Top 50 Public Universities

College Search & Selection
1

Last one, I promise grin

Rank, Score, Standardized test scores of admitted freshman converted to percentile rank, retention rate, graduation rate, USNWR National Universities ranking

Score = (2 * Test Scores Percentile + Retention Rate + Graduation Rate) / 4

Correlation between Rank and USNWR rank = .792

1 94.9 University of Virginia-Main Campus 94.4% 98% 93% 2
2 93.9 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 93.8% 97% 91% 4
3 93.9 University of California-Berkeley 94.2% 96% 91% 1
4 93.5 College of William and Mary 94.0% 96% 90% 6
5 92.5 University of California-Los Angeles 90.9% 96% 92% 2
6 92.1 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 91.2% 97% 89% 5
7 90.2 Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus 93.5% 95% 79% 7
8 89.8 University of Maryland-College Park 91.6% 94% 82% 20
9 89.5 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 90.0% 94% 84% 11
10 89.5 University of Florida 88.4% 96% 85% 14
11 89.3 University of California-San Diego 88.6% 94% 86% 8
12 88.2 Ohio State University-Main Campus 89.4% 92% 82% 18
13 88.1 University of Wisconsin-Madison 87.7% 95% 82% 13
14 87.5 University of California-Santa Barbara 86.0% 92% 86% 10
15 87.3 SUNY at Binghamton 89.5% 91% 79% 38
16 86.9 University of Georgia 86.3% 94% 81% 20
17 86.5 The University of Texas at Austin 87.1% 93% 79% 17
18 86.4 University of California-Davis 84.3% 93% 84% 9
19 86.3 University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus 86.6% 93% 79% 20
20 86.3 University of Connecticut 85.1% 93% 82% 19
21 85.3 Clemson University 84.2% 91% 82% 20
22 85.3 University of Washington-Seattle Campus 83.6% 93% 81% 14
23 85.2 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University 82.9% 92% 83% 27
24 85.1 Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus 81.2% 92% 86% 14
25 84.9 Miami University-Oxford 85.2% 89% 80% 30
26 84.9 University of Minnesota-Twin Cities 87.7% 91% 73% 27
27 83.9 Colorado School of Mines 89.8% 89% 67% 38
28 83.7 University of California-Irvine 77.5% 94% 86% 11
29 83.6 Rutgers University-New Brunswick 82.2% 91% 79% 26
30 82.8 Florida State University 82.6% 91% 75% 43
31 82.8 Stony Brook University 85.5% 90% 70% 38
32 82.2 University of Delaware 78.3% 92% 80% 30
33 81.9 Texas A & M University-College Station 77.9% 92% 80% 25
34 81.9 North Carolina State University at Raleigh 82.3% 92% 71% 43
35 81.2 Missouri University of Science and Technology 87.3% 85% 65% 70
36 81.1 The University of Texas at Dallas 87.8% 85% 64% 76
37 80.9 Indiana University-Bloomington 80.4% 88% 75% 30
38 80.8 University of Massachusetts Amherst 82.6% 88% 70% 30
39 80.7 Purdue University-Main Campus 81.5% 90% 70% 20
40 80.7 Auburn University 82.4% 90% 68% 45
41 80.7 University of Vermont 80.9% 85% 76% 35
42 80.5 Michigan State University 76.0% 91% 79% 35
43 80.5 University of South Carolina-Columbia 81.4% 87% 72% 55
44 79.9 University of Iowa 81.8% 86% 70% 27
45 78.1 The University of Tennessee 80.8% 85% 66% 50
46 77.9 University of Colorado Boulder 80.3% 83% 68% 38
47 77.7 University at Buffalo 76.9% 87% 70% 48
48 77.5 University of Missouri-Columbia 77.5% 84% 71% 45
49 77.2 University of Maryland-Baltimore County 81.4% 85% 61% 78
50 77.0 University of Oklahoma Norman Campus 78.9% 84% 66% 50

2

Here are the schools that didn’t make the cut, but were in the USNWR top 50:

53 76.5 SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry 76.6% 86% 67% 30
58 74.2 University of California-Santa Cruz 65.9% 91% 74% 35
51 76.8 The University of Alabama 77.6% 85% 67% 38
54 75.6 University of New Hampshire-Main Campus 69.2% 86% 78% 45
57 74.8 University of Nebraska-Lincoln 75.1% 84% 65% 45
52 76.7 Iowa State University 74.9% 86% 71% 50

3

I think I see a reason why the UC schools rank consistently higher in USNWR than I have them. (I had asked about this on another thread.)

Adjusted for test scores, their graduation rates are relatively high, and my best guess is that they are getting a lot of credit for “doing more with less” compared to other schools.

4

Someone said in the other thread that it’s because they place more emphasis on the GPA than test scores. That might be why the test scores seem lower relative to the other universities.

5

Here are the schools that I rank substantially higher than USNWR:

15 87.3 SUNY at Binghamton 89.5% 91% 79% 38
35 81.2 Missouri University of Science and Technology 87.3% 85% 65% 70
36 81.1 The University of Texas at Dallas 87.8% 85% 64% 76
49 77.2 University of Maryland-Baltimore County 81.4% 85% 61% 78