<p>I am an incoming freshman to IU next year (i've been committed for a month now), and I have really been doing a lot of research recently on the academics of IU and its rankings in the country. What I found: we had top programs in the country in Music, Journalism, Business, Education and Foreign Language (basically all of the most popular programs at IU). I know that we are ranked #75 overall in the USNWR rankings, but I really think we should be ranked higher than this (around 50, if not higher). Is it because the acceptance rate is so high? Thoughts?</p>
<p>I believe that much of it can be attributed to the fact that IU doesn’t have an engineering school.</p>
<p>I agree w/ Leila. I think it’s a bit underrated. Or even a lot underrated.</p>
<p>I have also been researching IU and really believe it is a very underrated university. I also think it is partly due to the high acceptance rate. I have also been told IU is considered an “easy” school to get into and so people assume it is not academically challenging. My sister-in-law insulted my son by telling him people who do not get accepted into Madison and higher ranking schools tend to fall back on IU insinuating IU isn’t as quality in comparison. My son visited IU twice and is very excited to go in the Fall. He has friends who go there who are very bright kids and love IU.</p>
<p>judy: you need a new sister-in-law…sounds like my family…gotta love it…</p>
<p>USNWR rankings are based on a formula. Large public schools do not fare as well as smaller private schools. I wouldn’t make too much of the rankings. There isn’t much difference between #50 and #75 in any event. I have also heard that IU takes a hit because there is no engine school.</p>
<p>IU’s acceptance rate is DEFINITELY going down though. Only a couple of years ago they admitted about 80% of all applicants. For the freshman class of fall 2010, 69% of the applicants were admitted (down from 73% in for fall '09) and I know that this year there was another big increase in applications. More likely than not, the rate will definitely decline even more for the fall 2011 class. More talented students are applying and coming to IU each year, which is great.</p>
<p>You have to ask who above it should move down. I’d suggest Delaware, SMU, GWU, BU, Uconn and a few others are probably not as good overall but ranked higher. so better students will help IU jump some spots.</p>
<p>I definitely think that IU is underrated. There are so many great departments at IU. I don’t think that you can really get a “bad” education. I feel that IU really should become more competitive and have higher standards of admission. It is a bit ridiculous that their admission rate is so incredibly high. A good example of top public schools that can compete with private schools is UCLA. They don’t have an engineering department, have higher standards of admission (so they get better students), and are ranked #24 in the nation. I know that there are many other things to consider but if IU just accepted better students that the rankings would go at least a little higher. I’ve met too many students here that umm… don’t seem like they should be in college. lol</p>
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<p>So much truth behind this statement.</p>
<p>Correction: UCLA offers 9 majors in their Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.</p>
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<p>Haha true. I was gonna agree before I saw that leila beat me to it.</p>
<p>I agree that I think it’s mostly attributed to the lack of the engineering school and the more relaxed admissions. I don’t know anything about engineering, but I know that it’s a very in-demand field with high job placement and the fact that IU doesn’t boast those advantages makes us look worse than we really are. </p>
<p>As far as admissions, yeah uhh i’d say 30% of the people I know here don’t belong. They’re all good people, but so many people take advantage of the IU education and don’t put everything into it that they can. Like there are truly kids who never study or go to class and sit in their rooms playing video games ** all day every day. ** Better students would better represent IU. </p>
<p>I don’t think the acceptance rate has anything to do with it. Iowa is a lot easier to get into than IU, has a higher acceptance rate, and it’s ranked higher. Admission-difficulty for IU is about the same as Purdue/Mich State/OSU/Delaware, all of which are ranked higher.</p>
<p>Probably right about lack of engineering school, but that is by design. Indiana’s higher ed system is arranged such that engineering is concentrated at Purdue and medicine is concentrated at IU. I think this is a good system for the state, but IU suffers a bit at undergrad level not having engineering, which generally attracts high performing (sometimes nerdy) students.</p>
<p>Well, not for undergrad but graduate studies IU also boasts top programs in History (and I firmly believe, in some fields of History, it’s easily in the top 10). They also have a lot of other highly ranked graduate schools, far more than many of the universities ranked higher then IU. Therefore in my field, IU is a very-very highly regarded school even in the eyes of Cambridge and Oxford professors, and it is safe to assume that many of those on my field would be shocked to learn that IU is just ranked 75 on the USNWR rankings, and people are comparing to universities like Iowa… </p>
<p>But the USNews focuses primary on undergrad education, student to faculty ratio, acceptance rates and such.</p>