US NEWS Releases Top 10 Public Schools, and Things Changed

blevine, while I agree that public and private research universities are peer institutions, using the same methodology to rank them will yield less than optimal results.

For example, the US News ranking has alumni donation and financial resources components in its methodology. The majority of a public university’s alumni live in the state and pay taxes to their alma matter on a monthly basis. Besides, public universities are usually more conservative and less aggressive when it comes to soliciting donations from their alumni. For a number of reasons, comparing alumni donation rates at public universities to those at private universities is not entirely relevant, fair or analogous.

Also, one of the factors used in the financial resources rank is financial aid. Again, since the majority of the students at a public university are residents, they already attend at a highly discounted rate. As such, public universities will not be as generous with financial aid as are their private counterparts because they are already much cheaper for a large chunk of their student bodies.

There are other parts of the US News methodology that hurt public universities as well. There is a way to rank them side by side, by tweaking the methodology in areas where public and private universities differ from each other.

@Alexandre
I think you’re being bias or at least a bit facetious.
The public Unis do well on certain metrics that their private peers seem to struggle in, that essentially helps keep the public ranking high (unjustly so in my honest opinion). Take PR score for example UCB with a 4.7, UCLA with a 4.5, UMich with a 4.4 speaks to the inflated reputation public’s have peer over private schools that offer just as good if not better education.

UCLA’s PA rating is 4.2, not 4.5. Michigan’s 4.4 rating is in line with that of its closest peers, as is Cal’s 4.7 PA rating. There is nothing facetious or biased about my post. PA ratings are not based on factors that favor public universities over private universities or vice versa. 31 universities have PA ratings
of 4.0 or better. Of those, only 8 are public. The remaining 23 are private. 16 of the top 20 PA ratings belong to private universities. I do not see how the PA ratings favors public universities, or how their reputations are inflated. Those reputation ratings are, after all, based on the opinion of the presidents and provosts of peer institutions, many, if not most, of which are private. Perhaps it is your own perception of certain universities that is inflated…or deflated in the case of others.

2018 ranking released. Uchicago again tied for third with Yale.

I went online to see the news. Brown was 14, and Cornell and Rice were tied for 15. Vanderbilt followed.

A couple hours later, I went online to send it to a friend–but by then, Brown, Cornell, Rice, and Vanderbilt were tied for 14.

This proves my theory that the U.S News rankings are ridiculous and arbitrary. Better schools are better than lesser schools. We don’t need U.S. News to tell us that. They’re just trying (successfully, it seems) to sell magazines.

UCLA, UC Berkeley and USC are tied for 21. Makes sense to me. Hard to tell the difference betweeen them each excels in different fields.

UCLA as 21 came as a shock to me. And why is Michigan SO LOW???

Ridiculous and arbitrary can be applied to any of the college rankings out there.

Ridiculous and arbitrary can be applied to any of the college rankings out there.

“UCLA as 21 came as a shock to me. And why is Michigan SO LOW???”

The methodology is flawed and public universities pay the price.

For reference, here are the current top 20 public universities:

2018
1University of California at Berkeley21
1
University of California at Los Angeles
21
3
University of Virginia________________25
4
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor____28
5
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill30
6
College of William and Mary32
7
Georgia Institute of Technology
34
8
University of California at Santa Barbara37
9
University of California at Irvine
_____42-
9
University of California at San Diego___42
9
University of Florida________________42+
12
University of California at Davis46
12
University of Wisconsin at Madison
__46
14
Pennsylvania State University
52
14
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign52-
16University of Washington
______54
16
University of Georgia
54
18
Purdue University
56
18
University of Connecticut
______56
18
University of Texas at Austin___________56

Most of the overall rankings stayed the same with minor variations. Only two schools had big movements of four or more spots; UIUC dropping from #44 to #52, and and UF going from #50 to #42. I agree that these figures really don’t mean that much. Wisconsin’s financial situation is improving, and they are well run so they have a good shot at moving up the list. UIUC on the other hand has significant challenges and I don’t think we will see them back in the top 10 for a long time.

Last years rankings are as follows:

2017
1University of California at Berkeley20
2
University of Virginia________________24
2
University of California at Los Angeles
24
4
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor____27
5
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill30
6
College of William and Mary32
7
Georgia Institute of Technology
34
8
University of California at Santa Barbara37
9
University of California at Irvine
_____39
10
University of Wisconsin at Madison44
10
University of California at San Diego44
10
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign44
10University of California at Davis
44
14
Pennsylvania State University50
14
University of Florida
50
16
University of Washington
_________54
17
University of Texas at Austin___________56

@zinhead: any particular reason you left out Ohio State (16th public, 54th overall, unchanged)? And that makes the 3 schools shown tied for #18 actually #19 this year, and Texas Austin #18 for last year.

@osuprof - Sorry about that. I hope the following meets with your approval.

2018
1University of California at Berkeley21
1
University of California at Los Angeles
21
3
University of Virginia________________25
4
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor____28
5
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill30
6
College of William and Mary32
7
Georgia Institute of Technology
34
8
University of California at Santa Barbara37
9
University of California at Irvine
_____42-
9
University of California at San Diego___42
9
University of Florida________________42+
12
University of California at Davis46
12
University of Wisconsin at Madison
__46
14
Pennsylvania State University
52
14
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign52-
16University of Washington
54
16
University of Georgia
54
16
THE Ohio State University
____54
19
Purdue University
56
19
University of Connecticut
________56
19
University of Texas at Austin___________56

These rankings are essentially a FRAUD. They base them on things like new buildings and diversity and many other factors that have nothing to do with the quality of the education provided

@center umm… I don’t think new buildings or diversity are part of the ranking formula at all. Let me check… nope, neither of those things is in there.

I’m curious. How would you rank “quality of the education provided?”

selectivity=admittance rate. Since the Common App made it so easy to apply to more schools, the sheer numbers of applications have risen (SOARED actually) (particularly to the best schools and/or the schools with best FA etc) and acceptance rates have been artificially depressed.

Actually, not so. Some colleges have high acceptance rates/high stats and other high acceptance rates/low stats, or low acceptance rates/low stats… Think of Berea, Reed, St John’s, Hampshire, women’s colleges…
The only exception to this is whether the university is below 20%, where it’s always low acceptance rate/high stats - but acceptance rate is only a fraction of a small percentage total (something like 1% total).

@Center You know that admission rate is only 1.25 percent of the US News ranking formula.

UF and UIUC are (and their respective states) financially heading in two very different directions.

UT-Austin not being a top 10 public school is very disappointing, especially when you consider it’s financial resources. I think the top 10% (was it 7% this year?) rule is killing it’s selectivity score, as well as it’s graduation rates.

According to: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/how-us-news-calculated-the-rankings , the ranking is based on:

  • Graduation and retention rates (22.5 percent)
  • Undergraduate academic reputation (22.5 percent)
  • Faculty resources (20 percent)
  • Student selectivity (12.5 percent)
  • Financial resources (10 percent)
  • Graduation rate performance (7.5 percent)
  • Alumni giving rate (5 percent)

Due to recent Financial trouble at UCB, UCLA has passed UCB in recent ranks.