Part III: Comparisons of the Top 10 Public Universities (USNWR 20-41)

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I recently did some digging around on the collegeboard.com website and came up with some interesting comparisons on the Top 10 Public Universities. Some posters have asked me to compile these as a better universe of schools against which to measure public universities. I hope that this is informative and useful for students looking to compare the nation's top public universities.</p>

<p>SCHOOL UNDERGRAD ENROLLMENT
19,574 Average</p>

<p>5734 W&M
12,361 Georgia Tech
14,676 U Virginia
17,124 U North Carolina
21,369 UCSD
23,863 UC Berkeley
25,432 UCLA
25,555 U Michigan
30,055 U Wisconsin
31,472 U Illinois</p>

<p>% OF IN-STATE STUDENTS
Average: 77%</p>

<p>62% U Wisconsin
66% Georgia Tech
67% U Virginia
67% U Michigan
67% W&M
82% U North Carolina
93% UC Berkeley
93% UCLA
93% U Illinois
97% UCSD</p>

<p>% OF WOMEN
Average: 52.8%</p>

<p>60% U North Carolina
59% U Virginia
59% UCLA
56% UCSD
54% UC Berkeley
54% U Wisconsin
52% U Michigan
52% W&M
49% U Illinois
31% Georgia Tech</p>

<p>ACCEPTANCE RATE
Average: 41%</p>

<p>24% UC Berkeley
26% UCLA
32% W&M
34% U North Carolina
37% U Virginia
46% UCSD
47% U Michigan
58% U Wisconsin
65% U Illinois
69% Georgia Tech</p>

<p>SAT 25/75 AVERAGE FOR CRITICAL READING
Average: 637</p>

<p>680 W&M
655 U Virginia
645 UC Berkeley
640 U North Carolina
635 U Michigan
635 Georgia Tech
630 UCLA
615 U Wisconsin
605 U Illinois
600 UCSD</p>

<p>SAT 25/75 AVERAGE FOR MATH
Average: 668</p>

<p>680 UC Berkeley
680 U Michigan
680 Georgia Tech
680 U Illinois
670 U Virginia
670 W&M
665 UCLA
660 U Wisconsin
655 U North Carolina
650 UCSD</p>

<p>SAT 25/75 AVERAGE FOR CR & M COMBINED
Average: 1305 </p>

<p>1350 W&M
1325 UC Berkeley
1325 U Virginia
1315 U Michigan (ACT 27-31)
1315 Georgia Tech
1295 UCLA
1295 U North Carolina
1285 U Illinois (25-30)
1275 U Wisconsin (ACT 26-30)
1250 UCSD</p>

<p>% OF STUDENTS IN TOP 10% OF HIGH SCHOOL CLASS
Average: 82%</p>

<p>99% UC Berkeley
99% UCSD
97% UCLA
90% U Michigan
88% U Virginia
79% W&M
76% U North Carolina
58% U Wisconsin
55% U Illinois
54% Georgia Tech</p>

<p>FRESHMAN RETENTION
Average: 95% </p>

<p>97% U Virginia
97% UCLA
96% U Michigan
95% W&M
94% UC Berkeley
93% U Wisconsin
93% U Illinois
92% Georgia Tech
na U North Carolina (96% in prior year)
na UCSD (94% in prior year)</p>

2

<p>W&M public in name only. More comparable to Davidson/Georgetown/Chicago than other public U's. The other schools do have wonderful graduate programs. </p>

<p>Can there be a better deal in academia than W&M undergrad and UVa Law/medicine/Business?</p>

3

<p>Any cost comparisons (in-state/out-of-state?)
Any financial aid and/or merit info?
Diversity (aside from geographic)?</p>

<h1>of Rhodes and other Scholars?</h1>

<p>Breadth/strengths of academic departments; faculty?
Location aspects?
% Greek?</p>

<p>Might be interesting to see more differences/similarities here.</p>

4

<p>Endowment comparsions?
Faculty/Student ratio?
Study abroad options?</p>

5

<p>Jack,
Here are some of the numbers you requested. I am not 100% comfortable with the endowment numbers (particularly for the UC system) so I am not including them. Also, the data for financial aid was erratic and the value added of the yes-no data for Study Abroad is low as everybody theoretically offers this. </p>

<p>More Comparisons Among Public Universities </p>

<p>IN-STATE TUITION
Average: $7407</p>

<p>$4926 Georgia Tech
$5034 U North Carolina
$6522 UCLA
$6654 UC Berkeley
$6726 U Wisconsin
$8500 U Virginia
$6888 UCSD
$9210 W&M
$9723 U Michigan
$9882 U Illinois</p>

<p>OUT-OF-STATE TUITION
Average: $24,394</p>

<p>$19,682 U North Carolina
$20,272 Georgia Tech
$20,726 U Wisconsin
$23,968 U Illinois
$25,206 UCLA
$25,338 UC Berkeley
$25,372 UCSD
$26,725 W&M
$27,515 U Virginia
$29,131 U Michigan</p>

