US News rankings are out...

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Michigan
1

As usual…and as expected, Michigan was ranked #28 overall. The University has been ranked between #27 and #29 for the last decade or so. I do not see that changing in the foreseeable future. Below are some of the sub-rankings that I found interesting:

Peer Assessment Rating: Michigan Peer Assessment score remained steady at 4.4 (tied with Brown, Duke and Northwestern, slightly better than Dartmouth, UCLA but slightly lower than Penn).

Undergraduate Teaching: #6

Classes with fewer than 20 students: 60%

Classes with more than 50 students: 17%

Innovation: #8

Undergraduate Business Program: Ross was ranked #3 (below #1 Wharton and #2 Sloan, and tied with #3 Haas)

  • Management #1
  • Marketing #2
  • Finance #4
  • Accounting #5

Undergraduate Engineering Program: The CoE was ranked #6 (tied with UIUC and slightly better than CMU and Cornell)

  • Aerospace #2
  • Environmental #2
  • Industrial #2
  • Materials #4
  • Mechanical #4
  • Electrical #5
  • Civil #6
  • Computer #6
  • Biomedical #9
  • Chemical #11
2

“Best Undergraduate Teaching National Universities
Many colleges have a strong commitment to teaching undergraduates instead of conducting graduate-level research.”

Seriously? I never read the introduction to this metric. Michigan is not committed to “conducting graduate-level research?” Michigan is superlative at both! Just another example of how grossly underrated Michigan is at USNWR.

3

Michigan is excellent at everything. Go Blue!

4

It seems that Michigan has risen in most of USWR’s sub rankings. That obviously doesn’t translate to overall rankings. Wake Foest ahead of Michigan again this year?

5

“Seriously? I never read the introduction to this metric. Michigan is not committed to “conducting graduate-level research?” Michigan is superlative at both! Just another example of how grossly underrated Michigan is at USNWR.”

I think the US News means that the faculty cares about instruction. Many people do not realize this, but Michigan’s faculty is extremely conscious of its tutelary responsibilities, particularly in the traditional disciplines such as Chemistry, Economics, History, Mathematics, Physics etc…

“It seems that Michigan has risen in most of USWR’s sub rankings. That obviously doesn’t translate to overall rankings. Wake Foest ahead of Michigan again this year?”

Michigan did poorly, relatively speaking, in all of the other criteria, such as alumni donation, selectivity, faculty resources and financial resources. Michigan did not make the top 30 in any of those, and considering the way the US News calculates them, I am not surprised. That being said, I would not be so concerned. Michigan is still raising more money from its alumni than most universities, its endowment is one of the 10 largest, its faculty is large enough and committed to instruction etc…

6

@Alexandre
How do you find the selectivity, alumi donation, faculty resources, and financial resources rankings

7

VANDEMORY, you have to look at each university individually. For example:

Emory:
Peer Assessment 4.0
High School Counselor Score 4.4
Alumni donation rank #33
Financial resources rank #18
Selectivity rank #23
Faculty resources ran #19
Graduation and retention rate rank #30

Vanderbilt:
Peer Assessment 4.2
High School Counselor Score 4.7
Alumni giving rank #22
Financial resources rank #12
Selectivity rank #11
Faculty resources rank was #13
Graduation and retention rate rank #14

8

An interesting new statistic that the US News has though up is the Alumni Starting Salary. Here’s how the top 30 universities did:

California Institute of Technology $78,400
Massachusetts Institute of Technology $76,900
Stanford University $70,300
Carnegie Mellon University $69,700
Princeton University $66,700
University of Pennsylvania $65,000
Rice University $63,300
Cornell University $63,100
Harvard University $63,100
Duke University $62,700
Columbia University $62,200
University of California-Berkeley $61,800
Dartmouth College $61,700
Johns Hopkins University $61,600
University of Notre Dame $60,400
Yale University $60,200
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor $58,400
Vanderbilt University $58,000
Georgetown University $57,800
Brown University $57,500
Washington University St Louis $57,300
University of Virginia $57,000
Tufts University $56,700
University of Southern California $56,700
Northwestern University $56,400
University of California-Los Angeles $55,000
Emory University $54,600
New York University $54,400
University of Chicago $54,400
Wake Forest University $52,800
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill $47,600

The top 6 or 7 universities on this list have a disproportionate percentage of graduates in the STEM fields or business.

9

Why stop at 30?

How about the top 100 to get an accurate picture.

10

Uh… How do they get starting salary data? And how accurate are these data?

11

Good question.

12

From the Michigan Record:

The University of Michigan maintained its ranking as the No. 4 public university in U.S. News & World Report’s annual list of the nation’s best undergraduate colleges and universities.

The magazine released its 2018 rankings online Tuesday.

  • MORE INFORMATION

Full rankings list
U-M ranked No. 28 among the nation’s best national universities, down one spot from last year.

