The College Rankings Are Coming

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I would have to disagree that the rankings are "more or less on the money." The rankings are highly skewed in favor of private schools. Also, when you look at the rankings for best graduate schools, there seems to be a disconnect. Where I think there is an obvious flaw in the rankings is when you look at schools such as UC Berkeley and the University of Michigan. It just seems like a far stretch to think that schools such as Vanderbilt U., Washington U., and some of the other higher ranked schools, are really better than these two public universities. Just look at US News' ranking of best graduate programs and see how many top 10 programs that UC Berkeley and the University of Michigan have. In my opinion, these two public universities are two of the top 10 universities in the nation. Unfortunately, the inherent bias in US New and World Reports rankings will never reflect this.

DavyBEE of NJ 6:06PM August 19, 2008

Of late, the demand for Financial Engineering / Computational Finance masters program has grown phenomenally. Could you please include the university rankings for this program too?

Madhur 7:15AM August 18, 2008

It's true that one shouldn't solely base his or her college choice solely on the sometimes borderline random rankings that the US News spits out annually, but if one looks at the rankings and follows the schools from worse ranked to higher ranked to elite (the schools that comprise the top 20), the rankings are more or less on the money. In other words, a top 31 school like Lehigh is no Carnegie Mellon (ranked 22), which is not in the same academic or prestige level of Ivy-Leauge Cornell (ranked 12), which we all know is not quite like a world-renowned Harvard (ranked 2). With a wary eye, the rankings can be used to see approximately how academically excellent (prestige, SAT's, acceptance rates, research,etc.) a school really is.

of CA 1:40PM August 12, 2008

Lyra, try collegeboard.com
By the way
quan·ti·ta·tive
–adjective 1. that is or may be estimated by quantity.
2. of or pertaining to the describing or measuring of quantity.
3. of or pertaining to a metrical system, as that of classical verse, based on the alternation of long and short, rather than accented and unaccented, syllables
Yeah, keep ur vocab short and sweet

Sven of MO 1:52PM August 11, 2008

I mean, the rankings could be useful for identifying broad, qualitative differences, but I doubt very many readers use them for that purpose. I just went through the process last year and saw too many dads spouting these numbers as though they really matter. I'd like to think I put them out of my head, but I imagine the rankings affected my own decision to attend Columbia. Ultimately, using this list as a tool for comparing any of the top fifty or so institutions is probably fruitless.

bill of OH 4:29PM August 10, 2008

i always read the college rankings. i try to read all of the different rankings from all the different magazines and see improvement, changes, innovation, well written research based articles etc...so i appreciate the work that goes into them. i don't base my choice of schools on them, but it's good information to have in the back of my head.

mary 11:33PM August 05, 2008

the ranking and the countdown is pathetic. This is ridiculous.
"are" instead of "is"...sorry. And I went to Harvard...LOL.

dan of GA 3:20PM August 05, 2008

the ranking and the countdown is pathetic. This is ridiculous.

dan of GA 3:18PM August 05, 2008

I agree with Billy especially since many top-tier schools have abandoned early admissions. As a graduate student, I do not finalize everything until three weeks before the deadline. There are no ribbons given to being the first to submit an application.

of DC 2:43PM August 05, 2008