New rankings

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Michigan
1

Well, it is that time of the year again! Not much has changed. Michigan moved up a little, from #29 last year to #27 this year.

Here is a breakdown of some of the main sub-rankings:

Overall ranking: #27
The only metric that changed noticeably was the % of classes with fewer than 20, which increased from 48% last year to 57% this year.

Peer Assessment Score: 4.4/5.0 (tied with Brown, Duke and Penn, slightly lower than Chicago, Columbia, Cornell and JHU but slightly better than Dartmouth, Northwestern, UCLA and UVa).

Undergraduate Business School: #4 (#1 in Management and Marketing, and #4 in Finance)

Undergraduate Engineering: #6 (ranked among the top 10 in 9 of the 10 disciplines, and among the top 5 in half the disciplines)

Undergraduate teaching: #7 (tied with Dartmouth and Notre Dame)

Most innovative schools: #9

2

Is this the highest its ever been? I recall USNews having us at 29 and maybe 28 forever

3

Not really ForeverAlone. Michigan was ranked among the top 10 back in the 1980s, and between #20 and #25 throughout the 1990s. For the last 10 years or so, Michigan has been ranked between #26 and #29. Given the USNWR methodology, I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

4

Miniscule shifts, if any, but that is the way it is supposed to be. Universities don’t change dramatically from year to year contrary to what these annual rankings might say.

I think any ranking that takes into account the opinions of high school counselors is a joke. For example, the USNews High School Counselor rankings rank USC, UCLA, Michigan and Pepperdine all tied at 28. One of those schools looks obviously out of place. My high school counselor probably went to community college and then went to the nearby commuter university. His opinion is meaningless.

5

Ross down a little. CoE up a little. Overall does not change much.

6

I agree tranandy. The high school counselor rating is meaningless. So are several other metrics used by the USNWR when taken out of context, or in the absence of consistent/accurate data.

As it stands, whether by accident or by design, the USNWR methodology does not accurately rank public universities. That much is clear.

7

UVA seemed to take a big hit for their b-school ranking. I still don’t get why they are rated above Michigan. Michigan should easily be top 25. USNWR should just stick to rating private schools. After all, they are the ones who manipulate data to improve their rankings.

8

There’s no way UChicago is #3. They’re a good university, but they belong somewhere between #5 and #10. They’re not ahead of MIT.

We should be ahead of USC, UCLA, Tufts, and UVA.

9

billcsho, Ross was also ranked #4 last year, but it was ranked #2 or #3 a couple of times as well. There is no difference between Haas, Ross and Sloan. Wharton, to me anyway, is the clear #1, then #2-4 are interchangeable.

rjk, the USNWR methodology is definitely designed with private universities in mind. It does not do anything to adjust for the differences between public and private universities, and it also does not do much in terms of adjusting for data inconsistencies. Also, some of the criteria in its methodology are completely pointless.

As a rule of thumb, any ranking that does not have Cal in the top 10, Michigan in the top 20 and UVa and UCLA in the top 25 accurate. As such, UVa and UCLA seem to be fairly ranked, but Cal and Michigan are slightly undervalued.

Public universities are not the only outliers. As ForeverAlone points out, Chicago does not belong at #3. It is an exceptional university, but like Cal, it belongs between #6 and #10, along with Caltech and Columbia.

Personally, I think that a good ranking would have universities ranked something like this:

1-5

Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Princeton University
Stanford University
Yale University

6-9

California Institute of Technology
Columbia University
University of California-Berkeley
University of Chicago

10-17

Brown University
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Duke University
Johns Hopkins University
Northwestern University
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
University of Pennsylvania

18-26

Carnegie Mellon University
Emory University
Georgetown University
Rice University
University of California-Los Angeles
University of Notre Dame
University of Virginia
Vanderbilt University
Washington University-St Louis

27-36

Boston College
College of William and Mary
Georgia Institute of Technology
New York University
Tufts University
University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
University of Southern California
University of Texas-Austin
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Wake Forest University

Such a ranking would be purely based on the overall academic strength and reputation of the university. It does not factor in specific academic programs, career placement etc…As far as I am concerned, all 36 universities listed above are elite.

10

I agree with placing Duke outside of the top ten Alexandre. There are just too many departments there that are not top ten. Furthermore, the love affair that USNWR has with certain universities (I’m looking at you USC) have given some of these schools ridiculously high prestige that is not warranted.

