US News College Rankings

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Blake McCallister's picture

The new ones are out. 

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges

53k per year for the place I went to.  What a complete waste of money.

~~~~~Live. Laugh. Love.~~~~~

numi's picture

That there are five schools all ranked at #5 is a total joke. Nice showing by Columbia though – is this the highest that the school has ever been ranked (at #4)?

Palantir's picture

wtf columbia???

Cities teem with evil and decay, let’s give it a good shake and see what falls out!!

ohai's picture

US News recently increased the weight they assign to graduation rates. This basically explains why all the #5 schools are ranked below Columbia this year. It’s a little bit unfair, as this penalizes schools with technical emphasis (MIT/Caltech/Stanford), or schools where students tend to stop out to pursue professional interests. 

In my opinion, acceptance rates are the best indicator of university desirability. If we believe in semi-efficient markets elsewhere, why would we not believe in the same thing for university admissions? Obviously, there should be some adjustment for class size, though. 

Also, NYU #33 haha. 

“I’m a CPA! I got money b***h!”

Palantir's picture

By that logic the Indian Military Academy or AIIMS Medical college is the world’s most desirable college. 100 spots buddy. 72 for AIIMS.

Point is….acceptance rates are not nearly that relevant. You have to count the University’s other parts, apart from what 18 yr olds HS kids want…things like research productivity…quality of graduate schools…(indirectly matters for undergraduates too).

Cities teem with evil and decay, let’s give it a good shake and see what falls out!!

numi's picture

ohai wrote:

US News recently increased the weight they assign to graduation rates. This basically explains why all the #5 schools are ranked below Columbia this year. It’s a little bit unfair, as this penalizes schools with technical emphasis (MIT/Caltech/Stanford), or schools where students tend to stop out to pursue professional interests. 

In my opinion, acceptance rates are the best indicator of university desirability. If we believe in semi-efficient markets elsewhere, why would we not believe in the same thing for university admissions? Obviously, there should be some adjustment for class size, though. 

Also, NYU #33 haha. 

I agree with ohai

itera's picture

ohai wrote:

US News recently increased the weight they assign to graduation rates. This basically explains why all the #5 schools are ranked below Columbia this year. It’s a little bit unfair, as this penalizes schools with technical emphasis (MIT/Caltech/Stanford), or schools where students tend to stop out to pursue professional interests. 

In my opinion, acceptance rates are the best indicator of university desirability. If we believe in semi-efficient markets elsewhere, why would we not believe in the same thing for university admissions? Obviously, there should be some adjustment for class size, though. 

Also, NYU #33 haha. 

I never put much stock in overall university rankings.  I pay much more attention to the rankings in a certain major or program and strength of the school’s recruiting in that program.  It never made sense to me pitting a school known for liberal arts vs a pure bschool vs an engineering school.

Anyone who paid a ton of money for NYU and didn’t go one of their top ranked programs (bschool and arts I believe?) is a total idiot.



Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and greatest weakness.

ohai's picture

India is a different market! Indian kids just don’t have access to the financial resources or culture that will get them into US universities. Admissions policy for international students is also different. I bet if you compared admissions rates for Indian universities only, you’d see some ranking that would line up with general desirability. Similarly, you can only compare US universities with US universities. This standardizes across admissions policy, geographic and cultural barriers, etc. 

Graduate research quality has questionable value to undergraduates. Princeton has pathetic graduate research in many fields compared to say… University of Michigan. But which would you rather attend for undergraduate school?

Desirability of universities to prospective undergraduates can be measured semi-objectively through measures like what US News uses. However, ultimately, prospective students care about non-measurable things:

1) School name/prestige

2) Future career opportunities

3) Vibrant college culture

4) Academic reputation in specific fields 

5) Location 

Some of this stuff cannot be quantified objectively. However, they are implied by a “market measure”, i.e, acceptance rates. 

“I’m a CPA! I got money b***h!”

Palantir's picture

Princeton has much better graduate programs in every field than Michigan…you’re confusing lack of professional schools for “bad graduate programs”.