University officials noted that what matters most in choosing a school is the match between the particular interests, abilities and ambitions of each student and the specific programs, approaches and opportunities offered by a particular school.

U.S. News also annually ranks undergraduate business and engineering programs.

The Stephen M. Ross School of Business undergraduate program moved to No. 3 nationally, up one spot from last year. It is among the top five schools in six specialties: accounting (fifth), finance (fourth), management (first), marketing (second) and production/operations (fourth).

The College of Engineering undergraduate program moved to No. 6, up one spot from last year. In specialty rankings, engineering is among the top five: aerospace engineering (tied at second), electrical (fifth), environmental/environmental health (tied at second), industrial/manufacturing (second), materials (fourth) and mechanical (fourth).

A peer-assessment survey that recognizes universities for its strong commitment to undergraduate teaching ranked U-M No. 6 nationally, up one spot from last year.

U.S. News also released rankings on the top schools that help veterans and active service members pursue an affordable college education. U-M’s Ann Arbor campus ranked No. 9, up eight spots from last year.

Earlier this year, U.S. News released its graduate rankings.

Among the programs ranked each year in America’s Best Graduate Schools — business, education, engineering, law, medicine and nursing — U-M maintained top-15 rankings in all six categories.

Michigan moves up all over the place in other metrics, especially in comparison with peers, but goes down in ranking. Ridiculous!

13

I just don’t understand how UCLA is improving its ranking every year while Michigan stagnates?

14

“Michigan did poorly, relatively speaking, in all of the other criteria, such as alumni donation, selectivity, faculty resources and financial resources. Michigan did not make the top 30 in any of those, and considering the way the US News calculates them, I am not surprised.”

…and UCLA did so much better than Michigan in these areas?

15

Just guessing here, but UCLA’s in-state selectivity could be higher (it is really hard to get into UCLA from CA with their huge pool of instate high schoolers).

16

Selectivity supposedly only accounts for 1.5% in the rankings.

17

12.5% I think. And when you look at those, it is hard to think of any category in which UM would be automatically be way better than UCLA. UCB and UCLA get to choose from a really, really deep pool of instate high school seniors, and also benefit from their location in key metro areas. If student happiness were a category, the story is sometimes they might not do so well, but my take is when you look at the USNWR categories, it isn’t surprising where they are.

18

UCLA vs Michigan in the US News ranking certainly leaves me scratching my head. Selectivity is not the primary culprit. Michigan’s selectivity rank is only slightly lower than UCLA’s.

The two main criteria where UCLA truly exceeds Michigan are Faculty resources and financial resources.

The Faculty Resources Rank is made up of five components:
Percentage of faculty who are full time: UCLA 88.2%, Michigan 93%
Full-time faculty with PhD or terminal degree: UCLA 98%, Michigan 91%
Classes with fewer than 20 students: UCLA 57%, Michigan 60%
Classes with more than 50 students: UCLA 17%, Michigan 17%
Student to faculty ratio: UCLA 17:1, Michigan 15:1

Michigan beats UCLA in 3 of those components, and does just as well in a fourth, and yet, UCLA is rated significantly higher than Michigan in this criterion! We are talking #22 vs #50. I am not sure how that works. I guess the that full time faculty with PhD or terminal degrees is far and away the most important component to this criterion, and that 91% is far inferior to 98%, regardless of the academic credentials required by the various academic departments at the university.

While the Financial Resources rank is not broken down, UCLA’s ranking in this criterion is #19, while Michigan’s is #42. I am not sure how that happened since Michigan is significantly wealthier and generates much more money from tuition than UCLA. I suspect it has to do with the inconsistent way in which universities report spending, and the lack of oversight from the folks at the US News.

19

“12.5% I think. And when you look at those, it is hard to think of any category in which UM would be automatically be way better than UCLA.”

True enough. Michigan has a slight but insignificant edge when it comes to test scores (1310-1500 SAT range with a 1400 average to UCLA’s 1150-1440 with a 1300 average, and 29-33 ACT range with a 31 average to UCLA’s 25-33 with a 29 average. One could say that Michigan’s edge over UCLA in terms of test scores is comparable to Harvard’s or MIT’s edge over Michigan, which is noticeable, but not significant. But as you say, Michigan does not receive as many applications, and therefore admits a larger percentage of applicants. Also, almost 100% of UCLA students graduated among the top 10% of their class, while at Michigan, that figure is closer to 75%. However, considering the fact that UCLA’s students do not do better than Michigan students on standardized tests, I would call their class rank into question.

But the selectivity ranking edge that UCLA has over Michigan is insignificant. Ultimately, UCLA’s selectivity rating is #26 and Michigan’s is #37. It is in Financial Resources and Faculty Resources where UCLA separates itself from Michigan in the USNWR ranking, which I find very suspicious since the math does not add up.

20

It’s all very suspicious Alexandre. It’s as if USNWR wanted to create controversies and discussions between UCB and UCLA being the two top ranked publics. Something is not right,