New Wall Street Journal Rankings 2019

[Anonymous]

IMO, the best ranking happens when you combine a lot of different rankings (focusing only on the top 50 on WSJ)



So for top 10 universities, we have HYPMS, Caltech, UPenn, Duke, Brown, and Columbia. Only really missing UChicago, but they explicitly play to the US News rankings and thus might be a little overrated.
For top 5 LACs, we have Pomona, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, and Bowdoin. Almost no one would disagree with these 5, though the order might shift around.
For top 5 public Us, we have Berkeley, UCLA, U of M, UVA, and UNC Chapel Hill. Again, that exact order is pretty much how undergrad reputation for public universities go.

It's interesting to see how different rankings vary. WSJ does seem to favor public universities.

[Anonymous]

That seems even more arbitrary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Elite LACs like Amherst and Williams won't be hurt by these rankings. It's more of an issue for smaller LACs ranked 200+

Having as a criterion "Number of accredited programs" will hurt every small school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IMO, the best ranking happens when you combine a lot of different rankings (focusing only on the top 50 on WSJ)



So for top 10 universities, we have HYPMS, Caltech, UPenn, Duke, Brown, and Columbia. Only really missing UChicago, but they explicitly play to the US News rankings and thus might be a little overrated.
For top 5 LACs, we have Pomona, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, and Bowdoin. Almost no one would disagree with these 5, though the order might shift around.
For top 5 public Us, we have Berkeley, UCLA, U of M, UVA, and UNC Chapel Hill. Again, that exact order is pretty much how undergrad reputation for public universities go.

It's interesting to see how different rankings vary. WSJ does seem to favor public universities.

The truth is that any of those 50 schools (and a hundred more) can offer your student an amazing education, and it largely depends on what your child wants in a college. Ranking school is a pointless and utterly ridiculous exercise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The two asinine placements that stick out:

Stanford at #7 - easily #1b if not 1a to most teens

Norte Dame in the 30s - obvious anti-Catholic bias, ND is the Catholic Ivy, students live in dorms all 4 years, no Greek life, just a wonderful pure college with overachieving service-minded kids

USNWR has Stanford at #7 as well.

Not even USNWR can hold Stanford down. With the possible exception of Harvard, it is probably favored by cross-admits over any other schools. You can say the same for Harvard. Princeton is almost always #1 in USNWR. What percentage of cross-admits choose Princeton over Harvard? I'd bet no more than 25%.

You're assessing popularity, not quality. There may be an assumption that the selection is based on perceived quality but maybe it's just the weather.

Does the weather impact Harvard positively for cross-admits with Princeton? I was simply saying there is a limit in the USNWR influence. They can put Princeton over Harvard for the next 10 years and most cross-admits will choose Harvard. They can rank Berkeley below UCLA and even de-list it, but it will still remain the most selective of the UC schools and will still get lots of applicants.

And I would certainly question that USNWR really does a good or valuable job of measuring quality.

The weather. See how silly this ranking business really is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That seems even more arbitrary.

Yeah. Seems like it's fairly standard towards the top and then gets pretty weird toward the end, judging by how each school ranks in each website.

The top 25 or so schools are pretty much defined and tend to be near the top 30 on most rankings: the top 20 universities on US News, a handful of the most elite LACs, maybe Berkeley or UCLA here and there. Once you get past that point, the rankings can start fluctuating pretty wildly. The best schools do almost everything a ranking could account for well. The schools behind them focus on different aspects, which result in changes depending on ranking.

[Anonymous]

1. Harvard, Stanford

2. MIT, Yale, Princeton

3. Ten or so "Ivy-plus" schools in no particular order

Sidebar: I do not understand Northwestern's hype. I suspect their j-school students funnel to all these publications and put their finger on the scales. After after, the writers and editors select the arbitrary methodology, yes? Of course they see where Northwestern comes out before committing...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. Harvard, Stanford

2. MIT, Yale, Princeton

3. Ten or so "Ivy-plus" schools in no particular order

Sidebar: I do not understand Northwestern's hype. I suspect their j-school students funnel to all these publications and put their finger on the scales. After after, the writers and editors select the arbitrary methodology, yes? Of course they see where Northwestern comes out before committing...

