The 2019 US News Ranks were published and Alabama was ranked at tied for 129th in National Universities. US News changed some ranking criteria this year. Alabama is tied at 129th with UT Dallas, U of Kansas Lawrence, U of Missouri, Catholic U, and U of Nebraska Lincoln.
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/university-of-alabama-1051
Is that an improvement?
No, Alabama has experienced a steady drop in US News Rank from 2012, see this post. It used to make the top 100 schools on US News.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/2017314-2018-us-news-college-rankings-p1.html
I have finally just given up on any hope that these publications are going to rank us fairly. As long as our students continue to outperform other universities and we continue to bring in top quality kids than I can overlook these meaningless rankings. Pretty soon these top notch students we are bringing in will be taking over their respective companies or creating their own companies and will prove to all the haters out there that UA puts out a quality product.
It almost seems like we somehow pissed off the rankers of USNWR. No other school has dropped this much in the past 7 years as we have and we are considerably a better university since we were ranked as high as we were.
US News changed the formula this year in a way that disadvantages colleges like UA which recruits students with high standardized test scores and offers them merit scholarships. This is why we are ranked with UT Dallas which also offers merit to high achieving students.
Politico has an article which goes into detail about how things have changed, specifically:
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/10/us-news-college-rankings-formula-813559
UA hasn’t changed. It still offers a great education and opportunities to the talented students who attend. My son graduated in August and had no trouble finding a fantastic job. I don’t bother looking at the rankings.
That’s weird, I’d have thought all the high scoring kids attracted by the honors scholarships would have helped more. Did it go down because it’s got a poor social mobility score?
I certainly am no expert in this area but I know my daughters school in suburban Chicago had three kids from graduates in May going to Alabama. I have also heard that many kids in Illinois are going there. I hear Alabama was giving great incentives to go there. I don’t know if that has any effect.
For reference, Alabama was ranked at 110 in the 2018 edition of USNWR.
I would be very proud if I had a degree from Alabama, Nebraska or UT-Dallas. (I don’t know enough about the other three universities listed by OP in the opening post in this thread.)
Some universities will never be highly ranked simply because they take their mission to educate those who deserve a chance. Probably Arizona State & University of Arizona exemplify this best. No standardized tests involved. Guaranteed admission if you meet minimum requirements. Isn’t this to be admired ? Isn’t this the true purpose & calling of a state supported university ?
Agree with @Publisher. There are quite a few excellent flagships that admit a wide range of students, and yes, some of the less qualified kids may not make it. However, that doesn’t diminish the opportunities.
Bama is a strong contender for my D19. She goes to a very strong public in PA that sends many kids to Ivy/Top universities so she knows well what “smart looks like.” I see more and more good students in this area heading South for a great education combined with a traditional college experience. And so far, they seem to do fine in the job market upon graduation!
@MYOS1634 - it went down because the ranking is giving less weight to actual stats like admitted GPA, ranking, and test scores. IMO, that makes the USNWR even less useful
I would take the USNEWS rankings with a huge grain of salt. For example, if you look at the engineering rankings, Alabama is ranked #87. UNC-Chapel Hill is ranked higher. But, UNC-Chapel Hill does not have a true undergraduate engineering program. It does, however, offer a limited graduate engineering program (that it is quite good at), but how can that make it a stronger program than one that is broader? I have never figured that out from the metrics.
If you look at the national rankings over the past several years, two private schools have shot up the rankings, Northeastern and my alma mater, SMU. That is because both schools have effectively gamed the system. There have been numerous articles about how Northeastern and SMU have effectively rigged their university to inflate their USNEWS scores and rankings. They do this because they know that being at the top generates insane interest by students.
At the end, collegiate education is a business. Some universities are using the rankings to generate interest. Others, like Alabama are charting another course. Alabama has recognized that there is a large segment of the population that has high performing children but do not qualify for financial aid, the so called “donut hole”. In my mind, this is where the generous merit aid at Alabama and schools like it come into play. It is merely a different tactic towards generating interest in the school.
In the long run, Alabama’s is probably the better option. Why? If you are bringing top talent to your state, and you can keep it there, then you are making your state better. That should be a goal of any flagship university. People forget that the city with the highest per capita PhDs in the US is Huntsville, AL. Alabama has a growing industrial base, which is impressive when you think about it, from the Austal shipyards in Mobile to the various automotive plants across the state to the United Launch and other such facilities around Huntsville. It needs more talent.
