USNews Prestige Rankings

Found this prestige ranking on the USNews website. Found it very interesting.
According to USNews:

1 Harvard University (MA)
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3 Stanford University (CA)
4 Princeton University (NJ)
5 Yale University (CT)
6 University of California–Berkeley
7 Columbia University (NY)
8 University of Chicago
9 California Institute of Technology
10 Johns Hopkins University (MD)
11 Cornell University (NY)
12 Duke University (NC)
13 University of Pennsylvania
14 Dartmouth College (NH)
15 Northwestern University (IL)
16 Brown University (RI)
17 University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
18 University of Virginia
19 Carnegie Mellon University (PA)
20 University of California–Los Angeles
21 University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill
22 Washington University in St. Louis
23 Vanderbilt University (TN)
24 Georgetown University (DC)
25 Georgia Institute of Technology
26 University of Wisconsin–Madison
27 University of Texas–Austin

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-rankings-blog/2013/02/28/which-universities-are-ranked-highest-by-college-officials

Is this considered a better ranking of universities than the official USNews National Ranking?

Depends on what you value.

This is based on the opinion of academics.

The main USNews ranking weighs a bunch of criteria, including gameable ones.

I personally prefer my tiers based on alumni accomplishments: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1893105-ivy-equivalents-ranking-based-on-alumni-outcomes-take-2-1.html

What’s interesting about the “prestige” ranking, is that it’s a lagging indicator. Schools would have to improve over years, before their “prestige” rankings start to move (or the reverse, schools would would have to underperform for years, before their rankings start to drop).

Even more so with @PurpleTitan alumni accomplishments. It would take years or decades before other schools move up to replace those schools that have started to underperform.

I think the real value in both, is tracking those schools that are making significant improvements (or dropping) over time. If a school goes from being ranking 100 to 88 in prestige, something positive is happening at that school (same with alumni accomplishments).

It is hard to take this list seriously. In terms of prestige, I would put the service academies in the top five. When a company gets a resume from the three main service academies it is usually put ahead of all other schools. UCLA, gimme a break.

No because prestige or reputation among other college officials is no indication of education quality. The ONLY thing this is taking into account is the perceived reputation among administrators, most of which have never gone to the college in question.

I like what @OnTheBubble said - and I’m uncertain about the wisdom of maintaining the service academies in their current form.

Where’s the paean of 6-figure student loan homage, NYU?

This is all so dependent on whom you are trying to impress. If I’m hiring a copywriter or someone for the PR department, what possible benefit does MIT bring?

“This is all so dependent on whom you are trying to impress. If I’m hiring a copywriter or someone for the PR department, what possible benefit does MIT bring?”

I agree that it drops on the list a bit, in that case. However, MIT’s level of rigor means it is likely to remain above many state flagships.

@Gator88NE, if like most things, colleges follow a bell distribution, which would mean its like a pyramid at the top end, 88->100 (and vice versa) wouldn’t mean much. There would be almost no difference. Which is why I prefer tiers to ordinal rankings.
And of course, this is all subjective anyway. And yes, many measures that I think more highly of are lagging indicators. The problem with forward-looking ones (like input-based ones) is that those tend to be the ones that are easily gamed. If there was a “real” improvement, then you should see it eventually show up in the lagging indicators. But they don’t always.

Business Insider is superior because it is a reader poll of professionals who are likely to hire my kid. Who is US News anyway? In addition, other polls that incorporate Payscale data are skewed by engineering and New York salaries. Finally, CC’s “prestigiosity” ranking is the better than, and more fun than, US News because incorporates the opinions of real persons much like myself.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen another ranking that places 8 public universities in the top 25.
I think one could come rather close to the overall USNWR ranking with other measurements that are not included in the US News ranking factors (e.g. “outcome” metrics). I wonder what combination of measurements, plausibly related to undergraduate academic quality, could replicate the peer assessment.

I don’t think that is universally true. It certainly isn’t in my industry. That’s not to say I won’t give a West Point grad a serious look. I certainly will, but no more than I would a Michigan grad for example.

Oh please. The issue of prestige schools has been discussed ad nauseum.

That list in the OP looks very similar to the USNew rankings lists for top school.

Its just another ranking list. Big deal.

To the OP…why are you asking your question?

The ‘prestige’ list is nothing more than the top academic research Unis, which really means top grad programs. The academies, while excellent educational institutions, don’t perform much research. Ditto LAC’s, at least relative to the big Unis.

That being said, I still disagree with your premise. Academy grads will also have 8+ years of military experience, and employers will only look at their resumes if the military experience is relevant to the employer’s company.

Again, you need to consider what the list represents. Some years, Cal-Berkeley has as many top-ranked (grad) programs as Harvard. Other land-grant Unis are excellent as well.

A particular school might not be the best school for a particular person.

If someone said BMW, Mercedes, Audi etc are the best cars, that can be subjective depending on what you think is the best car for you. It might very well be none of them, as is the case for the majority of people.

You need to find the best school for you to achieve your goals.

Prestige is intangible, and thus infinitely arguable. Until the study comes out that says for the same kid, an English degree is worth $x from Hahvahd, .95x from Yail, and .03x from Wattsamatta U, it’s just an argument about feelings vs ROI.

Although personally, I feel that graduating with a degree in finance and more than $15-20k in debt ought to automatically disqualify anyone from a job in any sort of banking. Prestige be [redacted], this is real money we’re talking about, and that person clearly has not not twigged to it’s worth.

OP is new to CC and may not realize that this has been discussed millions of times. My own unscientific opinion is that there can never be one definitive ranking of colleges in this country, and that most rankings are just another way of labeling name recognition. A college that is number 20 in one list and 25 in another list isn’t appreciably more prestigious than a college ranked 25 in the first list and 20 in the second. The one thing I do like about the USNWR list is that at least it will “tie” a bunch of similar schools because the differences are so negligible. It might be more fair to rank a cluster of colleges. Who knows?

Prestige is in the eye of the beholder. Schools that are rated as being most prestigious by the most people are, de facto, the most prestigious.

Oh god, no. I care about prestige in the eyes of the cognoscenti, not the masses.