Nah. Northwestern really is that good for undergrad.
1- Great on academic metrics. Small classes, low student to professor ratio.
2- Extremely high graduation and retention rates.
3- As tough to get into as the mid tier Ivies & Duke- 8% acceptance rate, 750s per section on the SAT, 33/34s on the ACT, 90%+ in top 10% of HS class
4- Great alumni network and professional outcomes, which means grads earn a lot of money. A lot of these rankings look into ROI/salaries.
5- Gives a lot of financial aid, all loan-free. Only 18 or so colleges are full need met, no loans, and they're all pretty elite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. Harvard, Stanford

2. MIT, Yale, Princeton

3. Ten or so "Ivy-plus" schools in no particular order

Sidebar: I do not understand Northwestern's hype. I suspect their j-school students funnel to all these publications and put their finger on the scales. After after, the writers and editors select the arbitrary methodology, yes? Of course they see where Northwestern comes out before committing...

Nah. Northwestern really is that good for undergrad.
1- Great on academic metrics. Small classes, low student to professor ratio.
2- Extremely high graduation and retention rates.
3- As tough to get into as the mid tier Ivies & Duke- 8% acceptance rate, 750s per section on the SAT, 33/34s on the ACT, 90%+ in top 10% of HS class
4- Great alumni network and professional outcomes, which means grads earn a lot of money. A lot of these rankings look into ROI/salaries.
5- Gives a lot of financial aid, all loan-free. Only 18 or so colleges are full need met, no loans, and they're all pretty elite.

FFS get a life loser

[Anonymous]

Please point me to all the impressive Northwestern alums that aren't journalists. I think the Groupon founder dropped out of Northwestern? It seems like the quintessential 'striver' college for Ivy rejects. What's distinct about it? Besides the j-school. Awful quarter system puts you out of rhythm for internships. What non j-school teens grow up and says I dream of going to Northwestern? Maybe it's a Midwest thing.

[Anonymous]

you're a douche.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please point me to all the impressive Northwestern alums that aren't journalists. I think the Groupon founder dropped out of Northwestern? It seems like the quintessential 'striver' college for Ivy rejects. What's distinct about it? Besides the j-school. Awful quarter system puts you out of rhythm for internships. What non j-school teens grow up and says I dream of going to Northwestern? Maybe it's a Midwest thing.

Among Northwestern's more notable alumni are U.S. Senator and presidential candidate George McGovern, Nobel Prize–winning economist George J. Stigler, Nobel Prize–winning novelist Saul Bellow, Pulitzer Prize–winning composer and diarist Ned Rorem, much-decorated composer Howard Hanson, Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey Ali Babacan, historian and novelist Wilma Dykeman, sociologist and adviser of CEPAL Fernando Filgueira, and the founder of the presidential prayer breakfast Abraham Vereide. U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, Supreme Court Justice and Ambassador to the United Nations Arthur Joseph Goldberg, Chicago Mayor Harold L. Washington and Governor of Illinois and Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson are among the graduates of the Northwestern School of Law. Many Northwestern alumni play or have played important roles in Chicago and Illinois, such as former Illinois governor and convicted felon Rod Blagojevich, Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, and theater director Mary Zimmerman. Northwestern alumnus David J. Skorton serves as head of The Smithsonian. Rahm Emanuel, mayor of Chicago and former White House Chief of Staff, earned a Masters in Speech and Communication in 1985. Former lawyer, Cincinnati mayor/councilman, Ohio gubernatorial candidate, news anchor/commentator and current tabloid talk host Jerry Springer is a graduate of the Northwestern School of Law. Among U.S. universities, Northwestern ranks eighth in the number of billionaires produced.

