<p>recently the us news ranking released its 2010 edition of rankings, in it university of michigan dropped nationally by one rank, i believe it dropped in others as well... what are your thoughts?
i'm attending as a freshman this fall and seeing this is kind of dissapointing..</p>
<p>as an alum, i was dissapointed and ****ed off as well, none of friends from college can believe we were outranked by USC. i still cannot believe it, and one spot higher than wake forest… omg.</p>
<p>My thoughts are that I really don’t care. I know Michigan is a great school and that I’ll get a great education and have a great experience. I really don’t care how the rankings pan out as long as I get that great experience. And I will. End of story.</p>
<p>It has already been proven that USC jobbed it’s numbers to be ranked in the top ten graduate programs for engineering. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they did the same for UG. IMO USNWR does a **** poor job of verifying the accuracy of statistics, particularly from private schools like USC who are not controlled by the state.</p>
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<p>I totally second that. Bravo TwistedxKiss!</p>
<p>I would not worry too much about the USNWR. Over time, all state universities will drop out of the top 25 and most of the elite public universities will be ranked between #30 and #50.</p>
<p>^^ This is really sad news. When all the elite state universities drop below the top 30, the USNWR college rankings won’t be taken seriously anymore. I am a proud NU alum, but Michigan deserves a top-20 ranking.</p>
<p>The USNWR is not taken seriously once you leave the high school ranks. Cal and Michigan have been ranked out of the top 20 for far too long for the academic community or industry to take those rankings seriously.</p>
<p>Thankfully USNWR produces graduate school rankings by department/field. While their results aren’t perfect, they are much more accurate (this is where Michigan truly shines.)</p>
<p>^^^Not in engineering! USC is rated above Michigan at the graduate level by USNWR, even thought they don’t have one specialty field ranked in the top ten. It has already been proven that USC jobbed their numbers. USNWR is not to be trusted.</p>
<p>This oughta make those people who care about rankings feel better: </p>
<p>[Times</a> Higher Education](<a href=“Times Higher Education home | Times Higher Education (THE)”>World University Rankings | Times Higher Education (THE))</p>
<p>I trust the Global rankings more (done by a British source). They rank U of M at #18, just behind Stanford at #17. USC is ranked #102.</p>
<p>^^^That’s more accurate. ;-)</p>
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Translation: Michigan ranks well, so I like it.</p>
<p>Good grief, it’s the ranking that puts Chicago over Princeton and Carnegie Mellon ahead of Berkeley. You’re going to trust that?</p>
<p>Of course not. I don’t trust USNWR either.</p>
<p>I like how we can all point out what comparisons are wrong in all of these rankings.</p>
<p>These people should just ask members here what they think.</p>
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<p>Mmmm … yea, but the rankings are definitely off there as well, b/c there’s no way UCLA ranks higher than Berkeley.</p>
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<p>HEY! Chicago (82) has so many more Nobel Prize winners than Princeton (32), which is why I personally think Chicago >> Princeton … it’s just other people think the other way around because Princeton is an Ivy and Chicago is not. (Though one could also argue that I’m biased towards Chicago because I love it so much)</p>
<p>IMHO rankings really dont mean anything for any school in american/international society. Atleast for the students. There have been a multitude of well respected and successful individuals who graduate from schools ranging from Harvard, Yale, UMich to ND, GWU, GT, UCLA to Colgate, Vandy on down through Westen/Central Michigan and GVSU. </p>
<p>I think the ranking of schools is one of the dumbest things around. yes it gives one an idea for what the teachers are like, what abilities they have and the facilities of said university but that alone doesn’t mean a student will be successful and that the university is respected in the international community. does it? </p>
<p>At most schools leaning econ 101 is the same across the board. and same for most other topics as well. The Econ 101 at NYU, Stanford, YAle, UMich is relatively the same as the Econ 101 classes taught at GVSU, WMU, University of Detroit… etc etc. </p>
<p>Just because a student goes to and graduates from a top 10, 20, or 50 school doesn’t guarantee anything for them after graduation, Does it?</p>
<p>Getting ****ed bc UM falls in the rankings below UCf or climbs Higher then USC really doesn’t mean anything to your degree or your prospective degree does it? No, if i can go to England, Italy, and around Europe and see that UM flag flying at businesses/residences and having people say it is a great school and respect it says enough about it. It’s still one of the most highly regarded institutions in the US and abroad. When your degree does the talking at your job interview that says enough about UM to prove USNWR, etc, etc wrong with their rankings.</p>
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No, it’s because Princeton outperforms Chicago in nearly every field in which they overlap. I too am a big fan of Chicago, but saying it is weaker than Princeton is hardly an insult. </p>
<p>Chicago’s Nobel laureates (of whom they seem overly fond) have never impressed me that much. The importance of Chicago their research projects is often rather dubious (e.g. they had long been professors at other universities), and some laureates became affiliated with Chicago only after they won the Prize.</p>
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While the material covered may be the same, the difficulty, pace, and manner of teaching most certainly are not.</p>
<p>Nitpicking aside, I agree with your basic premise.</p>
<p>Personally, the rankings are off, but they do reflect some of the negative effects that the economy had on Michigan. However, Michigan’s quality of education is excellent, and our ranking is lowered because we don’t use common app and because we are a public institution. USNWR just don’t like public schools.</p>