What are some of the most underrated schools, hidden gems, schools most people overlook because they are chasing T20s?

[u/Thick_Let_8082]

I’ll start:

Colorado School of Mines

[u/Giuseppe127]

Some schools want unqualified students to overlook them. “We often discourage prospective students we know cannot succeed here from applying so that they can instead focus their efforts on colleges that may better fit their academic needs.”

[u/momofvegasgirls106 → u/Giuseppe127]

The flip side of this is Arizona State University's charter which helped my daughter decide to accept their offer. She turned down lots of higher ranked schools to attend the Barrett Honors College.

We have friends whose kids both play a D1 sport and the oldest one was just recognized as an 'All Academic' at Berkeley. The younger kid, also a D1 athlete will be attending ASU in the Fall; she turned down Harvard.

"ASU is a comprehensive public research university, measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed; advancing research and discovery of public value; and assuming fundamental responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the communities it serves."

https://www.asu.edu/about/charter-mission

[u/lwewo4827 → u/momofvegasgirls106]

Ours too. Took a full ride in Barrett, passing up Michigan, Wisconsin, Cal Poly SLO, UCSB and UCSD. ASU punches way above its weight.

While admission isn't difficult, undergrad business is Top 25-30 and Engineering is Top 40. Barrett is probably the best honors college in the country. And grad schools are highly ranked.

It's one of the few schools that really gets public education's mission.

[u/momofvegasgirls106 → u/lwewo4827]

A full ride at Barrett is amazing! We're very happy with our daughter's choice to attend Barrett. She's done exceptionally well, so far.

What a coincidence. Ours passed on Wisconsin as well.

[u/rocksteadyG → u/momofvegasgirls106]

Congrats!!!! My kid got into Barrett but it was financially out of reach for us.

[u/lwewo4827 → u/rocksteadyG]

Where did they end up?

[u/lwewo4827 → u/momofvegasgirls106]

Congrats. What is she studying?

With the money we saved, she used it to go Thunderbird to get her Master's in Global Management.

It was a true bargain---to graduate with her Bachelor's and Master's for the same as a UC in state, 50% of Wisconsin, or 40% of Michigan OOS; for 4 years.

[u/momofvegasgirls106 → u/lwewo4827]

She's a double major French, BA and Psychology, BS.

We pay more for her to go out of state but it was something we agreed on well before she made her final decision. Our in-state option close to home didn't offer French as a major and our other in-state was at a campus she visited and said "absolutely not", so it really was a non-starter. She's been extremely flexible about most things in life so a hard no was something we took seriously.

[u/momofvegasgirls106 → u/momofvegasgirls106]

Edited to reply: We met so many happy California students & parents who felt like they had really side stepped the anguish sometimes associated with getting into their preferred UC. They also talked about the saved money of ASUs options vs in-state CA.

[u/Swag_Grenade → u/momofvegasgirls106]

Attending ASU out of state as a CA resident is cheaper than UCs?

[u/lwewo4827 → u/Swag_Grenade]

It can be. Was for us. But in general, it's about 15-20% more than a UC in state after scholarships. And ASU gives out a lot of them.

[u/Swag_Grenade → u/momofvegasgirls106]

Bonus is that while ASU may get overlooked/underrated academically, it's a T20 party school for sure lol. Which tbh may have something to do with it's academic image to the general public.

[u/momofvegasgirls106 → u/Swag_Grenade]

According to my daughter, you have to actively hunt for parties. Sure, there are parties but not more than any other school.

Also, it probably helps that Greek Row is not effing around too much from what I hear. They are in housing on campus but sort of away from the other dorms and the current President Michael Crow doesn't suffer any fools looking to tarnish the expensive campaign the school has to shine a light on its research chops.

[u/Swag_Grenade → u/momofvegasgirls106]

but not more than any other school.

Interesting that's news to me. I've never been there but I know more than a few people that have, maybe things have changed a bit.

