UConn ranked #58 in USNWR

[uconndogs]

For other slow people like Punkbo.........

Have you considered a hobby that gets you off this board for stretches of time?

 

[August_West]

Our friends faced a similar situation with their daughter, made easier by the full scholarship available at Southern. I can't remember what the other options were but they were all one of the million private schools in the northeast. They did the same thing I would -- offered to give the kid half of the difference in cost when they graduated (or to put it towards graduate school).

Yeah, I get wanting to go to school in Newport, sometimes you need to have a life lesson heart to heart and an enticement, lol, a but especially for Nursing, Southern is literally an employment feeder to Yale Health. And New Haven doesn't suck.

 

[August_West]

Have you considered a hobby that gets you off this board for stretches of time?

"He does his best work on the entertainment board................"

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Have no idea where you get that stuff about me from. I think you made it up somehow. I'm against USNWR in total because they don't measure academic quality; and the middle managers that try to play a never ending game of catch up with the rankings inevitably end up wasting dollars to the detriment of academic quality.

So you are against all rankings. Fine. You kind of went after me when I was critical of the prestige privates' temper tantrum, but I see where you are going.

I do think rankings serve a purpose. They shouldn't be the decisive factor in choosing a college, but they are helpful for creating bands of similar schools. As much as we all want to argue that academic quality (however you want to define that) is all that matters, reputation is relevant, especially in job recruiting.

 

[kibblesnbits]

I wish it were true about these rankings, but apparently not. Parents and students think they are the be-all and end-all.

It is much harder to get into Northeastern than it is to get into Boston College.

Why?

I can answer that one. Parents want to know that students are well positioned for employment when they graduate. In that vein, Northeastern's coop program is outstanding. Almost all students graduate having worked 2-3 6-month assignments, many getting job offers from one or more coop employers. Because they've been doing it for decades, they also have connections and allocated positions with a large number of employers. In the process the students get a lot of experience in building a resume, identifying marketable skills, interviewing, etc. It also helps the students decide whether the career path offered by their major is really what they want. My younger daughter's vision of her future changed significantly after a very good coop at Boston Children's Hospital.

It also helps that they have a very nice, mostly new campus in the Back Bay. When my dad went there in the 50's it was a commuter school surrounded by warehouses, parking lots and train yards. When those businesses left the school bought all those properties and over the last 30 years has built one of the best urban campuses you'll ever find. With two T lines running through the campus it also enabled my daughter to just take off on her own and do volunteer work with multiple organizations.

BTW, the coop program also enables a much more efficient economic model. Most campuses are relatively empty in the summer. Because Northeastern students have extended coops (Jan-June or July-Dec), many students are on campus either taking courses or in housing while working nearby 12 months a year.

 

[Punkbo]

You shouldn't advertise that you can't keep up with the conversation. If you don't know the point, then just shut up if you want any semblance of credibility.

For other slow people like Punkbo, I was simply pointing out that U Chicago and Brown load up on rich kids. Punk decided to conflate that statement with some other argument, which actually did make it incoherent.

@nelsonmuntz is a genius. Punkbo is slow. Confirmed.

 

[CL82]

My daughter wanted to be a nurse. Her 3 final accepted options were Southern, UConn, and Salve Regina. Guess where I sent her for that exact reason? It wasn't pretty to be disappointing her, but she came around. The lowest cost actually offered the best placement!

Don't know about Southern in Salve Regina, but isn't Connecticut's nursing school pretty good. I feel like it's ranked 30th nationally?

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

You shouldn't advertise that you can't keep up with the conversation. If you don't know the point, then just shut up if you want any semblance of credibility.

NO.

Pissing all over your own "credibility" is your greatest offense, and it is done seemingly by choice, given that you regularly demonstrate capability to add an intelligent & informed contribution to many threads & topics but somehow persist in swinging for the fences at other peoples' expense. When you do so, you end up whiffing badly and making a poor impression with others, rather than building rapport & relationships for maximum gain within the overall community.

For other slow people like Punkbo, I was simply pointing out that U Chicago and Brown load up on rich kids.

You did NO such thing, and especially not "simply." You offered a hefty assertion with absolutely nothing to back it up. "Pointing out" requires some pointing. Add your sources, and we can shift to arguing about why you are so nasty toward (so-claimed) "slow people," rather than being generous and helpful.

Punk decided to conflate that statement with some other argument, which actually did make it incoherent.

