<p>Tom, I know you are going to want to challenge the post above ^ by c41. Don’t do it. The anti-gator crowd will attack you as a zealot once again…</p>
<p>Florida really has a pretty respectable higher educational system…UF, New College, FSU…as well as the regionals. UF is recognized as a top-20 public…so if far exceeds what most states can boast. The real problem with Florida are the privates…a state this big should have a couple of elite privates…and we don’t. So florida high-schoolers will focus on the best we have and tend to obsess over it and elevate it in stature. And that is bound to upset a lot of people…proof is before your eyes. So let it go…if UF’s biggest image problem is that a lot of high-schoolers think it is equivalent of Harvard and MIT…well, really, that’s not such a bad problem to have.</p>
<p>^i am no part of any anti-gator affiliation. Im just saying theres no need to disrespect Texas and Penn State, two institutions which are clealy ahead of Florida in almost every department, especially business. and Florida is not well known for their academics outisde of the state, it has gained its fame through football as of late</p>
<p>Florida is literally tied with Texas and Penn St. in US News WR Rankings at 47, and in some programs such as Engineering fare well nationally. </p>
<p>Additionally, the caliber of students at UF are much better than Penn State. UF has a 10% lower admission rate and much higher SAT and GPA Average of incoming students.</p>
<p>^are you kidding, better caliber?? Penn state has one of the greatest honors colleges for a public and Texas only accepts students within top 10% now i believe. According the the 09 edition, SAT between texas and florida is pretty similar. Florida has a higher student:faculty ratio by about an extra 5:1 for each school. </p>
<p>C41…please double-check your facts. UF Biz comes in at 25, and eng comes in at 26 per the source you site… I’m not trying to pick a fight here, but I wanted to correct your error. </p>
<p>Texas is an awesome school, by the way…and I think it is very underranked. </p>
<p>Ryan is correct about student quality of Penn State vs. UF…UF has a lot more 700+ scorers as a percentage and in terms of total numbers. Not trying to pick on Penn State either…great school too…my nepthew is a prof. there.</p>
<p>Overrated: BU and Harvard (most grades are seriously ballooned)
Underated:Wheaton-went there for a visit and it has a beautiful campus and very stellar academics and freedom to design your own major</p>
<p>overrated:
Grand Valley: yes its a decent school and has been attracting more and more students each year, but its still relatively easy to get into and is definitely not on par with MSU or U of M</p>
<p>underrated:
MSU: A lot of people think of MSU as a party school where the students just slack off. While, I will admit, it is not as prestigious as U of M, it is definitely still a challenging school and deserves more credit.</p>
<p>**To add to the U of M vs MSU debate I think U of M can be both over and under rated. It is without a doubt one of the top public schools in the country which a lot of people do not realize, but at the same time, many students seem to feel that it is on par with ivies and it just isn’t.</p>
<p>“**To add to the U of M vs MSU debate I think U of M can be both over and under rated. It is without a doubt one of the top public schools in the country which a lot of people do not realize, but at the same time, many students seem to feel that it is on par with ivies and it just isn’t.”</p>
<p>Typical Sparty, trying to prop up their school while at the same time trying to pull Michigan down to their level. Michigan is indeed a peer of some of the so called, “lower ivies.” Just check out the PA scores at USNWR, where you’ll find Michigan among the top schools in the country and MSU considerably lower.</p>
<p>I was not trying to “prop up my school”. Whether you want to admit it or not, MSU is not just a party school. A lot of the students there work really hard and are very smart. Futhermore, Michigan is not the be all and end all of schools. If we’re going to reference USNWR, U of M was ranked 27, which is below the Ivies as well as some other public colleges. I’m not saying U of M isn’t a good school (in fact, I think its a very good school). I’m just saying that people tend to over estimate it’s greatness.</p>
<p>“I’m not saying U of M isn’t a good school (in fact, I think its a very good school). I’m just saying that people tend to over estimate it’s greatness.” </p>
<p>The PA of Michigan, according to that same USNWR that you mentioned, is at 4.4. That is close to/comparable to quite a few IL schools. You can build up State as much as you want, but Michigan is much closer in quality and prestige to an IL school than MSU is to a top public like Michigan.</p>
<p>Overrated:
Pitt – Thanks to its medical school and the UPMC hospital system, people think Pitt is a great research institutition. It is Penn State without a School of Agriculture. (Note, I have a master’s degree from Pitt)
Carnegie Mellon – Yeah, CMU students are smart, too bad no one else knows what they are talking about
Penn State – If Penn State is such a great research institution, how come all that you hear about is its ice cream program</p>
<p>Underrated:
Carlow – If you are a non-traditional student who wants to get a degree, Carlow will do all it can to help you get that degree
Washington And Jefferson – You might not have heard of it, but the admissions department at most medical schools have
Juniata – Same as W&J, very well known to graduate science programs</p>