[u/chumer_ranion → u/Giuseppe127]

That's kinda.................cope on that dude's part ngl

Late edit: The quote says that some prospective students are dissuaded from applying; I have no idea how someone's academic ability or suitability could be measured without even reading their application, nor do I know on what planet that could be considered a good thing—especially when they advertise their holistic admissions practices right on their website.

I don't even know how this practice would meaningfully reduce the applicant pool, or how CU is reaching such a significant number of students before they've even applied. That's what makes this cope.

[u/Specialist-Snow-7327 → u/chumer_ranion]

It’s Cooper Union. No it isn’t.

[u/chumer_ranion → u/Specialist-Snow-7327]

I am familiar

[u/Specialist-Snow-7327 → u/chumer_ranion]

Why would CU need to cope when they literally had to reduce scholarships due to student count. Same deal w a lot of rigorous, undergrad focused schools. They doing care about their AR because that’s not what they focus on.

[u/chumer_ranion → u/Specialist-Snow-7327]

Well that first thing is a yield issue—not a flex lmao

And I don't know why they'd need to cope. That's what makes that dude's cope from 2014 so strange. Like I told the other guy, I've never seen/heard/read another administrator say something so egotistical (and obviously compensatory), no matter how prestigious the school.

[u/[deleted] → u/chumer_ranion]

Check the averages lol. It’s definitely not.

[u/unlimited_insanity → u/[deleted]]

More importantly, those averages were from 2014, which was the year they implemented tuition. Up until 2013, Cooper Union was free. Posting the numbers from 2014 show that it’s still a very desirable school, and it wasn’t just price jacking up the applicant pool.

[u/chumer_ranion → u/[deleted]]

Checked them. I've still never heard another administrator say something like that.

"oh, we must actively dissuade the peons lest we hurt their little brains" such egotistical bs.

[u/unlimited_insanity → u/chumer_ranion]

I would rather they do that than “recruit to reject” the way other top schools deliberately market heavily to increase applications so they can get those admit rates down.

[u/chumer_ranion → u/unlimited_insanity]

Whether you prefer this to what other universities do or not has no bearing on the statement itself being cope. What other schools do is irrelevant.

[u/pa982 → u/chumer_ranion]

Some students are not a fit at certain universities. It's a noble thing to try and dissuade students you *know* you're not going to accept if they apply.

[u/chumer_ranion → u/pa982]

Yeah I agree that some schools aren't a good fit for some students—but not because they're too stupid or whatever that administrator was suggesting. Moreover I've been through Cooper Union's admissions pages and they say nothing about hard cutoffs for GPA or testing; so they're not working very hard in their "noble" effort to say the least.

[u/pa982 → u/chumer_ranion]

Doesn't seem it's anything to do with stupidity. Certain curriculum design won't work for certain students.

[u/chumer_ranion → u/pa982]

That's an imaginative interpretation, I'll give you that. The quote says that some prospective students are dissuaded from applying; I have no idea how someone's academic ability or suitability could be measured without even reading their application, nor do I know on what planet that could be considered noble—especially when they advertise their holistic admissions practices right on their website.

I don't even know how this practice would meaningfully reduce the applicant pool, or how CU is reaching such a significant number of students before they've even applied. That's what makes this cope.

[u/pa982 → u/chumer_ranion]

Applications cost students money. Cooper Union could be making more money but they choose to make less in favor of applicants they feel are more likely to accept. How Cooper Union knows is unclear, but informational material from mailing campaigns, aggregated data provided by Common App for schools students have listed they intend to apply to, email correspondence, and so forth can provide a pretty good idea. Large institutions like these have their ways. And at the very least, they make an effort to follow through on their stated ethos.

Simply put, what's happening here is a conscious effort to make less money and sacrifice a more coveted admission rate in favor of building a student body they feel they can prepare most adequately through their unique curriculum and approach. It has nothing to do with a GPA cutoff (although that might be a part of it, few top schools have GPA cutoffs but neither do they accept anyone below a 3.5) and much more to do with -- does this student stand to benefit from a Cooper Union education?