Most Overrated + Underrated Universities/Colleges?

College Search & Selection
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@ASJackson923 I wouldn’t recommend Camden over Seton Hall. Camden is literally one of the worst cities in the country, and that (rightfully so) turns good students off from applying.

@hzhao2004 why are their attitudes “irrational”? If they don’t want to attend Rutgers, then it’s mostly likely because A) it costs too much for an in-state school, which lends credence to it being a poor value; B) it’s too big for a lot of students (myself included); C) too many high school classmates are attending (also a turn-off for me). Hardly irrational reasons whatsoever.

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@katliamom, there’s co-op at a lot of places, though.

UCincy is another school where everyone does co-op and it’s cheaper even for OOS and NMS (unless you got some other big scholarship to NEU). In fact, I’d put UCincy on the “underrated” list. It has a stellar and renown design school.

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@PurpleTitan yes!! I too consider UCincy underrated. Very good school that is on the up from what I’ve heard.

And if I’m going to lambast BU and NEU for gaming the rankings, then I should include USC as well. The University of Southern California is indeed very overrated.

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USC is known for a strong alumni network, but yes, they game multiple rankings a lot:
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/06/08/usc

The comments are worth a read as well. Evidently, there’s a New England LAC (that sure sounds like Middlebury) that falsifies its data and shot up the rankings as a result.

That’s why I believe ranking/tiering by alumni achievements is the only way you should rank/tier: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1893105-ivy-equivalents-ranking-based-on-alumni-outcomes-take-2-1.html

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@LBad96 @twogirls @mommdc : Regarding UNC-CH’s acceptance rate for OOS students, here is the language from the UNC Admissions Policy statement: “[N]onresidents may be admitted in the entering freshman class in numbers likely to result in no more than eighteen percent nonresident enrollment in the entering freshman class.” Read it here on Page 2, “Undergraduate Admissions”: http://www.admissions.unc.edu/files/2013/09/Admissions__Policy.pdf

The language seems to contemplate estimates of what is “likely to result” in a maximum of 18% OOS student enrollment in a freshman class. So it may not exactly hit 18% when all the dust settles.

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When my older son and I visited colleges five years ago, I likened our reactions to NYU/Tisch (he was an aspiring actor at the time) and Rutgers (both Mason Gross and CAS) as follows: NYU was The Hot Chick, whom everyone wanted to date simply because she was The Hot Chick. Rutgers was the girl his mother encouraged him to ask out, simply because she knew the family, and she was available; he resisted, but after finally assenting decided she really was okay and liked her more than he expected, whereas The Hot Chick was a disappointment. He was rejected from Mason Gross, accepted to Rutgers A & S, and didn’t even apply to Tisch.
He’s at Temple now.

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@PurpleTitan, True – but NEU’s is the biggest and oldest. But the school isn’t just resting on its co-op laurels. It also has academic ambitions, and it’s been remarkably successful in that area. Since 2006, it’s hired MORE THAN 400 (!) tenured or tenure-track faculty, built research facilities, added PhD programs, and defined/expanded strategic research fields it intends to be a national force in. Name me one university in the nation that grew as much as NEU in the past 15 years – years that included the great recession. What I admire about is that it’s a school focused on academics, not sports, for its renown. The school in fact got rid of its football program. It does give very nice merit aid to academically accomplished kids. My own daughter’s NEU tuition was less than what it would have cost her to our state U.

USC was once an overrated school for underachieving students. The same president who’s now at the helm of NEU, made it an academic powerhouse, and is using the same blueprint for NEU. There is no doubt NEU isn’t anywhere near USC’s stature, but it’s on its way, and dismissing it as overrated might be judging it by its past, not current, position.

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@LBad96, Turning down Rutgers and going to Penn State while paying even a higher tuition. I consider that as irrational.

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@katliamom, actually, UCincy invented co-op in 1906: http://www.uc.edu/propractice/uccoop.html

I personally put NEU and UCincy on the same level with the only difference being that UCincy’s design school is legitimately elite.

