342 Eckerd College
400+ outcomes
233 resources
223 engagement
400+ environment
$36,033 avg cost
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It would be fun to see how many kids at each college pay those actual listed net prices, +- a couple thousand bucks.
Figure 50% are full pay and around 20% get a full ride. Of the remaining 30%, a big chunk will be donut-hole upper middle class families who receive a token amount of aid and lower-middle class families who have to pay only a token amount. There really arenât many left to be paying that average number!
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FWIW, per Harvardâs NPC, my kid would pay almost exactly that Net Price amount (within a few hundred dollars) to attend. The situation that generates this outcome: AGI $127k, typical or slightly less-than-typical assets for that level, modest college savings.
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Forbes includes more of a cost analysis including debt and return on investment. The lower tuition state schools (especially UCs) tend to do better in Forbes ranking. Forbes Criteria
Hereâs another link, Forbes Releases 2021 Top Colleges List Featuring New Methodology To Better Account For Which Schools Are Serving As True Engines Of The American Dream
So according to the article,
For the first time on Forbesâ Top Colleges ranking â and any major college rankingâa public school tops the list, besting all the Iviesâincluding Harvard. The University of California-Berkeley debuts in the top spot.
âThe times demand a ranking that accounts for inclusivity, not exclusivity, and rewarding colleges and universities that are engines of the American Dream for the many and not a privileged few,â says Christian Kreznar , assistant editor at Forbes who led Top Colleges this year.
My apologies from yesterday @Data10, but if I were to guess, I would say that Forbes included College Scoreboard to the Payscale data based on the quote above, whatever its contribution may be. I donât really peruse college rankings, but I would guess that before their 2021 ranking it was exclusively Payscale.
Bama does not accept 80% - they say - not sure who theywould turn down 
but itâs in the 50s.
Over 40% of their kids have a 30 ACT was the latest they put out.
They are getting Ivy kids.
My son was (as all seem to be) grade inflated big time in HS - with his 4.6 and 34 and is getting his a$$ handed to him at Bama and even withdrew from a class as my daughter just did at Charleston.
I donât think these schools are grade inflated and I donât, based on what Iâm seeing, think the HSs are preparing these kids for the amount of work and pace of a college class.
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According to the UAlabama 2020-2021 CDS:
39,560 applied
31,804 accepted
80% acceptance rate. Since last year was an anomaly, I looked at 2019-2020. Looks about the same (83%).
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Exactly. Itâs a game of musical chair between same schools for top 20 but top 100 varies a lot for different ranking criterions.
Middle 50% ACT is 23-31 at Alabama with a mean of 27.
At our HS, Alabamaâs admissions rep compares UA with the other UA (Arkansas) that attracts a lot of students. Arkansas admits 78% of students with middle 50% ACT of 23-29 with mean of 26. With a similar admit rate, it appears Alabama is getting more top end students with a wider range.
These were the most up to date I could findâŠ
My point was that UA may have a very small portion of their student population that has a super elite skill set and as a result those that do have such skills likely have an opportunity to shine against a more diluted pool then they would at a super elite school.
Sorry that your son had been challenged but I donât think that either proves or disproves the initial question I asked unless you are saying he had declined acceptances at super elites and is now struggling at UA?
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I have a spreadsheet 
. I started with
EDIT: Found the follow ons, through 2022
And filled it in for years since. I canât remember the last time I looked at it, or how recently I updated it - may have been when my older D graduated HS a few years back. (EDIT: Looks like the above were updated through 2022, so probably now more up to-to-date than I have.)
MIT had a page that tracked their many ranking over time, but I canât seem to find it right now. I havenât seen any others.
EDIT: Found it - Rankings â MIT Institutional Research
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Who is âtheyâ that say in the 50âs.
Their CDS, published by their own Office of Institutional Research and Assessment, says 80.4%
https://oira.ua.edu/new/reports/6064db264736214759aa9b0d#Common%20Data%20Set%202020-2021
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Penn stands out. It was in the 19-20 range in the late '80s and then vaulted to 4-5 range in the early to mid '00s and now back down a bit.
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The actual 20% that get rejectedđ
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Let me correct myself. Last year niche showed 57 or 56%. I always laughed at my son. Nothing wrong with Bama but I went to Syracuse so a little ribbing.
Now everything says 80%. I canât find their official.
I think like any college. Engineering tough. Hospitality not
They have 940 NMFs so lots of smart kids.
But so many great schools. So many.
Agreed lots of smart kids but your National Merit Finalist number seems offâŠ
What was your source?
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Maybe my terminology is off. Here U go. 2nd paragraph
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Donât forget #35 Carleton College.
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Makes more sense if we are not talking about NMF (finalists). The UA language seems odd so I would defer to others who are more expert.
I know there are about 50,000 kids a year that would qualify for the first round of NM recognition distinction. I suspect this is what is being referenced.
The way this award works is based on state by state performance. Consequently the required scores are significantly higher in states like NJ, VA, CA and MA. Alabama is 14th from the bottom.
It would not be surprising that a quality and popular state flagship like UA would retain in state a meaningful percentage of the 4,000 Alabama residents (4*1,000 per year) that received the âscholarâ designation.
The more interesting analysis I think would be the percentage of that 940 that are from out of state and are they from statistically higher or lower NM scoring states. This would be representative of UAâs capacity to attract top tier academic students from outside of their local base.
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I think itâs what it says. Itâs legit. I saw a rank from 2017 and they were near the top. Of course they had a similar amount to Vandy but Vandy is a small fraction of the size.
I think Oklahoma is tops âŠit goes to show while of course some colleges are superior to others clearly most your large flagships have many Ivy caliber students. Thatâs why saying because you live in Nebraska so you attend Nebraska so you can get cheap tuition or live near home is dismissive. They have top level kids most everywhere
Freshman struggle mentally. I see it. Iâd be more concerned to find a school with adequate mental health coverage, especially for first year. From what I see and hear from my kidsâobservations, itâs woefully inadequate.
I think more than rank ensuring your child has resources to support them is far more critical. Kids (and parents) act like the rankings thing is a game but the actuality is woefully different.
I assume, but donât know, that the small private schools have much better mental health assets.
I donât think so. This is the Wikipedia page you referenceâŠ
While you are correct that the info is dated the numbers remain a close proximity to what schools with the most enrolled NMF have and they are fractional to the 940 you and UA are citing. I suspect this is SF and ârecognizedâ awards.
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