Tulane (my son’s alma mater) was added to CC’s Top Universities, while USC (my daughter’s alma mater) still waits.
This issue repeats itself continually here. CC is just silly, as USC is clearly among America’s top universities. And if they are adding a new university and still overlooking USC, then CC’s unexplained bias against USC is clear. Oh well…
It is a travesty that USC is not on the CC Top Universities’ list, especially with the recent addition of Tulane University (not to disrespect Tulane, but I had previously thought the list was outdated). I don’t know who in CC determines CC’s list of Top Universities and what the criterions are. I would assume multiple factors are used to measure academic quality of the institution such as rankings (US News, ARWU, etc.), admission/acceptance rates, membership in the Association of American Universities (AAU), Nobel Prize Laureates affiliations, number of Rhodes Scholars, size of the institution’s endowment, research money, etc.
One can slice and dice the aforementioned criterions many ways, and USC should be on the list. There are schools of the CC Top College list that do not appear to meet some of the mentioned criterions. Not to disrespect any schools, for example, Notre Dame has 1 Nobel Prize Laureate and no membership in the AAU. Georgetown has no Nobel Prize Laureate and no membership in the AAU. Tulane is an AAU member but has no Nobel Prize Laureate. USC is an AAU member and has 9 Nobel Prize Laureates. USC is higher ranked and has better qualifications in the mentioned criterions than some of the schools on the list. Also, UCLA has 11 Rhodes Scholars compared to 9 for USC, but UCLA has a much larger student population pool to draw from.
Perhaps a group here should find out who determines this list and complain about this list. This list is a disservice to the students who rely on this site.
Indeed. But when something is such a glaring omission, as is the case of College Confidential consistently refusing to include USC on such a list of America’s Top Universities, the only possible reason is some hidden or outdated bias among the decision-makers at CC. Who knows, maybe someone at CC wanted to go to USC, but was rejected.
It is clearly not however a statement about USC. 55K+ applicants annually are obviously coming to their own conclusions. USC’s endowment of 5+ billion dollars and growing also speaks volumes. It is instead a statement about those within CC who choose to downplay USC. They have their own agenda apparently.
Despite CC’s evaluation… USC ranks No. 15 nationally in the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education survey of more than 1,000 U.S. colleges and universities. Other than USC, Caltech and Stanford University, no other California institution ranks among the top 25. Of 150 universities surveyed in the western U.S., USC ranks No. 3.
Other Non-CC Rankings…
- Ranked #10 among private research universities in federally funded research expenditures
- Ranked #23 in the US News and World Report ranking of national universities
- Ranked #14 worldwide in the Thomson Reuters innovation ranking of American universities (#6 among private American universities)
- Ranked # 19 in the Niche Rankings of the Best Colleges in America.
CC Rankings: N/A
CC is clearly a valuable resource for many things. But unless they will endeavor to take it more seriously, ranking universities or categorizing them as Top or Not is obviously something that CC fails to do well and should therefore abandon altogether.
“ranking universities or categorizing them as Top or Not is obviously something that CC fails to do well”
^^^This. I wouldn’t get too worked up about a list of “top universities” that doesn’t include Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Columbia, Yale, etc., etc.
There is an Ivy league section. Also, the Top Universities has a notation “Non Ivy League Schools”.
People on this site can also voice their displeasure regarding the USC bias. I just did. Just go to your profile and click the survey. In addition, at the end of the survey, there is an address to the site sponsors and I think it is in Southern California, but I click to end too fast after the survey and was not able to note the address.
Sorry, didn’t see that. On the main page when I clicked “Colleges and Universities” there are no qualifiers about non Ivies in the list of top universities. But the point remains that if you believe that CC is not any good at ranking universities, then it’s a logical fallacy to get upset if your favorite university is not on their list. But it doesn’t really matter if no one knows what their criteria includes. Maybe it’s meant to generate unique clicks from a certain desired demographic or for geographic diversity.
Click Colleges and Universities, then click CC Top Universities, you’ll see CC Top Universities with the Subtopic and there is “(non Ivy)” next to CC Top Universities.
Again per my post #5 above, people can fill out a survey and at the end of the survey, there is a mailing address of the sponsors.
I am a 4th generation graduate of Tulane, and my daughter goes to USC, so I have a foot in both camps. To place Tulane in the Top University grouping and not include USC is just silly.
Thanks for the heads-up, @UCBUSCalum I took the survey and voiced my opinion on this topic at the end. And the address is… College Confidential, 1626 Placentia Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92627 Maybe it is a Cali-bias for some strange reason. Or… as I suggested before, maybe the list’s creator was shunned when they tried to go to USC. Whatever their reasoning… it is just plain wrong. Personally, I would remove some colleges from their list. But I would settle for them simply adding USC 
Good grief. They add TULANE and not USC??? 
This is a perfect example of REALLY old biases and prejudices against USC by the original founders of CC, based on who knows what that apparently happened to someone many years ago. I have been advocating for USC’s inclusion of the Best colleges list since 2006.
I thought the current owners of CC what have a BIT more sense than to ignore the GREAT improvements that have taken place at USC over the past 10+ years.The rest of the world certainly has…
But I guess some people just have their heads stuck in the sand [ or elsewhere where the sun doesnt shine] 8-|
unbelievable…
As indicated above, College Confidential is located in Costa Mesa. Costa Mesa is located in Orange County, Southern California. It is ironic that many of USC’s Southern California students are from Orange County. As mentioned, for whatever reason, maybe the original founders of CC have a vendetta against USC. This is doing a disservice to students interested in applying to USC. I too would replace a few schools on that list with USC.
I also find Forbes Top Colleges ranking to be informative. They ranked Tulane #123 and USC #44 for 2017. If you look at their analysis of each university, it boggles the mind that Tulane would be selected over USC. It just goes to show that people need to refer to several sources when choosing a college.
I agree that there is probably an anti-USC bias with CC founders or staff.
Given that there are 0 threads and 0 replies listed under Tulane in the top universities section, I’m wondering if this was some kind of bug that caused Tulane to be listed, or if it was a hack.
I doubt many people pay attention to the CC Top Universities category in the first place.
I’m a USC alumnus. My son applied this year. Last I checked the rankings, UCLA, Berkeley and USC were all tied for 21st place. The USC alumni network is not to be discounted either!