<p>I dont get how Bing fell that much in the ranks. It says something about the ranking credibiility. How could something so drastic happen in one year.</p>
<p>it isn't just about what binghamton did or didnt do ... other schools are improving, getting in more alumni donations, increasing the strength of the student body, and remaining competitive in the peer assessment analysis. Bing. hasn't been keeping up with the competition in these regards.</p>
<p>Nobody gets into Illinois, Florida or Maryland with a 2.5/1700. Unless they can shoot a basketball or play football. All those schools have over 60% in the top 10% of the class. Get informed before making dumb comments.</p>
<p>Well actually, at least with Illinois, he' right. I've seen it. But I still stick by my list. Admission statistics have nothing to do with academic quality. Purdue is pushing it though; I would personally never consider it a Public Ivy.</p>
<p>I'm still sticking with</p>
<p>Berkeley
Michigan
UCLA
UNC
Virginia
William and Mary </p>
<p>Florida
Georgia Tech
Illinois
Maryland
Miami(OH)
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
Texas
UC–Irvine
UCSD
UConn
Washington
Wisconsin</p>
<p>Illinois is the only school I would even consider removing.</p>
<p>This is pretty straightforward - the schools with the highest peer assessment scores. The PA score for the most part correlates with the overall academic strength (not just undergraduate) of the university, with a few minor exceptions (e.g., UVA is "overranked" in relation to its graduate program/faculty strength, while Wisconsin, Texas, and Illinois are underranked considering the academic breadth and depth of their graduate departments. Washington is probably underranked in the same way.</p>
<p>The following schools have PA scores 4 and over:</p>
<p>University of California—Berkeley 4.7
University of Michigan—Ann Arbor 4.5
University of Virginia 4.3
Univ. of California—Los Angeles 4.3
Univ. of Wisconsin—Madison 4.2
U. of North Carolina—Chapel Hill 4.2
University of Texas—Austin 4.1
Georgia Institute of Technology 4
U. of Illinois—Urbana - Champaign 4</p>
<p>And these are right at the threshold:</p>
<p>University of Washington 3.9
Indiana University—Bloomington 3.8
College of William and Mary(VA) 3.8
Univ. of Minnesota—Twin Cities 3.8</p>
<p>I also think Florida and Texas A&M's PA scores are a little too low, again based on grad program strength.</p>
<p>Public Ivy's:
UC Berkeley
Michigan
UCLA
Virginia
UNC
UCSD
Wisconsin-Madison
William and Mary</p>
<p>Honorable Mentions:
Georgia Tech
UIUC
Texas-Austin
Washington</p>
<p>I agree with the way JWT86 does the determination of a "public Ivy".</p>
<p>For the life of me, I have never understood why USNW considers alumni donation rates (and notice it's rates they use, not total donations) a sign of academic proficiency--especially at a public university where more than 90% of funding comes out of tuition and the state's general funds.</p>
<p>If one considers this, then the comment on Wikipedia about how there is no Ivy lower than 15 and no public Ivy higher than 21 goes right out the window. Almost without exception, the Ivies get donation rates in the 70% plus versus a public school's donation rates never rising above 35%. Take that away and use a peer assessment ratio--and UC Berkeley moves to #6 (overall) from it's #21 (overall) spot--and moves ahead of more than half of the "real" Ivies.</p>
<p>Accordingly, my list parallel's JWT86's.</p>
<p>P.S. I did not go to UC Berkeley--so that's not the reason for my argument</p>
<p>Calcruzer, although I agree that many of the USNWR criteria (Alumni donation rate included) are useless or biased against state universities, I don't think the Alumni Donation Rate weighs enough to really make that much of a difference. It would obviously help Cal if it were removed from the equation, but not enough to make it a top 10 USNWR institution. It would probably take it from #21 to #18 or #19. </p>
<p>Furthermore, I don't think any Ivy League has a 70% donation rate. I am pretty sure most elite private universities have donation rates that hover between 30% and 50%. Elite LACs have donation rates that are slightly higher, probably in the 40%-60% range. </p>
<p>The Alumni donation rate is almost entirely dependent on the size of the alumni network. The larger the alumni network, the harder it is to reach them and ask for support and the lower the ratio. That is why LACs do better than private universities and private universities do better than state universities. Most state schools are too large to effectively contact their alumni. In short, Alumni donation rates have very little to do with quality.</p>
<p>UCB, UCLA, UCD, UCSD, UCSB, UCI, UCSC, UCSF, UCR, and UCM</p>
<p>Just kidding :P.</p>
<p>California
Michigan
Washington
Illinois
UCLA
Texas
Virginia
Georgia Tech</p>