<p>According to USNWR, UH is now a tier two school: University</a> of Houston - Best College - Education - US News</p>
<p>What is your opinion on this? Is it even worth applying to?</p>
<p>The USNWR tiers tend to be very, very liberal. The top 191 universities in the United States are “tier one”. They’ve honestly listed every respectable (non-liberal arts) university on the list and then some. Almost everything not on the list practically have no admissions standards.</p>
<p>Most people on College Confidential don’t even consider universities outside the top 100. Almost all our discussion usually pertains to the top 50. Most people are usually shooting for a university at least rank 25+.</p>
<p>The students at Houston are probably thrilled their university jumped 2 tiers, but there’s not really that much of a difference between tier 2 or tier 4 universities. Both tiers indicate obscurity.</p>
<p>roughly speaking…</p>
<p>old, old tiers: 1-50 (1), 51-100 (2), 101-150 (3), 151-x (4)
old tiers: 1-100 (1), 101-150 (3), 151-x (4)
new tiers: 1-150 (1), 151-x (2)</p>
<p>i assume you can see what happened. that said, tier 2 or tier 4, the university of houston is a perfectly good school for the vast majority of college applicants.</p>
<p>I think the new tier 1 includes more schools than 150. I think it includes up to about 198.</p>
<p>There are 7 Tier 1 schools tied for 191</p>
<p>[National</a> Universities Rankings - Best College - Education - US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-universities-rankings/page+8]National”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-universities-rankings/page+8)</p>
<p>Many Tier 3 schools moved to Tier 1 this last Aug under this new system of ranking.</p>
<p>Ranking doesn’t tell you about a school’s strength in your chosen major. There is a school by me that was “old tier 3” that has strong engineering and science depts. </p>
<p>Schools with lower rankings often are strong in several majors, but not strong in lots of majors as a higher ranking school would be.</p>
<p>More proof that unless objective, relevant and accurate indicia are employed, most college rankings are nonsense. For example, what’s the impact of the “improved” rank on U of Houston’s very fine Geology Department? Probably no impact at all, if we’re lucky.</p>
<p>I know nothing about the U of Houston one way or the other, but it’s likely that most of its grads stay in the general Houston area, so really, its reputation there is what counts, not any sort of national reputation.</p>
<p>They have a good music program.And the vocal music program comes with a national reputation. <a href=“http://www.music.uh.edu/people/voice_opera.html[/url]”>http://www.music.uh.edu/people/voice_opera.html</a></p>
<p>OK, I have a good friend from high school in the 1970s. Brilliant guy, rather quirky, always seemed on a slightly different wavelength in conversation. Was quoting Wordsworth while we were quoting John Belushi.</p>
<p>Went to University of Houston, graduated with a Math degree and went into teaching high school kids in an impoverished area. 15 years into teaching, he switched his interest to public interest law, and graduated from Harvard Law School. Now he’s making buckets of money at a prestigious Houston law firm, while at the same time helping to advance social causes important to him.</p>
<p>Going to the University of Houston did not stop him from scoring 170+ on the LSAT or getting into Harvard Law. </p>
<p>The cream ALWAYS rises. Universities don’t make cream, they simply aggregate it. Talented individuals will ALWAYS find someone unexpectedly tapping them on the shoulder offering opporunities.</p>
<p>It depends upon what you want from college. The academic delivery part of the college experience is 15 hours a week. There are another 153 hours a week that are what you make of them. To me, college is a time to develop as a person, to be influenced by talented and motivated peers, to prepare yourself for a lifetime of interests and values that make your life not merely manageable but joyful and fascinating. UH is 29,000 students of all ages, 98% of whom are in-state and 84% of whom commute to classes. That’s not the optimal setting in which to immerse yourself in a heady atmosphere of engagement with ideas and with one another. It’s not likely to create a tight-knit community of peers who go through college as a cohort, keep in touch after graduation, and return frequently to reconnect at alumni reunions. But to accumulate 120 credit hours in order to earn a degree that will allow you to become employed or go on to graduate or professional school? Sure, you could do that effectively at UH.</p>
<p>
And to continue the cooking metaphor, trying to be successful at academically weak schools is often like trying to cook cr</p>
<p>
Definitely…they’ll give the 'ruins and Neweasel a scare this weekend.</p>