Unfortunately, lots of people pay attention to these publications and it does affect future college choices or even how employers view certain Universities. Whether right or wrong, it is the world that we live in. BMW or Honda? Rolex or Citizen? Alabama or Wisconsin? It will always be a perceived form of prestige.
Alabama, Missouri, and other fine flagships have done an amazing job in attracting top level students by offering a amazing merit scholarships. Now that US News might not be using admissions numbers such as GPA, test scores, etc, I wonder how this will affect future merit scholarships at these schools. Even though, it is doing what it was intended which is to attract excellent talent, it has not helped in any of these rankings. Part of the reason is that these schools are not very selective when it comes to admissions. It is not a secret that the admissions standards are not the same for Alabama, Mizzou, ASU, Nebraska, and many of the other mentioned above when compared to say Michigan, Florida, and other state schools. The student bodies will be different and so will the retention and graduation rates which US News is now measuring in its rankings.
By the end of the day, fit and affordability should be high on the list which none of this publications rank, A good education can be attained at any of these schools. For many, the only ranking that counts is the AP and Coaches Poll and Alabama is number one.
I think the formula that US News is using for 2019 rankings is much better than in year’s past. It is interesting to see how some schools moved up and some schools moved down. Alabama is not very selective when it comes to admissions. Many of these kids might not survive the rigor of the school and either end up dropping out and or not graduating at all. The rankings are now accounting for this. So even though admissions and test scores are not being used to calculate their rankings, end results are.
In a way the US News Ranking is trying to force some social engineering. They reward schools for giving a lot of need based aid, give extra credit for making sure they graduate, and even more bonus points for having Pell Grant recipients on campus. The rich have no problem - they can pay. The schools will have incentive to get more full pay students so that they can offer more need based aid. What happens to the kids in the middle who are too rich for aid, but not rich enough to afford the full tuition? It seems there is a big push to push kids who are above median income out of the running completely.
I think Alabama Alumni who to donate to the school should pushfor the school to continue to attract top talent, regardless of income by offering merit scholarships. My husband and I were so impressed with Alabama that we joined the Alumni Association and started contributing even before our son started there.
Bama was ranked around #89 or so a few years ago. Once that happened, USNews fiddled more with their scoring methods. I truly think that USNews couldn’t handle having an Alabama school climb the rankings.
USNews ranking is a total joke. Think about it. People want rankings to give insight into the qualify of education in the classroom, yet that aspect has little impact on rankings.
Hmmm, when we rank a restaurant, the quality/taste of the food that is served is very important. So why are college rankings not heavily considering quality of education in the classroom?
I don’t think that that is a fair comment as the US News rankings are very useful. If the rankings did not exist, I bet that folks would be clamoring for them for a variety of legitimate reasons including the fact that a college degree is the second largest investment that most will ever make in their lifetime.
The Pell grant related measures that USNWR added were probably disadvantageous for University of Alabama, since it has only 18% Pell grant students (despite being in a relatively low income state), and Pell grant students have a significantly worse graduation rate than non Pell grant students (56% versus 69% after six years, a difference of 13%, which is a larger difference than most public flagship universities).
I wouldn’t worry about employers. My son just graduated from UA and was interviewed by companies from Orlando, Ft. Worth, Houston, Omaha, Irvine, Dallas, Raleigh, and Charlotte. He was hired by an executive located in New York. Not once did anyone care about college rankings. The most important things were 1. Education and skills relevant to the position, 2. Internship experience 3. Willingness to relocate.
The measures that US News chooses to construct its rankings may useful or completely irrelevant to you. If you are a family looking for financial aid and a college which accepts large numbers of Pell grant students the new rankings are worth your attention. If not then the fact that an individual college has gone up or down this year won’t make any difference.
As far as rankings go - I think parents/students who are in the midst of college search do want look at rankings to get an idea of where colleges stand. Rankings have their place, but I seriously doubt that people (outside this forum) really look very closely at them. Maybe someone will see the headline with "Harvard or whatever #1,’ but i don’t think too many pay much attention after that.
The general public recognizes HYPS names, flagships and whatever is close.
College football/basketball ranking are another story