On that note, it makes no sense to apply to Brown. There are better ranked schools with lower acceptance rates…

Cities teem with evil and decay, let’s give it a good shake and see what falls out!!

ohai's picture

But, the lack of a graduate program implies zero research, meaning worse than a bad program. I don’t disagree that graduate programs can be useful to undergraduates - I took many graduate classes myself while at Nerd University. However, they are not as crucial to undergraduate quality as other factors. Otherwise, no one would go to liberal arts colleges like Amherst, Swarthmore, etc. 

“I’m a CPA! I got money b***h!”

Palantir's picture

Are you serious? Princeton has awesome graduate programs. It’s top 10 in science graduate programs as well as liberal arts as well as social sciences. And uh, not that many people want to go to liberal arts colleges, outside of the very top ones like Amherst or Williams. Carleton for example is a “top 10 LAC”…no one seriously would compare it to a top 10 university.

Famous graduate programs (which are often correlated with faculty quality) inevitably strengthen the reputation of the university.

Also has Duke dropped? I always thought it was a lot higher….

Cities teem with evil and decay, let’s give it a good shake and see what falls out!!

FrankArabia's picture

seriously, can you really go wrong going to any of the ivey leagues? 

i doubt princton is really that different than harvard…..

damm i wish i went harvard…..i would’ve been so cool…..

stratman's picture

ohai wrote:

US News recently increased the weight they assign to graduation rates. This basically explains why all the #5 schools are ranked below Columbia this year. It’s a little bit unfair, as this penalizes schools with technical emphasis (MIT/Caltech/Stanford), or schools where students tend to stop out to pursue professional interests. 

In my opinion, acceptance rates are the best indicator of university desirability. If we believe in semi-efficient markets elsewhere, why would we not believe in the same thing for university admissions? Obviously, there should be some adjustment for class size, though. 

Also, NYU #33 haha. 

I went to a non-Ivy with a very very low acceptance rate.  It has a low acceptance rate because the candidate pool is both kids who applied to Ivies and needed a backup school, and people who were in the Michigan, Emory, Tulane range, but wanted to reach for the stars. 

Point being, I would’ve rather gone to Penn despite the acceptance statistics.

jmh530's picture

My undergrad apparently takes a lot of people, but then doesn’t graduate them. Only the strong survive.

Mobius Striptease's picture

the real news here is that Blake has more than a high school degree

higgmond's picture

Mobius Striptease wrote:

the real news here is that Blake has more than a high school degree

Maybe not.  He only said he went to college, not that he actually graduated.

You can fondle the cube, but it will not respond.

The Righteous Hacksaw's picture

Clearly you missed the thread where Blake explained that his masters degree can solve the Arab Israeli conflict.

Formerly ChickenTikka - Member of the Order of the Righteous Rusty Hacksaw

Black Swan's picture

LOL

I used to smoke pot and go to class.  

Sneak in ten minutes late with a bullsh*t excuse.  

Slink down low at my desk.  

Pray to god nobody asked me any questions.

I was the best teacher ever.

itera's picture

ChickenTikka wrote:
Clearly you missed the thread where Blake explained that his masters degree can solve the Arab Israeli conflict.

lol  I missed that one too

Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and greatest weakness.

Blake McCallister's picture

Seriously guys, if you want to try being funny than post stuff that is true.  That is comedy.  Making things up isn’t funny.

As an example, Tikka’s post about doing coke and all the chicks he gets is funny.  Why?  First off he is Indian and Indians don’t get women.  Second, bragging about doing drugs is not cool.  Drugs are for losers.  Third, Indians have the smallest dinks in the world.  That’s a fact so we can laugh about that. 

That’s good material. 

~~~~~Live. Laugh. Love.~~~~~

Alladin's picture

haha if indians don’t get women…what explains the population?!

______________________________________________________

You must be the square root of two cause i feel irrational around you

http://alphahive.wordpress.com/

MCalamari's picture

jmh530 wrote:

My undergrad apparently takes a lot of people, but then doesn’t graduate them. Only the strong survive.

Sounds like we went to the same undergrad, go Tartans! (…nobody ever says that, we have no school spirit)


Blake McCallister wrote:

Third, Indians have the smallest dinks in the world.  That’s a fact so we can laugh about that. 

Sounds like somebody has some penis envy… 

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