https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities?int=994d08
Tied with Emory, Cal, and UCLA
And yet we’re STILL not included on this website’s list of “top universities.” SMH. Emory, Cal, and UCLA are all tied with USC on the U.S. News rankings as you note… and they’re on the list… but we’re now ranked AHEAD of Carnegie-Mellon, UVA, Michigan, North Carolina, etc. … all of which are on the list, while we’re not. Sheesh.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cc-top-universities/
Come on, CC. The year isn’t 1995.
Indeed. ^^^ This continuing appearance of a bias against USC has been an annual topic here on CC. USC is clearly an elite/top university. CC might as well admit such. Every year that passes without them updating that antiquated list makes them seem more and more out of touch with the reality of things. CC should be deemed as cutting edge and in touch and not the opposite. Here’s hoping for some constructive and positive change…
Funny, I just posted the same question before I saw this. I thought I was the only one who noticed.
Ah well. I console myself with knowing that the Hollywood Reporter ranked USC’s film school #1 in the world for around the 5th year in a row just a few weeks ago… not that they know anything about either Hollywood or film schools at the Hollywood Reporter.
At some point this becomes an issue of the credibility of College Confidential, frankly. I can’t find any location information on here (not that it’s worth my time) but I have trouble believing that this website is being run by Stanford grads in Silicon Valley… whenever I drive through Silicon Valley, there’s no huge College Confidential building or complex like there is for a Tesla or a Yahoo or whatever. More likely that this website is run by some former guidance counselors who got bounced out of a job and saw the Internet as the next big thing, and who’ve outsourced the programming somewhere else.
The flip side of USC’s rise is that the University of Michigan has been sliding in the rankings… a lot of bitter Wolverines out there who, just like the CC people, don’t seem to understand that times change. Considering the state of the economy in Michigan these days, it’s a testament to that institution and its people that they even have electricity and running water, let alone are in the top 30.
All of the kids and parents reading this should took at the rankings - all of them - and take them with a grain of salt. USC’s $6 billion endowment campaign, the opening of the USC Village, the plethora of people on here who turned down plenty of other more highly ranked schools for USC… it’s not a fluke. This is a GREAT school, and lots of GREAT things are happening there. The university’s continued rise since my graduation has merely affirmed for me that I made the right decision in becoming a Trojan.
CC’s Editor attended both Amherst and Smith. She also used to work at Smith. Coincidentally, both Amherst and Smith at least made it to the list of CC’s Top Liberal Arts Colleges. I believe that CC is now technically owned by a corporation which primarily deals with educational research and/or publications. At least that is what I heard. But clearly none of their Board members are Trojans… or this continuing anti-USC bias would not persist. As @USCAlum05 suggests, USC’s rise over the last decade-plus is not a fluke though. My younger daughter this year turned down other elite colleges like Princeton, Emory & Rice to attend USC and join her older sister. 55K+ apply each year for a reason. Apparently most now realize it. CC simply ignores it… to their own detriment.
Ahh yes, Amherst and Smith. That explains it perfectly. Nothing against those schools (they’re great) but this right here is the usual East Coast Bias at work… something painfully familiar to longtime California residents. The infamous New Yorker cover portrays the phenomenon quite well… New Yorkers who don’t know anything exists west of the Hudson, as referenced in plenty of Woody Allen movies.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4d/Steinberg_New_Yorker_Cover.png
People in tech on the West Coast generally despise tech companies and tech people on the East Coast for the simple fact that, as an Amherst/Smith grad looking down on USC would indicate, they care more about where you went to school and your family background than about what you can do. The difference is distilled perfectly in the Facebook movie, the Social Network. Mark Zuckerberg has lived and breathed tech all of his life, knows the ins and outs of programming, and moves to California to start his company. Meanwhile, the Winklevoss (?) twins come from money and a good family, but don’t know the first thing about coding. They’re the types who would stay on the East Coast, whereas Zuckerberg was pushed by Napster founder Sean Parker to move west just as soon as he could. The big tech companies on the West Coast - companies like Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Hewlett-Packard, etc. - have all generally been started by people who live and breathe coding and technology, while the East Coast “tech” companies have generally been started by Ivy League liberal arts grads who don’t know the first thing about technology other than that it’s important. Those are no doubt the stuffed shirt types behind College Confidential, which explains why it doesn’t update its list of top schools… and why its website design looks frozen in 2005.
