<p>Top-10 ranking seems meaningless because these schools are different in their offering of studies. State schools that offer programs in say agriculture or education (easier entrance standards) are at a major disadvantage when compared on an “overall” basis to schools that focus programs only on high entrance standards such as Engineering and Business. Why not simply rank the schools on the basis of their cost?</p>
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It’s rather interesting that those line up perfectly with the list of 10 universities I said were the “obvious” list way back in post #23. :D</li>
</ol>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1062271136-post23.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1062271136-post23.html</a></p>
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<p>Well, that Cornell receives state funds is not the “only thing you can say” about its relationship to the state of New York. Here’s what Cornell itself says:</p>
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<p>If that’s not revelatory of a “public” side to Cornell not shared by other private universities, I don’t know what is. The Morrill Land Grant Act is the least of it. Cornell’s contract colleges are creatures of the state legislature, and continue to be dependent on the legislature for a substantial fraction of their budgets. Although privately administered, they’re as much “public” as any State U with an independent (quasi-private) charter.</p>
<p>What distinguishes the Cornell “contact colleges” (or “statutory colleges”) from MIT is that while both were funded in part out of the Morrill Land Grant Act in the 1860s, no part of MIT was “created by” an act of the Massachusetts legislature, and no part of MIT is currently supported by annual legislative appropriations because of a calculation that its “mission . . . is directly linked to the economic and social well-being of [the state].”
Cornell is unique among the nation’s higher education institutions in that regard: part private, part public. </p>
<p>That’s not a criticism. Celebrate it, don’t deny it! I suspect, in fact, we’ll see more heretofore “public” institutions moving toward a similar public/private hybrid model in the years to come as their budgets are orphaned by cash-strapped state legislatures. Michigan and Virginia, to name two, are already far down that road. Others will be forced to follow.</p>
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<p>Here is an example where USNWR is a complete joke. It’s one think to rank Harvard’s engineering program low because it’s not that prominent or a central focus of the school. However, it is laughable to rank Purdue (median SAT: 1145, 30% in top 10% of hs class, 72% acceptance rate) above places with developed, highly regarded UG engineering like JHU (median SAT: 1400, 84% in top 10% of hs class, 25% acceptance rate), Northwestern (median SAT: 1445, 85% in top 10% of hs class, 26% acceptance rate) or even the first UG engineering school in the country, RPI (median SAT: 1335, 65% in top 10% of hs class, 44% acceptance rate). I know people like to be PC and say SATs aren’t that important but differences like 200-300 points on the SAT and 2-3x as many students in the top 10% of their hs class should not be ignored. </p>
<p>I wonder if this is going to be another case where barrons will come on and say that the (much) smarter kids are going to the worse school because USNWR says so.</p>
<p>I think that US News is a joke, Harvard shouldn’t even be in the top 30 for engineering but I think Purdue is definitely a top 15 engineering school, look at the quality of the graduates and the jobs they get after college</p>
<p>anyways why are we talking about engineering, didn’t the OP ask about the top 10 STATE schools not ENGINEERING schools</p>
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<p>How are the quality of the graduates at Purdue better than at JHU, Northwestern, RPI when they are so much worse when they enter? Is there some kind of magical transformation that goes on there that I’m not aware of? The stats of the student body at Purdue aren’t even in the same ballpark as those other schools.</p>
<p>gellino, the drop out rate of engineering students at Purdue is more than 30%. Though Purdue is very easy to gain admissions to, students undergo very rigorous “weed-out” classes their first year which gets rid of incompetent students in engineering</p>
<p>bclintonk–what are we arguing? The op asked “What are the top ten state schools?” Someone listed Cornell. Cornell is NOT a state school. It is 100% private. You keep saying this yourself–" Although privately administered," and “… but ultimately subject also to Cornell’s private operational control.” Cornell receives state funds. But many private schools also receive gov’t funding in some form.</p>
