Anonymous wrote:None of this is based on hard academic merit. It's social factors and diversity and first gen and holistic measures.

Only a school that requires all test scores (not test optional), gpa, course rigor and known for quality education should be in the top 10.

It's no longer a purely 'academic' list.

please, college admissions hasn't been solely about academic merit for a while. I keep hearing that SAT scores and GPAs aren't the only measure of what "merit" means.

"But more than a dozen public universities, many of them with relatively low profiles, climbed at least 50 spots in the rankings. Fresno State moved up 64 places, to No. 185, for instance, and Florida Atlantic ascended 53, to No. 209. Many other public institutions recorded smaller, if notable, gains, like Rutgers, which saw each of its three campuses rise by at least 15 places.

They benefited from an algorithm that sent some private universities’ rankings plummeting but represented an effort to account for deals that higher education leaders routinely talk up, like transforming the lives of economically disadvantaged students...

The reworked formula assigned greater emphasis to graduation rates for students who received need-based Pell grants and retention. It also introduced metrics tied to first-generation college students and to whether recent graduates were earning more than people who had completed only high school...

The company discarded five factors that often favored wealthy colleges and together made up 18 percent of a school’s score, including undergraduate class sizes, alumni giving rates and high school class standing...
Private universities proved particularly vulnerable to the new formula. Small class size, which was 8 percent of a score a year ago, is a matter of pride for many elite institutions. Its disappearance from the algorithm played a role in some top schools’ rankings tumbling.

The University of Chicago, No. 6 last year, moved down to No. 12. Dartmouth declined six places to finish at No. 18. Washington University in St. Louis, which was No. 15 last year, slipped to 24th. Brandeis, now ranked 60th, fell 16 spots, almost as much as Wake Forest, which declined 18 spots to tie for No. 47. Tulane went to No. 73 from No. 44...

U.S. News is accustomed to complaints. The publisher has given no signal, though, that it is interested in abandoning a system that brings in millions of eyeballs — and dollars."

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Anonymous wrote:This year's rankings placed a greater emphasis on social mobility ignoring many academic factors.

the vast majority of people in this country are not wealthy, so the ranking makes more sense to the vast majority of people in this country.

I realize that the wealthy prefer to have their own biased wealthy colleges at the top rankings, though. Maybe you ought to get Town & Country magazine to create a list just for the rich people.

Only wealthy people care about academic factors? Good to know.

Being able to graduate college and increase social mobility is more important to people who are not wealthy, which is the vast majority of people in this country.

Only wealthy people who can buy their way into expensive colleges via ED, college counselors and activities care about the "eliteness" of a college. So yea, go call Town & Country.

Except when increasing social mobility is almost entirely a function of who they let in and not of the education provided to the students once they are admitted. The public schools attract more lower income students, that is pretty much the sole reason for their improvement as a group this year.

Most people cannot afford the expensive privates. So, they go to the good flagships and are able to do well and get good paying jobs.

The elite expensive colleges only let in a small percentage of lower/middle class students, and while they can and do become upwardly social mobile after graduating, the percentage is much smaller compared to those who go to the public flagships. Those expensive privates claim that they need to keep legacy so that they can provide more financial aid to lower income students. So, the list is a function of those expensive colleges and their legacy practices.

None of this is based on hard academic merit. It's social factors and diversity and first gen and holistic measures.

Only a school that requires all test scores (not test optional), gpa, course rigor and known for quality education should be in the top 10.

It's no longer a purely 'academic' list.

Anonymous wrote:UVA is the best school in the South bar-none. UNC unexpected jump is a fluke that will be corrected next year. Vanderbilt and WashU are trending down as both fell by 5+ spots this year. Rice is too small to have the widespread impact of UVA. Duke no longer has Coach K and basketball is the only reason people care about it. UVA has the best academics, an extremely loyal alumni base, and a commitment to service as a public university.

??? Rice is worse than UVA because it’s small and undergrad-focused? Duke is worse than UVA because they don’t have Coach K anymore? You need to leave the DMV and find what people really think out there my friend.

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Anonymous wrote:It's baffling that Michigan and UNC are ranked so high compared to UVA. In Virginia, Michigan is regarded as a safety school and UVA is much better. UVA has a much lower acceptance rate and the SAT scores are much higher, this ranking is a joke.

In Virginia (VA resident for 26 years), Michigan is regarded as a better school in general than UVA and UVA has a higher acceptance rate than Michigan. UVA should be ranked around 30.

Nope. It's much harder for a VA kid from NoVA to get into UVA than UMich. Half our neighborhood is attending UMich currently and the parents would have much rather have saved a ton of $$$ if they could have gotten into UVA and have said as much.

And, my friends from AA say it's the EXACT SAME there re getting into UMich. Your point....

Overall, there is a bigger gap in gpa/test scores between in state and out of state students in Michigan than Virginia. You can look it up if you like.

The UVA keyboard warriors...

