RE: OT(?): US News Rankings
Miscellaneous thoughts:
Yeah, seems like evaluation by administrators at peer institutions and by high school counselor ratings could both be self-perpetuating for "brand" schools. And other schools probably benefit greatly for having a "brand" that might not necessarily apply to most of the programs at the school (Baylor and Johns Hopkins, not knocking those schools, but most people know of those schools because of their medical programs). Rice is #22 in high school counselor rankings, tied with Tufts, Emory, NYU, UNC, UVA, and UCLA. Baylor is tied for 45th in reputation, but 71st overall.
Also, I haven't tracked this, but I assume Rice's acceptance rate increased when the administration was trying to increase the size of the undergrad enrollment, and has probably decreased now that undergrad enrollment is being held steady?
I wonder if schools with a greater focus on engineering programs are at a disadvantage for 6-year graduation rates. Not wondering necessarily because of Rice, but because MIT and Cal Tech are the lowest in the top 10 (along with Chicago).
It would be very interesting to have access to the full data and see how different schools rank within different regions. Is Rice a top 10 school in Texas and outside the top 25 in the northeast?
I understand the justification for increasing tuition costs (there is a general perception that you get what you pay for, so more expensive schools were viewed as better just because of their costs, kind of like a luxury car). But increasing tuition to become more in line with peer institutions (even if Rice is still a little lower) might have taken away one of the unique appeals of Rice. When I applied to Rice, the school had an actual brand as the best bang for the buck amongst top 20 schools (I think it was #1 when I applied). Rice is still in the top 10 for best value, but Rice is now behind Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, and all the other schools that are ahead of Rice on the full rankings. So not only has Rice lost its brand, but it has fallen behind the schools we like to compare ourselves to!
If anything, Rice's new brand probably relates to quality of life and student happiness. If Rice could somehow recapture its brand as "best bang for the buck" while also maintaining its brand for "quality of life / student happiness," then I bet those would help drive Rice up the overall rankings (because it would affect the number of applications, the enrollment percentage, and the subjective factors that are influence by branding and word-of-mouth).
(This post was last modified: 09-09-2014 12:26 PM by mrbig.)
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