Comments on: College Rankings!

College Rankings!

Jos Bleau — Sat, 23 Aug 2003 08:54:31 -0800

College Rankings! Seems like everyone's talking about 'em. There's the good ole controversial US News & World Report rankings, but thanks to the the librarians at UIUC, this wonderful site has links to many, many, many different rankings, including ones that let you make your own rankings. There's also rankings of some of the more important non-academic features of colleges, too. Does college rank really matter?

By: howa2396

howa2396 — Sat, 23 Aug 2003 08:58:44 -0800

the only college rankings that matter, are the ones that have to do with sports. Here comes football season!

By: ejoey

ejoey — Sat, 23 Aug 2003 09:17:34 -0800

Are you ready, for some football?!

By: graventy

graventy — Sat, 23 Aug 2003 09:35:32 -0800

I know that all my rowdy friends are coming over tonight.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Sat, 23 Aug 2003 09:38:53 -0800

My alma mater Reed, refuses to participate in these rankings because they're such a skewed view of the value of a college education. I'm proud of them for that.

By: XQUZYPHYR

XQUZYPHYR — Sat, 23 Aug 2003 09:40:26 -0800

Well, I know last year Harvard wasn't ranked number 1, so they sued the magazine for 2.7 million dollars. Or something like that.

By: nath

nath — Sat, 23 Aug 2003 11:56:15 -0800

My school keeps slipping in the U.S. News and World Report rankings, despite our president's effort to overhaul the unique aspects of our college life and homogenize things to make us more like an Ivy League school. As far as those of us who have tried to figure it out can tell, we keep slipping in the "Undergraduate" rankings because we don't have a med school or a law school, and we don't pay our professors as much as some other top universities. None of which really have an impact on UG education, which I guess is another way of saying that to some extent the rankings are bullshit. (Not entirely, but somewhat.)

By: twiggy

twiggy — Sat, 23 Aug 2003 12:56:05 -0800

wow, UIUC is my alma mater and they didn't make the USN&WR this year... they've really gone down the pooper since I graduated... state budget cuts etc... I don't know how much college rank matters, but I can say that at least with UIUC, it has correctly dropped lower and lower because budget cuts etc have really screwed it over...

By: gyc

gyc — Sat, 23 Aug 2003 13:19:56 -0800

wow, UIUC is my alma mater and they didn't make the USN&WR this year...they've really gone down the pooper since I graduated... state budget cuts etc... Whaaat? We're #40. We were around there last year also.

By: emptyage

emptyage — Sat, 23 Aug 2003 13:24:07 -0800

I started out at a top-25 US News school. I went for two years and dropped out. Then I went to a big state school, where I got a much better education. College is what you make of it.

By: Eamon

Eamon — Sat, 23 Aug 2003 14:51:07 -0800

We? Where do you go to school again, gyc?

By: croutonsupafreak

croutonsupafreak — Sat, 23 Aug 2003 16:56:12 -0800

I didn't even know about the US news rankings until after I'd enrolled in college. That fall a press release was dropped in all the student's mailboxes telling us Grinnell College was #12 on the liberal arts college listing. "Crap, I go to a good school, who knew?" I thought. Ever since then I've been obsessed with the school's status -- which has waivered between 11 and 16 in recent years. I just want it to break the top 10 dammit. Interesting to see that Grinnell isn't even on the uius listing, even though I'm sure it's more academically rigorous than some of the schools that are. Then again, that list seems to have a heavy focus on large universities. Pretty arbitrary, though. I agree with emptyage that college is what you make it.

By: ph00dz

ph00dz — Sat, 23 Aug 2003 17:12:24 -0800

The only ranking that matters is Playboy's Party School Ranking... go ASU!

By: howa2396

howa2396 — Sat, 23 Aug 2003 17:13:52 -0800

ejoey, thanks for taking a shot of my comma use.

By: howa2396

howa2396 — Sat, 23 Aug 2003 17:14:20 -0800

err... thanks for taking a shot at my comma use?

By: gyc

gyc — Sat, 23 Aug 2003 17:24:19 -0800

We? Where do you go to school again, gyc? Oh come on Eamon, I'll always consider myself an Illini. Now, don't you have a Britney Spears concert to go to?

By: caddis

caddis — Sat, 23 Aug 2003 18:18:41 -0800

Go Tigers.

By: turbodog

turbodog — Sun, 24 Aug 2003 10:49:07 -0800

Geaux Tigers.

By: orange swan

orange swan — Sun, 24 Aug 2003 14:07:05 -0800

In Canada Maclean's magazine does a issue every year in which they rate the universities and declare a number one. It doesn't seem like useful information to me. If I were looking at schools I'd choose the one with the best version of the program I wanted and that was possible for me location and cost-wise.

By: Down10

Down10 — Sun, 24 Aug 2003 22:39:54 -0800

My alma matter, San Francisco State University, has ranked #1 under the category for Most Debt: Universities–Master's (West). School: San Francisco State University % of grads with debt: 39% Average amount of debt: $31,491 WE RULE! ...Spare change, mister?

By: Vidiot

Vidiot — Fri, 29 Aug 2003 04:24:29 -0800

I was somewhat shocked when I started my first (real, post-college) job, and the first person I met was OBSESSED with these college rankings. She asked me where I went to school (common question, as there were a fair number of entry-level folks around), and then immediately asked "What number is it?" I didn't know what she was talking about, and when she explained, I had no idea. She was utterly taken aback that someone wouldn't know the exact ranking of their college on the USNWR scale.