<p>USCAlum, I just thought the USNWR descriptions were a bit underwhelming. Read what they said about Northwestern and Vanderbilt. The authors really don’t know much. </p>
<p>
Heck no. USC grad research > ND grad research.</p>
<p>As for Berkeley, they could have written:
“The flagship campus of the University of California system and located in the dynamic SF Bay Area, UC Berkeley is the world’s premier public university and a wellspring of innovation. The college counts 8 Nobel Laureates, 32 MacArthur Fellows, and 4 Pulitzer Prize winners among its current faculty.” :-)</p>
<p>
This is particularly true. Haha!</p>
<p>
Swimming… 2x national champs and we’ll probably beat out 'SC for Missy Franklin. Also crew and rugby, but those aren’t Pac-12 popular sports.</p>
<p>“and large population of hippies who still live in town and have never accepted the fact that the 1960s ended over 40 years ago.”</p>
<p>in fact, this over-40yr-ago-but-why-still-lingering-now
stereotype of Berkeley is similar to
the supposedly-in-the-past-but-lingering
“spoiled children” “second choice” stereotype of SC…</p>
<p>Don’t think the USN authors even care to put too much time effort on
updating the descriptions… whether they know much or not…</p>
<p>Well, if we agree that college rankings are all still gimmicks
by the end of the day, USN is still perhaps the most recognized
comprehensive US-world ranking of all systems…<br>
vs other rankings like BW, Forbes, Financial Times,
Shanghai JiaoTong, THES, that
the receiving public in general care even less…</p>
<p>The rankings were easy to find ten years ago but since Google has exploded, the past data is buried. You will need to keep digging. I used to have them and when I have more time I’ll try to locate them. I know USC has published them before (in publications I cannot recall); perhaps somebody else has them.</p>
<p>BTW, I was just checking out the UCLA forum and see they have a huge issue with their students, fans and/or alumni using it as a Craigslist substitute… can you believe it? The super moderator even created a thread warning the UCLA clan to stop using it as Craigslist to post ads. It kind of describes how fundamentally different our two schools are. More importantly, it further cheapens UCLA’s reputation (if that’s even possible, jk).</p>
<p>It’s nice, Seattle, that you’re trying cheer up the devastated and irate USC alumni. So i won’t even tell you anything about your Craigslist comment :)</p>
<p>CollegeMom, I don’t know a specific place to find the exact rankings although the shorthand that everyone uses is that USC was 51st in the U.S. News rankings (i.e. expensive but not worth it) and was 23rd last year and now 24th. The reason why it stings for me is because as long as I can remember we’ve always been climbing year after year so to backslide even one spot hurts.</p>
<p>The admit rate in 1991 was 70%. It’s now 23% (2010) and lower still with the use of the Common App. In 1991 the 6 year graduation rate was 58%. It’s now 88%. In 1991 the SAT scores were in the 60th percentile (wow - very low for ANY college); they are now in the 95th percentile. You get the point.</p>
<p>A better question is, how can a ranking that measures institutions over literally dozens of categories and subcategories have so many freaking ties?</p>
<p>I’m not too worried about the one spot drop. I think being in the top 25 AND 5th in the up and coming schools ranking is a better way to look at it.</p>
<p>I think it’s because we are still struggling to maintain our status in that top tier, where we have been a scant three years. For example, CC lists UNC in its list of top colleges but UNC has not been in the USN&WR top 25 list for some years. In short, it’s going to take a few years before we are regarded as deserving top 25 status.</p>
<p>I just checked the CC forums for Stanford and Caltech. Except for a little joke post in the Stanford forum, the students at neither school seem to be concerned about their US News ranking.</p>
<p>You’ll know USC is a top school when it stops fretting about whether it’s a top school.</p>
<p>Buck up boys. I really am surprised at all the hand wringing over minute changes in a survey of such questionable validity. For a top 25 school to be viewed as up and coming is great. There are plenty of reasons for it–continuing declining admit rate, improving stats and qualities of applicants, faculty hired, new construction, endowment, programs. Chill.</p>
<p>Would you rather be a school like Stanford, dropping much more significantly in the USNWR rankings, having negative worldwide recognition for losing out to Cornell for the NYC campus (though Stanford will attempt to present it favorably), the negative press of the Stanford, Inc. article reflecting very significant changes on campus argued to be damaging to a university environment of balanced inquiry and now Stanford has dropped its formal humanities requirement! </p>
<p>USC has every reason to be “up and coming” and is recognized as such. The other top 25 CA private university is seeing a significant drop with well-publicized reasons that parallel the drop. I am not giving USNWR credit for potential discernment, but there are noteworthy parallels for USC’s up and coming status and Stanford’s decline this year. </p>
<p>USC will likely rise next year when the lower admit rate from the class of 2016 if considered and the likely even higher test scores.</p>
<p>For the past couple of years, it seemed that USC was going to ascend national college rankings as quickly as UCLA was doomed to descend it.</p>
<p>Well, the dream has slowed down a bit.
…</p>
<p>We’re the school that managed to (almost) change our image from pure rich kid party den to one of the leading academic universities in the world. We’re the school that emerged from a sanctioned football season as the most intimidating team in the league. USC doesn’t back down for anyone—we confront the obstacles in our way.
…</p>
<p>It’s a blog submission, a personal viewpoint by one student, not a USC admin statement. With Berkeley and ULCA students (and often Stanford) threatened and gunning so recklessly for USC, it appears USC’s rise in the eyes of outsiders is intact.</p>
Also crew and rugby, but those aren’t Pac-12 popular sports.</p>