USC has been one of the most dynamic and upwardly mobile universities in the world for a generation now… most applied-to private school (?) in the country, $6 billion endowment campaign, consistently ranking behind only Harvard and Stanford in annual fundraising, plenty of top programs across the board, yada yada yada. Meanwhile California has the 5th largest economy in the world right now and the port of L.A. and Long Beach is the third-busiest port in the world, behind only Hong Kong and Singapore. Unfortunately, with the way that College Confidential changes with the times, I’m surprised that this is available over anything more than a dial-up connection. Sheesh.
No they don’t. West Coast techies may have a little less respect for East Coast techies because the ones on the West Coast believe they’re doing more advanced, cutting edge tech. There’s no rivalry or animosity between the two coasts among techies that I’ve ever observed, though.
oh well, this cc thing has been discussed over and over ever since USC became a constant top25 university on US News. It is pretty obvious at this point that USC, as a new top college, isn’t considered a traditional elite school. It is like the old elite vs the new elite. Old elites, especially their grads, don’t wish to have USC as a part of them. History has proven that old elites never get along with the new ones. Vanderbilt and Carnegie families, as new “nobles”, were despised by the old elites during the 20th century. USC is facing the same issue now. Nobody wants to recognize the fact that a new school could rise up so fast. They will not give in for at least another decade. It is not an anti-USC bias but an anti-new school bias. USC has to crack top 20 and stay in top 20 for at least a decade and raise its global ranking as fast as it could. Otherwise, they will never break the bias.
I graduated from one of the schools that CC deems as a Top University. Despite such, I urged both of my daughters to NOT even considering applying there. I have many close friends that attended that same university and others who attended different schools on this list as well. Based on my experience and theirs, there are likely some of these schools that should be flat out demoted. Or - if demotion or removal from the list is unlikely or deemed unwarranted by CC’s inner-circle, it is still simply absurd for CC to put forward such a list yet refuse to ever alter it over a span of the last 15 years or to even endeavor to make it or keep it accurate.
USC is clearly more globally respected than some of the universities on this list. Based on its strengths/rankings in many academic areas, its overall rankings in numerous college surveys, its fundraising successes and endowment, its recent investments in infrastructure and expansion, its success at getting undergrads into grad schools, its success at getting graduates employed and the overall strength of its alumni network, etc (and not even counting athletic prowess, quality of student life, etc.) - USC is clearly on par with or better than many of the schools on this list:
University of California - Berkeley, University of California - Los Angeles, California Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Chicago, Duke University, Emory University, Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, Northwestern University, University of Notre Dame, Rice University, Stanford University, University of Virginia, Vanderbilt University, Washington University in St. Louis
CC should simply either maintain the list accurately… which means including USC… or they should refrain from making such lists altogether.
The bottom line is, where CC puts USC or doesn’t is so irrelevant. On top of that, CC has always had an east coast bias because it is more popular on the east side than west side. CC is such an old outdated site that hasn’t been significantly updated or changed for years - it is pretty clear that it is just sustaining, not progressing. Reminds me of an old town in the midwest that just can’t get going again. While us old folks use it out of habit and to be helpful, most of those in the student age range think it is is silly… USC is a also a school people love to hate, I figure that’s out of jealousy or because they know they can’t get in or its too expensive.
I think we should also consider that the list isn’t maintained. I think it was selected over 10 years ago. I’m saying that USC didn’t deserve to be on the list then, I am just saying that the site isn’t really “curated” much anymore. Moderated, yes, curated not so much.
You make a good point in general about the generational differences. Most of the young people that I have encountered over the past few years put very little stock into the US News college rankings themselves & only a few have spoken about CC.
In terms of surveys or rankings, they seemed to rely more on the Niche college rankings & survey results, especially since they delve into the specifics that applicants care most about. i.e. - the college experience.
For example, in the Niche rankings, USC is #19 overall… but even more precisely, USC was #1 among Best Big Colleges in America & #1 for both Design and Film… USC was #2 for both Business and Kinesiology & USC is ranked in the top ten for Communication, Music, Performing Arts, Accounting/Finance, Art, Architecture, International Relations, Philosophy & Computer Science.
Almost every major academic department at USC is top 25. And USC is also top ten for Most Attractive Girls and Most Attractive Guys… and top ten for both Best Student Athlete experience and overall Best Student Life. That last one is super important. If you are a stellar applicant, and you can attend an elite (top-25) university that is also top ten in terms of the quality of student life, what else could you really hope for? If you can offer all of those top ten experiences and package it with a nice campus with California weather and attractive coeds and winning sports teams and a strong Greek social experience, why wouldn’t most college applicants want to aim for such…?
55K+ applicants to an elite private school speaks volumes. No other private college has so many applications. And most elect to apply for a host of reasons. The US News Ranking is likely seldom considered while most applicants are evaluating USC these days. I think it means more to parents and alumni.