This final mic drop got all the Likes it deserved.

 

[kibblesnbits]

It's important before you get there, but not at all once you are done.

I guess that is the overall point. Parents and students are willingly wasting money by paying more for the commodity that is undergraduate education.

This is where I think the argument goes off the rails. I agree with the idea that all educational opportunities should be analyzed in the context of relative return. I do not agree, however, that undergraduate education is "a commodity." That literally means there is no difference between one unit of an item and another so they can be bought interchangeably. In other words, just order "1 undergraduate education" and it is the same regardless of whether it's at Albertus Magnus or Harvard so best price quote rules. That is, of course, an extreme example, but I could pick any two schools and undergraduate educations (including non-academic criteria like student support services, campus environment, etc.) still wouldn't be interchangeable. Is UConn worth 0% more than Western, 10% more, 20%, 50%? It depends on the student, the program (I'm told Western is very good in the performing arts so, in that case it might be -10%), the family situation and a myriad of factors. That's not a commodity analysis.

 

[Excalibur]

This is where I think the argument goes off the rails. I agree with the idea that all educational opportunities should be analyzed in the context of relative return. I do not agree, however, that undergraduate education is "a commodity." That literally means there is no difference between one unit of an item and another so they can be bought interchangeably. In other words, just order "1 undergraduate education" and it is the same regardless of whether it's at Albertus Magnus or Harvard so best price quote rules. That is, of course, an extreme example, but I could pick any two schools and undergraduate educations (including non-academic criteria like student support services, campus environment, etc.) still wouldn't be interchangeable. Is UConn worth 0% more than Western, 10% more, 20%, 50%? It depends on the student, the program (I'm told Western is very good in the performing arts so, in that case it might be -10%), the family situation and a myriad of factors. That's not a commodity analysis.

I’ve acknowledged that there are exceptions, but they are far fewer and further between than most people think. I stand by my earlier comment that the best move for 90-95% of college-bound seniors is to find the cheapest place you are comfortable at and go there.

 

[upstater]

Because people tend not to make efficient decisions (economically speaking). Colleges are counting on the fact that their customers are morons.

The people paying $90k are very rich. They've already paid $60k a year for prep school. $90k isnt going to phase them

 

[upstater]

So you are against all rankings. Fine. You kind of went after me when I was critical of the prestige privates' temper tantrum, but I see where you are going.

I do think rankings serve a purpose. They shouldn't be the decisive factor in choosing a college, but they are helpful for creating bands of similar schools. As much as we all want to argue that academic quality (however you want to define that) is all that matters, reputation is relevant, especially in job recruiting.

I said I was against USNWR. Not all.

I really have no idea what you're talking about when you say I went after you. I critiqued Vanderbilt for enrolling so many rich kids and complaining about them getting dinged in the rankings for it.

I personally don't care about markets or reputations or anything like that. I'd rather learn skills and actually improve.

I'm the same way with my kids in sports. All these parents are jumping around trying to leverage which team will give their kid a starting position, which will get them a college scholarship etc., and I just want them learning from someone who can actually teach them, improve their skills, and learn that in life, you can practice things, hone your skills, and improve. There are so many impostors out there and this very basic thing that we used to believe in is really being lost by people taking shortcuts to status.

 

[kibblesnbits]

I’ve acknowledged that there are exceptions, but they are far fewer and further between than most people think. I stand by my earlier comment that the best move for 90-95% of college-bound seniors is to find the cheapest place you are comfortable at and go there.

I guess that depends on your definition of comfortable and who is making the final decision. I've seen lots of references to telling kids they should (in some cases must) go to the cheapest place, that an undergraduate education is a commodity, etc. I only know my own kids and their experiences. My youngest for instance, turned down a well over half tuition scholarship at my alma mater. While it pained me, she went to a school that she thought better fit her interests, scope of opportunities and emphasis on coop work experiences. It cost more but she was more comfortable and ended up in a place that she didn't expect and wouldn't have been available to her at my school. It was also in a location and was of a size that she preferred. In a trade-off between her comfort and mine hers won out and it worked. Fortunately, while it was a stretch I could afford it. Yes, I understand that's not always the case for many people, but when it can be done and there are credible reasons for the decision, the cheapest option may not be the best. Is that thought process limited to just 5-10% of the college-bound graduates? Perhaps, but I think that's excessively limiting.