Families that can’t afford to pay the sticker-price for private colleges need to do two things. The first is identify which schools are more likely to provide need or merit aid. The second is avoid those that are less likely to do so. This means steering clear of “dream” schools that may rank in terms of prestige but subsequently aren’t as generous with financial aid as some of their peers.
Are your chances of becoming president better today than they were in 1990? Given that the population in 1990 was 248,709,873 and increased by 24% to 308,745,538 in 2010, your chances are worse. While the general population has increased, there is still only one president. Despite population growth, we still have 435 members in the House of Representatives, the same number as in 1911. If the proportion of the number of representatives kept pace with the population since then, we would be looking at a House of Representatives approaching 1,500.
What does this have to with college admissions? There are still only eight Ivy League Universities and their class size certainly hasn’t been keeping up with population growth.
College Confidential seems to be a lot like the US News College Rankings. Either people use it blindly as the final word on college admissions or they see it as simply the manifestation of all that is wrong with the college admissions process. The reality is that College Confidential, like US News College Rankings, can be a useful tool in your college search toolbox if used properly.
The short answer is yes.
The long answer is less definitive and has to do with why Student to Faculty ratios are important and if they are always important. In other words, it depends. Fun, fun, fun.
If you just want to go with the short answer, take a peek at the graph below.
The US News and World Report Best College Rankings is considered by many high school students and their parents to be the final word on a college’s desirability. Not surprisingly, many others believe that the rankings represent everything that is wrong with college admissions today. The reality is that the rankings are made up of numbers and it is up to individuals to decide how to use those numbers. For those considering using the rankings, you should be aware of the following.
Thanks to US News College Rankings, we know what are the “Best” 100 universities in the country. If you want to know specifically what they are best at, you can find out here. But how good are they at making sure that attending the “Best” University isn’t limited by economic need?
After all, despite the current economic situation, college graduates still make more money than high school graduates so a college degree is considered a ticket to the American Dream. And if you can get into one of US News College Rankings top 100 Universities–that should be a first class ticket.
The Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has done everyone a favor. It has a table that displays all of the undergraduate institutions of students who have attended the school.
Don’t get it? US News and World Report ranks Washington University as one of the top medical schools in the country. And you may have heard, they rank undergraduate institutions as well.
