The problems with college rankings

[teen persuasion]

Sept 14, 2013 13:57:06 GMT -5 @tbird said:

Sept 14, 2013 12:51:32 GMT -5 teen persuasion said:

This morning the top story on the local news was that UB hit a record in enrollment: 29,937.  International students were 17% or 5200, up 440 from last year.  When the station interviewed some international students as to why UB, they all cited rankings by a number of sources, and cost .  The station went on to mention that in-state tuition was $8k vs. $20k for the international and out-of-state students.

UB?  Buffalo?

Yes

[haapai]

Something similar to that happened here too.  The nearby school rather dramatically increased the number of international students and the percentage of out-of-state students.

Twenty-five years ago, this was a school with roll-in admissions. 

I'm a bit surprised that there's a public university out there that still charges the same tuition for  out-of-state and international students.  A lot of public universities differentiate between out-of-state and international students and gouge international students with either a huge fee or a much higher tuition rate. 

[Deleted]

I thought I remembered reading
this awhile ago.

Briefly- Dickinson College in ND was having trouble with decreasing enrollment because so many HS graduates were heading straight into the oil fields. They stepped up their recruiting of international students, mostly from China, to the extent that they were bringing in students who barely spoke English, brought in through paid recruiters who sometimes forged transcripts, and gave them degrees without following up to see if they'd actually gone back and finished university in China, which they were supposed to have done after a year at Dickinson.

I feel bad for the Chinese students- they must have forked over a ton of money, only to get to North Dakota and find they were in way over their heads. (I can fake my way through just about any Romance language but when I tried to learn Japanese I found out how hard it was to lean a language in a different branch. I gave up.) I also feel bad for the American students. I'm sure the classes were slowed down and dumbed down to help the Chinese students who were trying to muddle through. What a mess.

[Phoenix84]

A post college SAT test would be crazy.  There's already standardized testing in schools, to get into college, and get into grad school.  I guess you'll need one to start "life."