2021 USNews rankings

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Seems a bit off to call the Naval Academy a liberal arts college.

I was curious about that as well. What is the culture at the naval academy? Are there a mix of liberal and conservative students there?

Liberal Arts refers to the graduation requirements. Students at LCs are required to take a wide variety of courses from different disciplines in order to graduate, in addition to their major. This is true of USNA, so yes, it is a liberal arts school.

That isn't how USNWR does its categories. It is based on Carnegie classification, not graduation requirements.

Yes, here is how they define it:

National Liberal Arts Colleges focus almost exclusively on undergraduate education and award at least 50% of their degrees in the arts and sciences.

Carnegie Classification: Baccalaureate Colleges—Arts and Sciences Focus.

Baccalaureate Colleges—Arts and Sciences Focus. There may be many National Universities with a similar curriculum at an undergraduate level, but they are not evaluated as National Liberal Arts Colleges because they are classified as Doctoral Universities with high or very high research.

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/ranking-category-definitions

emphasize undergraduate education and award at least 50% of their degrees in the liberal arts.

since when is engineering a liberal art?

Focus on that 50% figure for a moment.

that doesn't explain West Point on the ranking- most of their majors are engineering, business, and IT

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:USNWR is a cancer on the whole system. The rankings change for stupid reasons every year just so they can sell crap.

The dirty secret is that it generally doesn't really matter where you go to school for undergrad. Successful people will be successful no matter where they go. Without the added dumb pressure of USNWR rankings, college tuition would be lower.

True, the elite will always be "Ivy Plus" schools: Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, Duke and Chicago.

The real reason parents obsess over undergrad admissions is because of their dating pools. Too many dimwit losers at non-selective schools you don't want your rich son or daughter mixing with.

This is your wishful thinking. Cornell is ranked 18. Give it a rest.

[Anonymous]

Just noticed DD’s current fave school, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, jumped from #92 in 2020 to #80 this year. Guess US News thinks they’re doing something right.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:UMD now ranked ahead of Penn State.

But behind Pitt.

And people here are also asking, "what is the appeal of pitt?"

It is a strong school!

Pitt and UMD are both much stronger academically than Penn State, yet PSU continues to have enormous appeal. Confusing!

Have you visited Penn State? Or Pitt? They are in very different location, but they are in much more attractive locations than College Park. Penn State is literally in Happy Valley with a pretty cute town. Pitt is in Pittsburgh with all of the amenities (which is a lot!) that the city offers.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Rankings are BS. People need to look beyond the prestige and ranking and find a college that truly is a good fit.

Agree, up to a point. I think we can all agree that the classroom dynamic is going to be different at, say, American and Stanford - I have no problem with someone saying that Stanford is going to be generally better for the people who can get in. But when you are comparing between a given school and one 20 spots higher or lower? Probably the higher-ranked school would provide a better education for most students, but there will be plenty for which it will be the reverse.

And the big difference is the student and what they do and take advantage of - I think many people would have made more of my spot at top 3 LAC; I got a good enough education but mostly floated through.

Possibly the most sensible post I’ve ever read here. I like the rankings because I root for my “team“, not because I truly believe in them. Not much different than the weekly football rankings, which are nearly as arbitrary. But who cares? Number 9 LAC, baby!

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:USNWR is a cancer on the whole system. The rankings change for stupid reasons every year just so they can sell crap.

The dirty secret is that it generally doesn't really matter where you go to school for undergrad. Successful people will be successful no matter where they go. Without the added dumb pressure of USNWR rankings, college tuition would be lower.

Totally agree, and yet we all still are on this board obsessing over arbitrary garbage. The "cancer" we can't stop gawking at. It's like watching a train wreck. Just TRY to look away!

Kind of like reality TV, which has now produced a U.S. President. How is that working out?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:63 St Johns

63 Reed


Expected for schools that refused to play USNews ranking game for years. Had they played the game, they would be in T20s.

Isn’t Reed burnt to a crisp by now anyway?

I suppose you think you are hilarious. Not so funny to those of us living through the fires out west.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Cornell dropped to #18, lol. It's basically not an Ivy league any more

We've never considered Cornell to be a legitimate Ivy League school. Yes, they're in our athletic conference. But not even close to being a peer school.

This is complete nonsense.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Cornell dropped to #18, lol. It's basically not an Ivy league any more

We've never considered Cornell to be a legitimate Ivy League school. Yes, they're in our athletic conference. But not even close to being a peer school.

Cornel guy! Welcome back to you and your giant grudge! You have been missed!

+1. The "We" poster was obviously turned down by Cornell. Sorry about that.

Of course, for a number of undergraduate majors (engineering, CS, biomedical, architecture) Cornell is the highest ranked Ivy.

- a Princeton grad

Cornell might be "higher rated," but you can probably count on one hand the number of people looking to study any of those disciplines who'd choose Cornell over Princeton if/when given the choice.

[Anonymous]

Interesting how Yale went down a notch.
They took 4 kids at our school last year. All legacies. Very strong students but nothing exceptional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting how Yale went down a notch.
They took 4 kids at our school last year. All legacies. Very strong students but nothing exceptional.

In the real world, they haven't gone down at all. Yale is still between #2 and #4, which is where it's always been.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting how Yale went down a notch.
They took 4 kids at our school last year. All legacies. Very strong students but nothing exceptional.

Public HS or private?

[Anonymous]

Yay!! Hopkins made it to No.9 and beat Duke!

[Anonymous]

With all the focus on UVA on DCUM, it ends up four insignificant places in front of the University Florida in this rating. Since USNWR added the Pell grant metrics, it really has brought a bunch of schools, particularly the UCs, up the rankings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting how Yale went down a notch.
They took 4 kids at our school last year. All legacies. Very strong students but nothing exceptional.

In the real world, they haven't gone down at all. Yale is still between #2 and #4, which is where it's always been.

Princeton has been #1 for years, but I'll bet a significant majority of cross-admits are choosing Harvard, Stanford, and MIT over Princeton. I think Yale is very likely favored as well.