2021 USNews rankings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Michigan ranked ahead of UVA.

As it was last year.

Both probably have a better undergraduate experience overall than UCLA and Berkeley, which are ranked higher. Sometimes it is difficult to say what USNWR is actually ranking.

[Anonymous]

Biggest gains? Biggest drops?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

There are only 2 national USNWR categories. USNA doesn't have real graduate programs, so liberal arts it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:American and GW are pretty closely ranked. From the way that people seem to prefer GW on DCUM, I thought it would be much higher.

That’s local culture and norms superseding data. GW has always been seen as a great option for rich kids (who didn’t have stats for Georgetown or feel comfortable going to a catholic school). Jackie Kennedy went there. AU used to be a safety school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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!

USNWR focuses on resources rather than value, so it has probably caused an increase in many billions in unnecessary student loan debt. Like someone said, I recognize that and hate it, but I am still here looking at this thread. . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Michigan ranked ahead of UVA.

As it was last year.

Both probably have a better undergraduate experience overall than UCLA and Berkeley, which are ranked higher. Sometimes it is difficult to say what USNWR is actually ranking.

by one place Mich - tied for 24
there is no 25
UVA -26

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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!

That is your opinion. I don't agree (and didn't attend any of them).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Michigan ranked ahead of UVA.

As it was last year.

Both probably have a better undergraduate experience overall than UCLA and Berkeley, which are ranked higher. Sometimes it is difficult to say what USNWR is actually ranking.

by one place Mich - tied for 24
there is no 25
UVA -26

When UVA was ranked higher among publics, you rarely heard anyone on this board say it was barely above Berkeley, Michigan, UCLA, etc. UVA is one spot ahead of UNC (whose students don't have enough sense to know you can't party like it is 2019).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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!

That is your opinion. I don't agree (and didn't attend any of them).

Penn State is effectively an open-enrollment school. If you’re willing to drop 30k at one of their community colleges, you can attend. Half of University Park graduates began at one of the Penn State community colleges. Like it or not, every program on the main campus has to cater to average and below average high school students. For instance, you can get an economics degree from Penn State without even taking calculus! This is unheard of at serious universities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Biggest gains? Biggest drops?

Howard +24 (104 to 80)
Yeshiva +21 (97 to 76)
U of Arizona +20 (117 to 97)
U of Denver +17 (97 to 80)

Largest drops

Drexel -36 (97 to 133)
UC Santa Cruz -13 (84 to 97)
Miami Ohio -12 (91 to 103)
Northeastern -9 (40 to 49)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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!

That is your opinion. I don't agree (and didn't attend any of them).

Penn State is effectively an open-enrollment school. If you’re willing to drop 30k at one of their community colleges, you can attend. Half of University Park graduates began at one of the Penn State community colleges. Like it or not, every program on the main campus has to cater to average and below average high school students. For instance, you can get an economics degree from Penn State without even taking calculus! This is unheard of at serious universities.

Pitt has four satellite campuses, or community colleges as you describe them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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!

That is your opinion. I don't agree (and didn't attend any of them).

Penn State is effectively an open-enrollment school. If you’re willing to drop 30k at one of their community colleges, you can attend. Half of University Park graduates began at one of the Penn State community colleges. Like it or not, every program on the main campus has to cater to average and below average high school students. For instance, you can get an economics degree from Penn State without even taking calculus! This is unheard of at serious universities.

Pitt has four satellite campuses, or community colleges as you describe them.

Not PP, but that’s a bit different because Pitt doesn’t really take transfers from the branch campuses. My DS was advised not to do it.

[Anonymous]

“ any ranking that puts usc tied with michigan is a joke, USC should be way higher.”

I concur except that USC is still ranked too high!