<p>Thanks for your help! (If there is a public university ranking tool out there, I'd love to know about it as well.) </p>
<p>If you can only rank a few, that is fine too. </p>
<p>University of Michigan
University of Connecticut
Penn State University
Indiana University
University of Maryland
University of Massachusetts
University of Pittsburgh
University of Delaware
College of William and Mary</p>
<p>1) University of Michigan
2) College of William and Mary
3) University of Maryland
4) Penn State University
5) University of Delaware
6) University of Connecticut
7) University of Pittsburgh
8) University of Massachusetts - Amherst
9) Indiana University - Bloomingtonn</p>
<p>By what criteria? This is meaningless without knowing what you are trying to achieve. Each of those schools has an area where they shine above the others. If you want plain meaningless rankings go to U.S. News rankings.</p>
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<p>I am looking for people’s opinions, which is worth something to me. Perhaps it isn’t worth anything to you, which is fine. If you feel the exercise is meaningless, then don’t participate in it. Or, if you have something to say regarding some specific area where a particular school outshines others as you indicated, please feel free to comment.</p>
<p>One area where Indiana University particularly shines is its music program. I live in Maryland, and arguably our state university is far superior to Indiana in most respects. But local students who plan to major in music and pursue a career in that field often audition at Indiana and prefer it over the University of Maryland.</p>
<p>Well, I don’t know enough about all of them to rank them , but IU and UMich both have top music schools. I guess the rank would depend on your criteria.</p>
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<p>Right here:</p>
<p>[Best</a> Colleges - Education - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-top-public]Best”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-top-public)</p>
<p>You can’t even rank IU over MD in music. Both have fine music schools and you have to discuss which instrument or voice and which teacher you are talking about. If you are looking for feedback from parents (this is the parent forum), being specific about what you are looking for you will get you more meaningful information. Otherwise go to the link coureur provided. It is the comprehensive list.</p>
<p>I just gave music as an example – and I don’t know the specialties of the students I was referring to.</p>
<p>There are many other examples of situations where other factors may be more important than the official rankings:</p>
<p>If you’re looking for a small campus, the only school on that list that qualifies is William and Mary.</p>
<p>If you want an urban environment, only Pitt truly qualifies (although Maryland is within easy reach of a major city). </p>
<p>If big-time sports are important to you, you probably wouldn’t consider Delaware or William and Mary.</p>
<p>I’m sure you can find other examples. My point, with my earlier post about music, was that rankings aren’t everything. I’m afraid that I chose a poor example, though.</p>
<p>Not a huge fan of the USNR lists. I think when it comes to big State Us (with the exception of just the very tippy tops), I think the specifics of rankings probably come down to what your student wants to study and how good a “fit” the culture of the school is.</p>
<p>As a GA resident, I can tell you that UGA, while much improved in the last decade or so, isn’t really that much better than say Indiana or South Carolina. I can say this because I know students, from the same high schools, at all three schools and there doesn’t seem to be an appreciable difference in how hard they are working.</p>
<p>UGA has gotten much harder to get into though, so it has climbed the rankings chart. The HOPE has encouraged far more students to apply and enroll.</p>
<p>My personal opinion? </p>
<p>William and Mary
Michigan
UConn
Maryland
Pitt
Penn State
Indiana
Massachusetts
Delaware</p>
<p>USNWR actually does include a sublist of public universities, as well as including them in its national university rankings. I think in terms of graduation rates and class size these rankings are pretty useful in dealing with this type of school. not entirely meaningless but to be taken with a grain of salt, like all generalized rankings.</p>
<p>I would have to say that Michigan and W and M stand out in terms of image and reputation, but that because W and M is smaller than most state universities it is something of an outlier on this or any public list anyway.</p>
<p>Not that you asked, but just a comment (combining information on different threads), but UMichigan and William and Mary will be quite reachy for a lower GPA profile. The good test scores may offset this some, but these are pretty selective universities. If these two are on the final college list, the rest of the list would have to be solid matches and some safeties.</p>
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<p>But people’s opinions are going to depend on what the criteria are, on what factors you want ranked. Do you want my opinion as to a ranking of these schools based on what I perceive their size or prestige to be? On how their computer science departments are? Music schools? Foreign language? Internship placement? Sports teams? Cheerleading prowess? Opportunities for merit aid? Beauty of campus? Best Diwali celebration?</p>
<p>My opinion and ranking will vary depending on what the criteria are.</p>
<p>An alphabetical list would be just as useful as the idea that somehow you’re doing a meaningful listing. If you want rankings, there are dozens of sources. If the idea is to talk about specific program differences at schools, fine. If you’re actually interesting in a few anecdotal rankings by random individuals, then please take any basic statistics class and call back.</p>
<p>I hate rankings, particularly for undergrad. I’ve taken them apart statistically - to the extent one can given the paucity of information they give you - and they are statistically not valid.* I’ve spoken to people who fill out the forms and they tell you it’s a joke. We’ve seen numerous “scandals” where schools lie or twist facts or even change their classes around to make the rankings look better. </p>
<p>But still, people want to believe them, despite the better data that if you go to a public school pick one where income is high because areas with higher income correlate to higher incomes. Get that? If you go to school in a higher income area, you’ll end up with a higher income. Most people use their degrees in the general area of the school. (But it doesn’t matter anyway because incomes mostly vary by field and by location, not by what name of school is on the degree you have.)</p>
<p>And people love rankings - “We’re Number 24! We’re better than Number 25!” - despite evidence that it’s the actual person’s ability, motivation, etc. rather than the name on the degree that matters in their lives. Funny, isn’t it, that we spend so much time telling kids the importance of being you and then get hung up on the idea that the name on a degree is all that freaking matters?</p>
<p>*By that, I mean a number of things. While it’s clear the rankings are arbitrary measures of things that may or may not have any importance, that’s not my point. I mean things like if you ran multiple simulations you’d end up with different results, different placings, so the rankings are more like general clumpings that are then inaccurately placed in a near arbitrary order. They don’t seem to do much of anything with their data and they then apply silly weightings. Minor adjustments wreak havoc on the scales, so I think they design their systems to reflect what they expect should be the rankings.</p>
<p>Thank you for those who have given me their opinions as how these schools rank. For those who still don’t see the meaning of my question, I reiterate that people’s opinions are meaningful <em>to me</em> which is why I asked the question. There is no need to waste your time posting about whether someone should or should not value the answers to my question. I value them and have specific reasons for asking.</p>
<p>I think people were saying that it was hard to offer an opinion without knowing what you meant such as if you meant to rank them by reputation, or selectivity, personal preference, or something else as their answer would differ accordingly. It was understood that you wanted their opinions but it was hard to form such an opinion without knowing what you were looking for. But just in terms of some “outside ranking” there is the US News Ranking that coureur linked for you. For a personal opinion ranking, it helps to know what one is going by.</p>
<p>“By what criteria?”
Big university, with a good sports program that will admit business majors who have a 3.0 to 3.3 GPA.</p>
<p>“By what criteria?”
Big university, with a good sports program that will admit business majors who have a 3.0 to 3.3 GPA. "</p>
<p>In-state or out-of-state? Huge difference.</p>
<p>“In-state or out-of-state? Huge difference.”
Other than cost, why?</p>