Northwestern's School of Communication has been especially fruitful in the number of actors, actresses, playwrights, and film and television writers and directors it has produced. Alumni who have made their mark on film and television include Ann-Margret, Warren Beatty, Jodie Markell, Paul Lynde, David Schwimmer, Anne Dudek, Zach Braff, Zooey Deschanel, Marg Helgenberger, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Meghan Markle (later known in the United Kingdom as the Duchess of Sussex), Jerry Orbach, Jennifer Jones, Megan Mullally, John Cameron Mitchell, Dermot Mulroney, Charlton Heston, Richard Kind, Ana Gasteyer, Brad Hall, Shelley Long, William Daniels, Cloris Leachman, Bonnie Bartlett, Paula Prentiss, Richard Benjamin, Laura Innes, Charles Busch, Stephanie March, Tony Roberts, Jeri Ryan, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, McLean Stevenson, Tony Randall, Charlotte Rae, Patricia Neal, Tom Virtue, Nancy Dussault, Robert Reed, Mara Brock Akil, Greg Berlanti, Bill Nuss, Dan Shor, Seth Meyers, Peter Spears, Frank DeCaro, Zach Gilford, Nicole Sullivan, Stephen Colbert, Billy Eichner, Sandra Seacat and Garry Marshall. Directors who were graduated from Northwestern include Gerald Freedman, Stuart Hagmann, Marshall W. Mason, Allison Burnett, and Mary Zimmerman. Lee Phillip Bell hosted a talk show in Chicago from 1952 to 1986 and co-created the Daytime Emmy Award-winning soap operas The Young and the Restless in 1973 and The Bold and the Beautiful in 1987. Alumni such as Sheldon Harnick, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Heather Headley, Kristen Schaal, Lily Rabe, and Walter Kerr have distinguished themselves on Broadway, as has designer Bob Mackie. Amsterdam-based comedy theater Boom Chicago was founded by Northwestern alumni, and the school has become a training ground for future The Second City, I.O., ComedySportz, Mad TV and Saturday Night Live talent. Tam Spiva wrote scripts for The Brady Bunch and Gentle Ben. In New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, the number of Northwestern alumni involved in theater, film, and television is so large that a perception has formed that there's such a thing as a "Northwestern mafia."

The Feinberg School of Medicine (previously the Northwestern University Medical School) has produced a number of notable graduates, including Mary Harris Thompson, Class of 1870, ad eundem, first female surgeon in Chicago, first female surgeon at Cook County Hospital, and founder of the Mary Thomson Hospital; Roswell Park, Class of 1876, prominent surgeon for whom the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, is named; Daniel Hale Williams, Class of 1883, performed the first successful American open heart surgery; only black charter member of the American College of Surgeons, Charles Horace Mayo, Class of 1888, co-founder of Mayo Clinic; Carlos Montezuma, Class of 1889, one of the first Native Americans to receive a Doctor of Medicine degree from any school, and founder of the Society of American Indians; Howard T. Ricketts, Class of 1897, who discovered bacteria of the genus Rickettsia, and identified the cause and methods of transmission of rocky mountain spotted fever; Allen B. Kanavel, Class of 1899, founder, regent, and president of the American College of Surgeons, internationally recognized as the founder of modern hand and peripheral nerve surgery; Robert F. Furchgott, Class of 1940, recipient of a Lasker Award in 1996 and the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his co-discovery of nitric oxide; Thomas E. Starzl, Class of 1952, who performed the first successful liver transplant in 1967 and received the National Medal of Science in 2004 and a Lasker Award in 2012; Joseph P. Kerwin, first physician in space, flew on the Skylab 2 mission and later served as director of Space and Life Sciences at NASA; C. Richard Schlegel, Class of 1972, developed the dominant patent for a vaccine against human papillomavirus (administered as Gardasil) to prevent cervical cancer; David J. Skorton, Class of 1974, cardiologist who became president of Cornell University in 2006; and Andrew E. Senyei, Class of 1979, inventor, venture capitalist, and entrepreneur, founder of biotech and genetics companies, and a university trustee.

Northwestern alumni involved in music include Steve Albini, Thomas Tyra, Andrew Bird, Robert Davine, Joshua Radin, Augusta Read Thomas, Gilbert Harry Trythall, members of Arcade Fire, The Lawrence Arms, Pharrell Williams, Chavez, Dawen, and OK Go.

[Anonymous]

If you are looking at the quality of education you can get, there are a lot of small schools who don't rank very well that have a great curriculum and good professors that are actually much better than Harvard, Stanford etc.

Look at this website that actually looks at the curriculum and what kids actually get taught.

https://www.whatwilltheylearn.com/

It is surprising more families don't pay attention to what these schools really teach for the money they extract

Once you get past that, you are really looking at "Prestige" and bragging rights. Not a good way to select your school, but....

For that, the USNews ranking is the best "Prestige" "Bragging ranking" there is, provided you ignore the strict ranking and just group different colleges into rough prestige tiers

All these other rankings are trying to appear "scientific" but don't measure anything meaningful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the link but you need to be a subscriber to use it.

Subscribe.

It's worth it.

BS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. UVA #9 public

UVA is no. 2 public in America in USN&WR ranking.

Still listed as #3 despite the de-listing of Berkeley. I'm sure no one will apply to Berkeley now that it has be de-listed.

But if you had checked you would know that USN&WR lists UVA as 1 2 or 3 over the last 27 years, sometimes in a tie, and as no. 1 a few times . . . and always above Michigan. I would definitely look to USN&WR as the gold standard, not the WSJ.