Notre Dame Academics
I always get a kick out of the idea that Notre Dame is some superior academic institution. It is a fine school, but lets stop before we start comparing it to Stanford, Northwestern or any of the Ivy League schools. If you look at the rankings, one might come to the conclusion that ND is at a comparable level with those schools. That said, the rankings (pick any of them) are generally fraudulent. The fact that a school has a high percentage of alumni donating to the school really doesn't tell me much about its academics. Likewise, selectivity of students plays a key role in determining the rankings. I have always been of the opinion that the key to stellar collegiate education has more to do with the faculty talent than the fact that a kid scored 2 points higher on his ACT. Certainly, competition amongst the student body and a smarter student body provides for more competition leading to a better learning environment, but it you have average instructors or profs is the student being better prepared for post graduate success? Jury is out IMO. No question the Notre Dame alumni network takes care of its own, so you have to tip your hat to them. But, IMO a kid needs to look very specifically into the programs rather than at some arbitrary ranking. I had this same discussion with a friend who attended Boston College and was hell-bent that since the school was rated higher than the "U", he had received a superior education. At the time, this was around 2003 or so, Minnesota was behind BC in the US News Rankings. When it was drilled down however, Minnesota scored higher than BC in the "Academic Reputation" catagory. Equally subjective no doubt, but I hypothosized that it is more important to have high quality talent teaching than a good ACT/SAT score and a great score in "Alumni Giving". The other issue is the "Selectivity" part of the equation which unfairly penalizes most publics since as institutions receiving state funding, they generally must set the admission bar lower in terms of scores to please the populists within their respective state legislatures. Minnesota is a great example of that when you look at the decades it took to kill off General College. Much of GC's late life was owed to inner city legislators who lobbied hard to provide access to disadvantaged inner-city youth. Bottom line for Santreal is that he should evaluate each school based on his chosen profession, football. He should also weigh each school in terms of what his fallback profession might be should he be a football bust or God forbid he suffer a catastrophic injury that ruins his pro football career prospects. Notre Dame brings many fine things to the table no doubt, but lets not place them in the stratosphere of the Ivy League. After all, most the kids there are less Rudy than they are decent students from Wilmette, Greenwich or Highland Park who couldn't get into Northwestern or Stanford or an Ivy.
). Mainly, I was just trying to be provacative, but was also hoping that someone might pick up on that and call me on it. If you looked exclusively at the rankings, one could conclude that my comment on Notre Dame vs. Northwestern was valid, however, the very logic you used helps prove my point. You get the A+ for the day. For the record, I have immense respect for the value of a Notre Dame education. It is one of the finest schools in the country, but I think you could say the same for every BigTen school as well.