People only went to Washu because it was T15. Apps are going to crater this year and next.

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Anonymous wrote:I'm oddly joyous to see all the Southern private schools drop like flies in the rankings. Vanderbilt, WashU, Rice, Tulane, Emory, Wake Forest all down. As much as I hate to say it, I think Duke is basically carrying the reputation of the entire region, or it would be the foremost educational backwater of the US by a wide margin.

If you really think Rice belongs in the same category of these other schools you’re clueless. It’s an excellent school that is not overrated.

Regardless of opinion, it did drop just like the rest of the southern privates

Not nearly by as much. Just a spot or two, and only because the two public UC schools went up.

Anonymous wrote:The irony here is that the public schools produce more social mobility only for in state students who are already applying in droves. Most charge private school tuition at full freight to out of staters.

UCLA and Cal charge roughly $20K less per year than most of the top 25 privates. My DD is at UCLA and her tuition is lower than the DC private school that she graduated from!

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Anonymous wrote:It's baffling that Michigan and UNC are ranked so high compared to UVA. In Virginia, Michigan is regarded as a safety school and UVA is much better. UVA has a much lower acceptance rate and the SAT scores are much higher, this ranking is a joke.

In Virginia (VA resident for 26 years), Michigan is regarded as a better school in general than UVA and UVA has a higher acceptance rate than Michigan. UVA should be ranked around 30.

Nope. It's much harder for a VA kid from NoVA to get into UVA than UMich. Half our neighborhood is attending UMich currently and the parents would have much rather have saved a ton of $$$ if they could have gotten into UVA and have said as much.

And, my friends from AA say it's the EXACT SAME there re getting into UMich. Your point....

Overall, there is a bigger gap in gpa/test scores between in state and out of state students in Michigan than Virginia. You can look it up if you like.

Hey annoying UVA boosters, stop hijacking threads and go make your own threads.

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Anonymous wrote:It's baffling that Michigan and UNC are ranked so high compared to UVA. In Virginia, Michigan is regarded as a safety school and UVA is much better. UVA has a much lower acceptance rate and the SAT scores are much higher, this ranking is a joke.

UVA is mUCh bEtTer.

SAT: UMich 1435 vs. UVA 1430
Go Blue!

Source: prepmatters

Scores are meaningless. Pretty much every kid I know did not send scores to UMich. and got in based on inflated GPA alone.

I only pointed it out for the rabid UVA booster posting misinformation.

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Anonymous wrote:It's baffling that Michigan and UNC are ranked so high compared to UVA. In Virginia, Michigan is regarded as a safety school and UVA is much better. UVA has a much lower acceptance rate and the SAT scores are much higher, this ranking is a joke.

UVA is mUCh bEtTer.

SAT: UMich 1435 vs. UVA 1430
Go Blue!

Source: prepmatters

Scores are meaningless. Pretty much every kid I know did not send scores to UMich. and got in based on inflated GPA alone.

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Anonymous wrote:It's baffling that Michigan and UNC are ranked so high compared to UVA. In Virginia, Michigan is regarded as a safety school and UVA is much better. UVA has a much lower acceptance rate and the SAT scores are much higher, this ranking is a joke.

UVA is a public ivy and Michigan is a safety for public ivy.

Only in Virginia would people say this nonsense.

NP here. There is mno such thing as a "public ivy", and if you use that phrase, it makes you seem uneducated/ignorant/uninformed.

I don’t particularly care for or agree with the term, but it is a real thing. “The term was first coined in 1985 by Yale University admissions officer Richard Moll, who published Public Ivies: A Guide to America's Best Public Undergraduate Colleges and Universities. That initial list included eight universities and nine runners-up.[1] In 2001, college guide authors Howard Greene and Matthew Greene, released their own book, The Public Ivies: The Great State Colleges and Universities,[3] which included 30 schools.[2]”.

Yes, a guy made up the term in the ‘80s to sell a book, and some other guys jumped on the bandwagon because they too saw the potential to make money from gullible strivers, the sort of people who use this term on the internet today.

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Anonymous wrote:UVA is the best school in the South bar-none. UNC unexpected jump is a fluke that will be corrected next year. Vanderbilt and WashU are trending down as both fell by 5+ spots this year. Rice is too small to have the widespread impact of UVA. Duke no longer has Coach K and basketball is the only reason people care about it. UVA has the best academics, an extremely loyal alumni base, and a commitment to service as a public university.

Virginia is not the south and Emory, Vandy, Rice and Duke are better schools. The former 3 will fix its issues and rise in the rankings. They have the money to do so.

They don’t actually have issues.

Well they fell, and for Vandy significantly. For Rice and Emory a 2 spot drop is technically considered noise but still a drop isn't good and Emory is better than UNC and Umich, should be atleast tied with ND.

It’s basically an entirely different rating which penalizes all private schools outside of the T10. Personally, I care more about class sizes, resources spent per student and graduation rates, all things U S News has chosen to devalue.