Which college ranks better?

This is a short list of colleges for a friend of mine who is persuing colleges. It was based on proximity to her house and budget restraints.


Which are the three best out of these:


1) Iona College


2) Felician College


3) Dowling College


4) Drew University


5) Concordia College


6) William Patterson University


7) Seton Hall University


8) St. Elizabeth University





* There may be a bit of confusion where i might have interchanged 'college' with 'university' or the other way round. please ignore that.

Which college ranks better?
Seton Hall, Iona. And if she's looking at Seton Hall with "budget restraints" she should look again...it's expensive. I wanted to go there but no way could afford it-I believe it's private so there's no in/out of state tuition. She looks to be in the NY/NJ area...why has she not considered Rutgers? If she's an NJ resident it's cheap as hell...if she's a NY resident why not one of the SUNY's? Good luck!
Reply:Well, there's no single ranking that will answer this for your friend. Some of these colleges will excel in certain degree programs or facets of student life, but will be so-so in areas that other of these colleges do well.





Your friend should figure out what s/he is going to major in, and then look for the professional association for that field (for example, journalism majors should look to the AEMJC, architects should for for AIA, psychologists APA, etc.). Then look at the web sites and other materials from that organization to see if there are rankings or other sorts of information (program accreditation, for example) that would distinguish one or the other of those schools.





For non-academic matters, you'll need to look at the colleges' own web sites and do some web searching. I can tell you that Seton Hall and Iona are the biggies in major intercollegiate athletics from the schools you've listed, if that's a point of interest.
Reply:Depends on what she studies.


I havent heard of any colleges above.


From a point of the third person, it would not really matter.
Reply:These schools are often not ranked but I think it's fair to say that we can rank them ourselves based on the profile of the student body (avg GPA/SAT, etc)


Iona College (GPA -- 3.4, SAT -- 1620-1900)


Drew University (GPA -- 3.39, SAT -- 1670-1970)


Seton Hall University (GPA -- 3.15, SAT -- 1540-1850)





Stick with these 3 -- the rest don't really have very high standards at all.
Reply:My personal view is:





Concordia College


Seton Hall


Iona