11

@Alexandre From an employer perspective, I think your rankings are right on. USNWR has some schools ranking above Michigan that don’t have the National Brand, educational opportunities or Alumni network to compete with Michigan. In my opinion, if you look a educational excellence/opportunities, Alumni network and campus environment, I don’t know that anyone can compete with Michigan.

12

rjk, I do not think there is a significant difference between the #6-9 group and the #10-17 group. In many ways, they are interchangeable. I certainly did not intentionally lock Duke out of the top 9. Technically, it can make a case for being #10, as the group it belongs to contains #10! :wink: Then again, each university in that group can technically be considered among the top 10!

13

MichiganDad, corporate recruitment activity will vary from industry to industry. A school as large and diverse as Michigan will likely be heavily recruited by virtually all companies in all industries, ranging from West Coast tech firms to Southern Preto-chemical firms, and from Midwestern manufacturing companies to East Coast financial institutions.

14

Michigan is constantly underrated, it really bothers me…
I was just talking to a classmate the other day who said U-M was #7 on his college list and was one of the only schools he got into (others he was rejected from were MIT, Harvard, etc.). He was obviously upset at first, then when he got here he said, “Wow, the program is actually…good.” I, who applied as a junior transfer and was more familiar with departmental rankings than anything, was thinking, “No ****… Top 10 math dept in the country, what do you expect…”
Can Michigan get better academic/non-football PR? Lol.

15

eyo777, Michigan, like all public universities, cannot toot its own horn too much, or too loudly, or pursue its alumni for donations too aggressively. It is a university that grows on one increasingly upon closer inspection. But where it really matters, in academe and industry, there is no disputing the university’s status as one of the country’s elite institutions of higher learning.

16

@Alexandre I just feel like people forget that too much, but always somehow seem to remember Berkeley, UCLA, UVa, UNC, and even UT Austin…
We’ve gone over this before, and I agree with you. But it’s like knowing something is really high quality and -constantly- hearing people recommend something else (which is sometimes of lower quality!). Not only is it frustrating and gives me feelings of, “Wow, people are so misinformed… I really gotta show them this nice thing that they don’t seem to know about/understand,” but also makes me momentarily doubt my decisions, which is the crappiest part because I know objectively Michigan IS great, it’s just that sometimes I feel alone in this (even among my own classmates :frowning: ).

17

eyo777, Cal and UCLA have a major advantage; the California location and mystic. It cannot be underestimated. Most high school kids dream of living in California. Not many dream if living in the Rust Belt! :wink:

I suspect that your experience with UNC and UVa are a function of your own milieu growing up. If I recall, you come from ACC/SEC country. Naturally, in your old stomping grounds, UNC and UVa, along with Duke, rule!

Honestly, I have seldom heard anybody say that UT-Austin is better than Michigan.

At any rate, among high schoolers, Michigan will not receive the respect it deserves. That is due to two factors"

  1. The US News rankings. While they matter little in the grand scheme of things, to high school students, the US News ranking is gospel! A university ranked in the 20-30 range simply isn't going to impress high school students.
  2. Admissions statistics. A 27% acceptance rate does not impress students these days. Any university with an acceptance rate over 15% is . At least the standardized test range has reached the 1300-1500/30-34 mark, but as long as Michigan admits over 20%, most high school students will not find it appealing.

Also, it is ingrained in American culture to distrust all things public, and Michigan is a public university.

Ironically, the attitude of students at the University of Michigan isn’t much unlike that of other students; they love their experience at Michigan, but to most of them, Michigan isn’t all that great. Many in-state students take Michigan for grated, and many OOS students did not have Michigan as their top choice. It isn’t until graduation that Michigan students start appreciating how exceptional Michigan really is.

But, like I always say, where it matters, in the eyes of graduate school admissions, the intellectual elite and corporate America, Michigan gets the respect it deserves.

18

@eyo777 i dont know what you’re talking about. Michigan has a phenomenal rep and is widely viewed as a great school by anyone I talk to

19

It is just one of the ranks. There are also rankings that put UMich at the top spots (at least for public universities in the US). I don’t think there is a perfect ranking system. So just don’t stick to one source.

20

guitar, I think eyo777 is referring to Michigan’s underrated reputation among high school students. As you point out, Michigan’s reputation in academe and industry is indeed “phenomenal”, not just on a regional or national level, but internationally as well.

billcsho, while I agree that Michigan does very well in many rankings, the main ranking used by high school students is the USNWR. Considering its biased methodology and non-existent adherence to data integrity and consistency, the US News ranking is misleading and does students seeking serious guidance and great disfavor.