<p>% of students that are considered white/non-Hispanic
Average: 55% </p>

<p>79% U Wisconsin
70% U North Carolina
68% Georgia Tech
66% U Michigan
64% U Virginia
64% U Illinois
63% W&M
33% UCLA
29% UC Berkeley
28% UCSD</p>

<p>February High/Low Temperatures
70-50 UCLA
66-52 UCSD
59-46 UC Berkeley
57-37 Georgia Tech
53-30 W&M
53-29 U North Carolina
49-29 U Virginia
38-21 U Illinois
34-19 U Michigan
33-10 U Wisconsin</p>

<p>Faculty/Student Ratios
Average: 14.4</p>

<p>11/1 W&M
13/1 U Wisconsin
14/1 U North Carolina
14/1 Georgia Tech
14/1 U Illinois
15/1 UC Berkeley
15/1 U Virginia
15/1 U Michigan
18/1 UCLA
19/1 UCSD</p>

<p>Greek Life-% of Men/% of Women
Average:16.5%/17.5%</p>

<p>30%/30% U Virginia
22%/27% W&M
22%/27% Georgia Tech
22%/23% U Illinois
16%/15% U Michigan
13%/13% UCLA
11%/12% U North Carolina
10%/10% UC Berkeley
10%/10% UCSD
9%/8% U Wisconsin</p>

6

<p>In considering tuition, one has to recall that Illinois offers the 4-year guarantee. That's why it is most expensive--but by senior year I'd bet its relative ranking on cost would be much different.</p>

7

<p>National Academy of Science Members</p>

<p>UCB 209
UCSD 101
UMich 77
UWis 71
UCLA 66
Illininois 52
UNC 36
Gtech 30
UVa 25
WM 0</p>

<p>Major Faculty Awards (Guggenheims etc)</p>

<p>Umich 47
UCB 45
Uwis 43
UCSD 38
UCLA 37
UNC 30
UIll 27
Uva 21
WM 6</p>

<p>Total Research Funding</p>

<p>UCLA $772 Million
UMich $769 M
UWis $764 M
UCSD $709 M
UCB $526 M
U Ill $506 M
UNC $417 M
Ga Tech $411 M
UVa $228 M
WM--$44M</p>

8

<p>Shouldn't the peer reputations also be considered in this ranking? You're leaving off UT-Austin, a university with a peer reputation in the top 25 of all universities by just using the overall USNWR measure. UT also has a very impressive number of National Academy Members (especially considering there is no medical school) and other faculty award winners. Not to mention computing, library, museum, fine arts and athletic resources that few universities public or private can match. For example, Illinois and Berkeley may have larger overall libraries, but no resource anywhere near the caliber of UT's Ransom and Benson libraries in terms of significance.</p>

9

<p>He was just gathering stats from the USNWR top 10 public ranking. This isn't a ranking, just a comparison of the top 10 publics. UTexas is just outside the top 10, so it is N/A for this discussion, although I agree it should be in the USN top 10 public ranking.</p>

10

<p>There you go. We can only do so much here. But I like the libraries ranking.</p>

<p>Illinois 10.4 Million volumes
UCB 10 Million
Umich 8.1 Million
UCLA 8 Million
UWis 7.9 Million
UNC 5.7 Million
UVa 5 Million
UCSD 3.1 Million
Ga Tech 2.4 Million
WM--1 million or so--not listed</p>

11

<p>JWT,
Sorry that I didn't include U Texas in the data above. I really like UT and several of the schools that just missed the cut. But I just had to draw the line somewhere and ten seemed about right (to me) as far as how much data woulld actually be looked at by readers. I've done two other threads similar to this and likewise kept the numbers small in those as well. If I can get the materials together, I'll try to do another review for the rest of those Top 50 USNWR Public Universities. There are seven additional schools:
U Washington
UC Irvine
UC Davis
UC Santa Barbara
U Florida
Penn State
U Texas</p>

<p>As far as university volumes, I personally don't see a lot of value in this given that a lot is now on the internet and ultimately almost all of it will be added in the future. As a university asset, IMO this category will have less and less value over time.</p>

12

<p>hawkette,</p>

<p>I do agree total volumes will have less and less importance in the future... that's why I was bringing up the Ransom and Benson as examples, since they're full of very significant primary source materials. No matter how much is on the Internet, there still is an inherent cultural as well as research value in an author's hand-corrected original manuscript, or a first edition association copy, for example.</p>

13

<p>Most older books will never be on the net. Downloading an entire book is expensive and time consuming and then you just have a stack of papers you can't very well cozy up with in a comfy chair to read. Hardly anyone reads long articles let alone books on the net. That's why Ibooks is a flop. Google is putting older books into archives and guess where they are getting them--Mich, Wisconsin and other major libraries. It will cost a fee to access these and you still have just a copy. I like the real thing. So do most readers.</p>

14

<p>Agreed with barrons, I'd rather not read 500+ pages on a computer screen.</p>

15

<p>lol, respekt</p>