<p>Well of course people on here are going to think highly of UT, it’s a Texas board.</p>
<p>I beg to differ ahsie. I agree that UT is not at the Berkeley/UVa level yet. I disagree with placing UCLA in that tier–the admissions stats in CA clearly show that UCB is a shade above UCLA.</p>
<p>And while I resepct your opinion, I disagree with your assessment of UT as 3rd tier. UT is academically superior to those schools in many ways.</p>
<p>You claim not to be using US News rank, yet your tier system is almost entirely using US News ranks but dropping several schools. Do Cal Davis, Georgia Tech, and Cal Santa Barbara, who are all ranked as equal or better than UT by USNWR, not merit tier rankings? What about other strong public institutions such as Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio State, and Michigan State? They are just as strong as your “third tier.” Simply, you’ve provided no way of how you “ranked” them, yet they fall almost exactly into US News order.</p>
<p>The US News poll is incredibly biased against public universities, and in favor of the Ivy league (it’s creator says he knows it works because “Harvard and Yale always come out on top,” ignoring the fact that that happens because of how he designed the tests). Cal Berkeley, in particular, is far superior to at least half of the schools ranked above it.</p>
<p>Looking at the peer rankings, assesments of the schools by other academics, gives you insight into what the nation’s universities think of each other. Cal Berkeley is a 4.8, the second highest peer assesment given, and behind only Princeton, Havard, Stanford, and MIT, yet is ranked #21 overall. UT is a 4.1, which is beaten by only 22 schools, yet is 45 overall. I think the academics know a lot about the universities and their strengths, and here UT shines aboe such schools as W&M, UIUC, UWash, and the vast majority of the UCs.</p>
<p>Another key factor of the US News poll is “faculty resources,” which rewards schools for having small classes. You simply cannot pull this off at most public schools, yet the rankings offer no reason why this is inherentlybetter. It does not consider the fact that UT’s course offerings are the broadest in the country, that not even Ivy league schools can match what UT can offer in its size.</p>
<p>Admissions selectivity is another criterion which is used, and this also is inherently unfair. Sure, it shows that they take top kids, but at the top schools almost EVERY applicant is qualified and would make a fine addition to the campus community. But the schools restrict class sizes, so they can’t take everyone. UT takes more than most however, and also must take a large number of applicants by law, which NO other school has (Cal has ELC, but shuttles these kids over to Riverside and Merced). Other factors such as retention ranks and things such as “endowment per student” hurt large public schools.</p>
<p>For this reason, you see schools like Berkeley and UT rank in the top 5 and 15, respectively, of world universities, and not in the top 20 of the US.</p>
<p>Simply put, UT’s faculty is top-notch, as good as any in the country. UT has strong overall offerings. It’s specialty schools, such as McCombs and Comm and Engineering, are very strong. The COLA and CNS aren’t at the top level, but have been improving in faculty hires and overall strength every year. UT also has one of the strongest grad schools in the country, and a lot of this strength comes out into the undergrad programs.</p>
<p>Many schools you list, particularly W&M, are good schools, but are simply not the same sort of school. William and Mary is a large liberal arts school. It does not have the size or issues found at a major university. The Ivies and most private schools as well.</p>
<p>I agree that UT is not as strong as UMich, UVa, and Berkeley, primarily because we are larger. This means that our Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences schools aren’t going to be as elite and they will see larger classes than the top tier schools.</p>
<p>But I think you will find in reputation and academic offerings that UT is every bit as good as the schools that in your educated opinion you have deemed “second tier.” You’ve left many strong universities out of that group (namely Georgia Tech) and made some interesting inclusions (namely Washington, a strong school but not at the same level, and W&M). There is a reason the elite schools consier themselves peer institutions: they are all at similar levels and styles of education.</p>
<p>Yes, UT people will overrate their school, just as Berkeley kids will tell you it’s as good as Harvard and Stanford (which is true, in my opinion), just as Rice kids will tell you it is as good as any Ivy (more of a stretch there).</p>
<p>But you are really underestimating UT. The schools you are placing it with are solid, yes, but lack the resources and breadth and depth that make UT one of the elite public universities of the US. It isn’t Berkeley or UVa yet, but give it 20 more years of the growth of reputation it’s been experiencing (no one would have placed UT even on this list 20 years ago), and UT certainly will be one of the three best public schools in the United States.</p>