<p>The point is, in NY, the state schools are called SUNY’s. None of the colleges at Cornell are SUNY’s. There is no discussion on this point. Cornell is not a SUNY and not a state school.</p>
<p>In my opinion, our “argument” is a question of semantics.</p>
<p>I do not consider it a criticism to call Cornell a state school. (I work for a SUNY. ) It is just not a fact.</p>
<p>Anyways, I think it’s pretty clear what the top three are, in whatever order you like:</p>
<p>Berkeley
UVA
Michigan</p>
<p>And the next three:</p>
<p>UNC
UCLA
Wisconsin</p>
<p>And the next two are just as good, but specialized and much different than most state schools:</p>
<p>William and Mary
Georgia Tech</p>
<p>I believe Purdue has produced more astronauts than any school.</p>
<p>I believe that is true.</p>
<p>I don’t get how some people’s lists have Wisconsin ranking above UNC and UCLA. Personally, I also think that (from what I’ve read from multiple sources) UNC and UVa are very much alike, so why are people constantly ranking UVa so many notches above UNC?</p>
<p>RonPaul, could it be because you are Conservative? Politics aside, UVa and UNC are VERY similar.</p>
<p>UVa:</p>
<p>Admission Rate: 37%
Public
Undergrads: 15,208
88% had a GPA of 3.75 or higher
8% had between a 3.5 and a 3.74
2% had between a 3.25 and a 3.49
(the other 2% are below)</p>
<p>SAT-Middle 50%
Critical Reading: 600-710
Math: 620-730
Writing: 610-720</p>
<p>ACT: 27-32
And about $10,000 more than UNC (in-state)</p>
<p>UNC:
Admission Rate: 34%
Public
17,895 undergraduates
95% had a GPA of 3.75 or higher
2% had between a 3.5 and a 3.74
(the other 3% were below)</p>
<p>SAT (middle 50%)
CR: 590-690
Math: 620-700
Writing: 590-690</p>
<p>ACT: 26-31</p>
<p>As you can see, these schools are extremely similar, and I don’t think there is a clear-cut winner by stats. I think it depends on your major, beliefs, and desires. I’ve heard that Chapel Hill is a “true” college town, while Charlottesville lacks slightly in that area. But I have heard that UVa is gorgeous. Overall, I think these schools could tie. :)</p>
<p>UNC is a lot more liberal… The area, in my humble opinion, is better… I don’t think UVA has the athleticism that UNC has, either.</p>
<p>Right on! (10 char)</p>
<p>Back in my day (I applied to college when most of your were hatched!), UNC was definitely very selective for non-residents. I got into Brown, Cal, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Michigan, Northwestern and Penn and got flat out rejected by UNC! And then, as if that weren’t bad enough, UNC had to go and beat my team in the championship game of the NCAA tournament during my first year at college! hehe! </p>
<p>UNC is definitely an awesome school. It does trail UVa ever so slightly in terms of reputation and it is not quite as well-off financially, but given the choice, I would pick UNC over UVa myself.</p>
<p>Here is my list…</p>
<p>My criteria for it is- Income after graduation per student, quality of departments, recognition(prestige), notable alumni, and quality of students/professors.</p>
<ol>
<li>William and Marry</li>
<li>Berkeley </li>
<li>UVA</li>
<li>UNC</li>
<li>Michigan</li>
<li>Washington</li>
<li>I Urbana-Champ.</li>
<li>Rutgers University-New Brunswick</li>
<li>Penn State</li>
<li>Florida</li>
</ol>
<p>William and Mary gains all the respect here, but that is purely based on how amazingly intimate the school is. Michigan at 5 is tough for me to put down because I really like Michigan as a top public school, but I don’t think it makes my number 1. Rutgers gets into the top 10 because it meets my criteria for income, notable alum, and quality of department. If it hurts you guys to hear something different I am sorry. And I am bias, but not much. The next few years Rutgers will be really sky rocketing in prestige because of this recession. They are now only accepting top to top notch students do to an abundance of applications. And if you know high school education, New Jersey leads the way in graduation rate, etc.</p>
<p>According to Businessweek, UVA has the #1 undergrad B-school and UNC has number 13 [The</a> Top Undergraduate Business Programs](<a href=“http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/undergrad_bschool_2009/]The”>http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/undergrad_bschool_2009/)</p>
<p>StevenSeagal, UVa is NOT #1 in Business. BusinessWeek’s BBA ranking is very suspect. UVa is on par with Haas, Ross and Sloan, making it a top 5, but not #1. That special spot belongs to Wharton. And Kenan flagler is most likely a top 10 BBA program, on par with the likes of Marshall, McDonough, Stern and Tepper.</p>
<p>California Berkeley
California LA
Virginia
Michigan
North Carolina</p>
<p>My top five state schools.</p>
<p>Berkeley is number one, all by itself. The next four; Michigan, UCLA, UVA and UNC.</p>