<p>Overrated: Penn State [why is this ranked among the best in the country?], Boston U [50+% admission rate], UNC Chapel Hill and Notre Dame</p>
<p>Underrated: Brandeis [one of the best in the greater Boston area], Tufts [ditto], Northeastern [no longer a BU safety school], Northwestern, Washington U of St. Louis [the best school no one's heard of], Cornell</p>
<p>who hasnt heard of washu?</p>
<p>Maybe it's just a regional thing, but it's a [relative] unknown in Mass. and CT especially in regard to it being on the same level of say Northwestern and schools of that caliber.</p>
<p>Underrated: All of the fantastic universities in Great Britain, Ireland, and those in Canada. (St. Andrews University, University of Edinburgh, Queen's University, etc.)</p>
<p>Overrated: UCLA, USC, many of the ivies.</p>
<p>Quite a number of you ranked WUSTL as overrated. Care to elaborate? We followed their med school ranking (third in the US) and assume their undergrad science and biomedical engineering programs are good. Is that a misconception?</p>
<p>It is certainly not a bad school, but has a reputation for manipulating the ratings, i.e. USNWR's, by selective use of merit scholarships (not offered by the Ivies, for example) and other actions that seem to be more targeted for ratings than quality of education. </p>
<p>Also, I would not necessarily correlate med school quality with undergraduate sciences or biomed engineering (although I am curious as to where WUSTL's medical school is ranked third.) For example, the National Research Council's ranking of graduate biomedical engineering programs evaluates and ranks thirty eight programs and Wash U does not make the list which is headed by MIT, an institution that does not even have a medical school. In your home state, four colleges are ranked: UCSD is number two in the nation, UC Berkeley is eighth, Stanford is 12th, and UC Davis is 23rd. </p>
<p>In many of the sciences, Wash U is ranked, but it is overall around 20th. </p>
<p>Again, these are graduate school rankings but are likely a far better correlative to the quality of the same departments for undergraduates than is a separate professional school.</p>
<p>I haven't seen a 3rd ranking.. but USNWR has it tied for 4th <a href="http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/med/brief/mdrrank_brief.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/med/brief/mdrrank_brief.php</a></p>
<p>WashU medical school for many years was ranked No.3, occassionally No. 2. It is ranked No.4 only in the most recent USNews Ranking. (Overall, people think Harvard, JHU, WashU, UCSF are the top four).</p>
<p>Redcrimblue, you are right about the overall rankings. However, the NRC ranking on BME was done in 1995. WashU's BME program started in 1997. </p>
<p>A new, most recent ranking on Faculty research productivity shows that WashU is doing really well, at No. 7 overall. Granted, it still does not enjoy the reputation that other more established elites do.</p>
<p>New NRC rankings are due out this year and it will be interesting to see what changes have occurred. Still, there should not be significant shifts from a decade ago. Where was the faculty research productivity ranking you reference? Thanks.</p>
<p>See the link:
<a href="http://chronicle.com/free/v53/i19/19a00801.htm%5B/url%5D">http://chronicle.com/free/v53/i19/19a00801.htm</a></p>
<p>Interesting, but U of Georgia number 2 and Penn State number 3 gives one pause about this, as the article says, unidimensional measure. The NRC ratings, based on 1995 data that will be updated this year:</p>
<ol>
<li>Yale U. </li>
<li>U. of California at Berkeley </li>
<li>Harvard U. </li>
<li>U. of Virginia </li>
<li>Duke U. </li>
<li>Stanford U. </li>
<li>Cornell U. </li>
<li>U. of Pennsylvania<br></li>
<li>Columbia U. </li>
<li>U. of Chicago </li>
</ol>
<p>and the current 2005 USNWR ratings:</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard U. </li>
<li>U. of California at Berkeley </li>
<li>Yale U. </li>
<li>Princeton U. </li>
<li>Stanford U. </li>
<li>Cornell U. </li>
<li>U. of Chicago </li>
<li>Columbia U. </li>
<li>Johns Hopkins U. </li>
<li>U. of California at Los Angeles </li>
</ol>
<p>seem just a little more in touch, and cover more than just how many papers, irrespective of quality of journal or article itself, are published by faculty and a numeric tally of awards. </p>
<p>Still, anything that Wash U can do, it will. Take a look, however, at these ratings and the quite randomized company it's keeping:</p>
<ol>
<li>Princeton U. </li>
<li>U. of Georgia </li>
<li>Pennsylvania State U.<br></li>
<li>Washington U. in St. Louis </li>
<li>Johns Hopkins U. </li>
<li>Stanford U. </li>
<li>U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign </li>
<li>U. of California at Berkeley </li>
<li>U. of Florida<br></li>
<li>City U. of New York Graduate Center </li>
<li>U. of Chicago </li>
</ol>
<p>It may be an additional rating tool, but it does not measure quality. Instead, the FPI measures only quantity.</p>
<p>To the person who first asked this question, nothing about WashU is at all overrated. What the people in this thread intend to say is that it is overRANKED (referring to USNews), which is completely different, but you'll notice that rankings are worshipped throughout this site and people have a hard time differentiating. WashU is definitely UNDERrated because it is awesome and most people haven't heard of it. I personally don't think they are overranked, but they are not underranked either. It is true that they do some tricky administrative work to make the numbers look good on paper, but it is still a very nice school.</p>
<p>UNC - CH is very underrated among the critics in my opinion</p>
<p>Most overrated: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Most underrated: Shiz University :cool:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Most overrated: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
[/quote]
</p>
<p>YOU TAKE THAT BACK!</p>
<p>Never!</p>
<p>O hallowed halls and vine-draped walls
The proudliest sight there is
When grey and sere our hair hath turned
We shall still revere the lessons learned
In our days at dear old Shiz
Our days at dear old Shizzzzz.</p>
<p>Thanks all, for an enlightening discussion on Wash U.</p>
<p>Overrated: Your mom.</p>
<p>Underrated: Your grandma.</p>
<p>Overrated: Brown
Underrated: Grinnell or Carleton</p>
<p>
[quote]
At the high end of academics (e.g., the percentage of BA/BS graduates who later earn a PhD), Yale is up there with Princeton, both in the top ten for five academic disciplines; the other six ivys don't appear in the top ten lists.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I fail to see how having students that want to go on to get PhDs is proof in any way of a good undergraduate education. I'm smart as balls and I'm simply not interested in a PhD.</p>