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I see a lot of discussion on this board about where Brown and other top schools rank on the 'WSJ Feeder' scale. I just want to take a minute to point out the many reasons why these should not be considered gospel or any more than anything else.


The WSJ methodology is flawed because
1. It only covers alums over the past year as opposed to a running average over the past 5,10 or 15. Year-to-year these admissions do vary considerably in tandem with the changes in the applicant pools.
2. It only counts top 5 biz, med and law schools [so dubbed at WSJ]. If I understand correctly, it does not cover Graduate Studies.
3. It discounts students who eventually return to school a few years after graduation.
4. In Brown's case I'm not sure how S/NC is handled.
5. I can't say for sure, but I would imagine that at some schools like U.Chicago or Penn more pre-biz applicants would exist than at Brown which isn't factored into the numbers.
6. The incoming diversity of Reed and Swarthmore are probably far different numerically. This probably has something of an effect on input and output.

Just some of the MANY flaws in the ranking systems.

Brown's viewbook from last year notes:

After Brown
92-95% PreLaw students get into one of their top three choices
Near 100% for Biz Apps

By Wobudong (Wobudong) on Friday, July 30, 2004 - 09:16 pm: Edit

As far as being a feeder for the med schools listed, the WSJ methodology really cannot be applied to Brown because most of the pre-med superstars are in PLME.

By Deerhunter (Deerhunter) on Friday, July 30, 2004 - 09:52 pm: Edit

Very true. I can only smirk when the WSJ Feeder rankings are used to "prove" which schools are best.

By Stanfordnualum (Stanfordnualum) on Thursday, September 23, 2004 - 01:42 am: Edit

WSJ ranking is bogus and biased toward HYP from the very beginning: look at those so-called "top 5" med/law/biz schools. Where the he*l is Stanford law school? Where's WashU med school? Where's Northwestern biz school? How in the world they put Yale med school as one of the top 5????