How good is an acceptance in a top 100 schools in the US?

[ambitiousfolk]

Hey guys

 

So how good or bad is it? I know it depends on the applicant qualifications and application's strength, however, how is a top 100 school acceptance is seen overall, is it average? good? bad?

 

considering the fact that there are not less than a thousand school in the US.

 

 

[juilletmercredi]

I do not understand the question.  Do you mean what are the chances of getting into a top 100 school?  It completely depends.  There's a big difference between the #2 school and the #72 school.  Also, most schools have a mix of programs - the psychology department at School X might be amazing but their architecture school might be the pits, so getting into the former might be difficult but getting into the latter might be easy.  Although there are more than 1,000 schools in the U.S. (there are supposedly 3,000+), the vast majority of these schools do not offer graduate programs.  And even the ones that do don't offer graduate programs in every field, so actually even in a relatively large field there might be fewer than 100 programs, or not much more.  Mathematics, for example, has about 130 programs ranked by the NRC, so the top 100 is about 77% of them.

 

More importantly, why do you want to know?

[nugget]

I do not understand the question.  Do you mean what are the chances of getting into a top 100 school? 

 

I think what the OP is trying to ask is whether or not he should go to a top 100 school, whether all schools in the top 100 would be considered a good one or if he should only apply to schools that are ranked higher.

 

If he goes to a school that's ranked 100 or 95, for instance, is it considered a mediocre school or is it a good one? If it's mediocre, what should he be aiming for? Top 50? Top 25? That sort of thing.

[Chai_latte]

That depends entirely upon your field and your goals.  For example, if you're in the physical sciences and want to become a tenured professor at an "R1", attending the #95 school would NOT be good.  If your goal is industry, that same school might be a smart move (depending on location, alumni network etc).  It really does depend.  No matter what field you're in/goals you have, the further you move from the top, the more you have to distinguish yourself (e.g awards, grants, publications, conferences).  For most people, a top 100 school can deliver if the student is committed and takes advantage of every opportunity.