evaluations, and then decide whether or not any of those factors matter to you.</p>
If you really want to go to UW then turn down NYU. Do you really think you won’t get in after all you said about its lack of selectivity? Not to mention all the money you’ll save…</p>
<p>I think you have a tilted view of UofW because you live near there. It’s an age old bias. It’s a good school. Off the top of my head I would put it higher than NYU in several categories. </p>
<p>Different rankings use different criteria for different purposes.<br>
The THE ranking is an opinion poll of university professors around the world.
It presumably reflects opinions about the quantity or quality of academic research at world universities. The US News rankings likewise have subjective opinion poll components (the “peer” and guidance counsellor assessments), but also incorporate objective measurements believed to reflect the quality of undergraduate education (such as average class sizes, student selectivity, and graduation rates). So the results are different.</p>
<p>Each rankings list has their own methodology to decide where to rank a school. Moreover, some rankings lists have different motivations than others. US News - the most notorious - has the goal of selling magazines (the issue that ranks schools is their best-selling issue every year).</p>
<p>The U.S. News rankings are based heavily upon input factors/selectivity criteria like test scores and on alumni giving, as well as a “peer ranking score” in which universities are asked to rate their peers. However, the international rankings tend to be based on output factors like faculty publication, research grants and dollars, and different kinds of measures of teaching environment.</p>
<p>What’s wrong with a 3.4 or 3.5 GPA, anyway? A person with a 3.5 has gotten mostly As with some Bs, and many schools don’t weight their GPAs in a ridiculous way that results in many students getting 4.2+ GPAs.</p>
<p>Also, why do you need to confirm with NYU by March 11? They are violating the May 1 agreement that most undergrad schools adhere to. (If you want to know what I really think, I think NYU is way overrated for undergraduate education; it attracts great students because it’s located in New York and really plays up the connection. But if that same university were in, say, upstate New York or the Midwest, it wouldn’t be nearly as popular.)</p>
<p>A 3.5 might be mostly A grades with no B grades at all. The bad and/or not so bad grades involved could be C, D, or even F.</p>
<p>OP - Sit down with your parents, and find out what they’d spend the difference in cost on if you choose U of WA over NYU. It may be well worth waiting to hear from U of WA.</p>
<p>If your goal is to select a US college, then class sizes, the caliber of your classmates, graduation rates, and the opinions of American college professors matter more, taken together, than the opinions of professors in remote countries. However, none of these factors should matter more than a school’s affordability or its suitability for your own needs.</p>
<p>International rankings are most focused on PhD program reputation, since PhD programs are more financially accessible than undergraduate study.</p>
<p>Domestic US rankings are most focused on undergraduate selectivity (i.e. the worst students who get admitted tend to define the school’s prestige) and correlated characteristics (like graduation rates). They may also contain some attempts at proxying the “quality of education” (like class sizes, though these can vary considerably within a college), though a true course-by-course comparison of quality would be rather difficult to do (and could be very department/major-dependent as well).</p>
<p>"The ‘Shanghai Ranking’, for example, originated in 2003 with Chinese government backing. It was designed to provide a global benchmark against which Chinese universities – enjoying billions in state and private investment – could assess their progress. It is a remarkably stable list, relying on long-term factors such as the number of Nobel Prize-winners a university has produced, and number of articles pubished in Nature and Science journals…
… China’s priority was for its universities to “catch up” on hard scientific research. So if you’re looking for raw research power, it’s the list for you. "</p>
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<p>Student selectivity counts for only 12.5% of the USNWR national university ranking. It’s not a factor at all in the Forbes or Washington Monthly rankings. Nevertheless, there does appear to be a strong correlation between undergraduate student selectivity and many other factors that some systems use to rank colleges. Colleges with the highest average SAT scores, and low admit rates, also tend to be schools with some of the best 4 year graduation rates, class sizes, faculty salaries, need-based financial aid, etc. They also tend to be strong in the kinds of “outcomes” Forbes measures. Many universities with high research output (measured by publication and citation volume) are not necessarily among the strongest in all these areas. </p>
<p>""national lists put UW somewhere in between top 50-60 “”</p>
<p>that is NOT low. There are about 4000 colleges/univs in the US.</p>
<p>Who gives a rat’s patootie what a bunch of 18 year olds are yapping about around the lunch tables about UW being a back up school. A degree from UW can take you anywhere and into any career.</p>
<p>the cost of NYU is rarely worth it.</p>
<p>what is your career goal?</p>
<p>"“About half of my high school’s senior class (~130 students) is always accepted, and around 1/4 end up going to this school each year.”"</p>
<p>Sounds like you’re at a private school, so the fact that half get accepted just suggests that your student body is more academically strong than the typical public school student body.</p>
