<p>How does a regional university like Santa Clara university compare to a national university like Purdue?</p>
<p>In what way? One is public and one is private. One is large the other is medium/small.</p>
<p>Which has better academics? I’m trying to compare the rankings!</p>
<p>I assume you refer to the US News rankings. First, realize that US News is NOT the ultimate authority on this stuff. Also, the division between national and regional universities is based on the USNews system only. I’m pretty sure no one else uses it. Second, try clicking on some links. Where US News tells you that Santa Clara is a regional university, that’s a link. When you follow it, you’ll read this:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What that means is that you really cannot compare the rankings between regional universities and national universities. It’s hard to even make a reasonable comparison between schools in two different regions.</p>
<p>Bottom line. Do many different kinds of research on the schools that interest you.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s true. NOBODY is. Colleges are complex institutions. Assessing them is a hard problem.</p>
<p>US News does use a fairly clear, well-documented methodology. It is based largely on measurements that come from the Common Data Set files. The CDS establishes fairly uniform standards for how the numbers are calculated and organized. </p>
<p>Regional universities are “regional” with respect to the populations they tend to serve. Most of their students come from relatively nearby, even though they typically (but not always) are private institutions. Many of the top-ranking regional universities are Roman Catholic. As stated above, they offer few doctoral programs. Generally, a relatively high percentage of students major in business, communications, or other pre-professional degree programs. They tend not to generate as much research activity in the arts and sciences as the “national” universities do. They tend to be much less selective than schools with the same rank in the national universities or national LAC lists. The regional universities are about as expensive as similarly ranked national universities and LACs, but the regional schools tend not to offer as much need-based aid. For example Villanova (#1 regional/North) claims to cover about 80% of demonstrated need, on average. Most of the top 20 or so national universities and LACs claim to cover 100%. Many of the top 30-40 private, national universities and LACs claim to cover at least 90%. </p>
<p>I would say the national versus regional designation has almost nothing to do with who has better academics. Keep in mind rankings tend to evaluate who gets in, not necessarily who provides a “better” education.</p>
<p>Regional may just refer to the college’s area of influence. Keep in mind that’s pretty fluid. When I went to Georgia Tech, it was mainly known in the southeast, not so much elsewhere. What that really meant was there was an incredible alumni network that made finding and getting jobs in the southeast pretty easy but I didn’t have any problems getting a job in the northeast.</p>