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NYU is just hipster nation tbh. There’s also no legitimate campus atmosphere to think of, everyone hates sports and Greek life, just seems like a place where fun goes to die. Incredibly overrated, purely due to the city that they’re in. Then again, virtually anything that’s decent in the tri-state/New England area is grossly overrated/overhyped. They’re delusional if they think they’re worth $75k in loans - same goes for BU, USC, UMiami. At least to Northeastern’s credit they give good merit scholarships.

@hzhao2004 I can see where they’re coming from tbh. They’re tired of living in one of the most expensive states in the country and they don’t feel they would be getting their money’s worth by staying in New Jersey for college. I can personally say, at the risk of sounding arrogant, that I was HIGHLY resistant to my dad’s suggestions to apply to Rutgers New Brunswick, felt it was beneath me to be brutally honest (really felt staying in NJ for college in general was beneath me, although I didn’t want Penn State or UDel either). And attending a flagship with weak sports teams and too many of my high school classmates that I detested was not on the cards for me. Penn State at least has good sports even if it is too expensive.

@gandalf78 very interesting. It rarely does actually turn out to be 18% at any UNC system school.

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@LBad96 there are students out there who do not enjoy sports and/or Greek life.

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@twogirls there’s a difference between not enjoying and hating.

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@LBad96 there are students out there who have zero interest in sports and/or Greek life. Everybody has different interests.

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@PurpleTitan I am wondering why (in post #55) you believe UCLA undergrads isn’t on par with other publics, especially, Michigan and UV?

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It’s nigh on impossible for any one of us to be able to comment, with a straight face and any certainty, on the quality of more than a few schools. Why?

Because we can’t, and haven’t, attended them all. For all but the schools we personally attended, the info is second-hand and, as such, is open to modification by our own biases.

So this “overrated” and “underrated” - pardon me, krapp - is a breeding ground for natural bias, sour grapes, etc.

There are several reputable ranking agencies who take very seriously their task of ranking schools according to their own metrics. They tend to make it a point that they try very hard to avoid bias.

Certainly those well-known rankings are not exhaustive. Given all the variables, and weights we could place on them, the variety of rankings is nearly infinite. We can all have our own ranking criteria and as long as we apply it fairly, we can present our own quantified ranking system. That’s for undergrad, grad/pro schools, PhD, whatever.

I think in judging the quality of an undergraduate program, the following should be taken into account:

  • accreditation
  • % of lecturers with a terminal degree in the field
  • % of lecturers with awards
  • % of lecturers with publishing credits
  • student satisfaction surveys regarding classes and instructors
  • average class size
  • number of majors available
  • study abroad, internship, and research opportunities
  • ease of entry into, and exit from, majors
  • 4- and 6-year grad rates.

(though it should be noted that some schools are harder to finish than others… Reed, Swat, Chicago and Hopkins come to mind in the “difficulty” category. And I could see it as an advantage for grading/classes/curricula to be harder: it makes the student work harder and, thus, prepares him or her more for the real world. I rather think that a more difficult education is a better one. So those rates could be applied either way, or disregarded.)

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@uclaparent: I’m going off of alumni achievements: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1893105-ivy-equivalents-ranking-based-on-alumni-outcomes-take-2-1.html

Compared to UMich and UVa undergrads, UCLA undergrads don’t enter elite professional schools, PhD programs, win prestigious student awards, or are as high up the business/government/arts leader boards as much on a per capita basis (as UMich and UVa). It’s a top research uni, though. Top 15 in the world by research output.

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I clearly need educating-must have gone to an over-rated school, as I did not know that West Virginia was in the “Deep South”(post #26) and that NYU was a state flagship(post#53).

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I am reading this thread just to make sure nobody trashes my school. Pleasantly surprised that it was scarcely mentioned.

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@crankyoldman FWIW, WVU isn’t overrated…

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@PurpleTitan I always thought with admission rate of 16-18% UCLA attracts some of the most competitive students to its undergrad programs, but I guess I was wrong! UM and UVa in high 30 to 40 are the winners!