USNews Rankings - Columbia Ranked 4th

Colleges & Universities A-Z Columbia University
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<p>The fact that I chose to say “continue” instead of, say, “begin” implies that I perceive that this is not the first and only example of Columbia’s gaming. Columbia has 3 undergraduate institutions, but only reports the relevant data for 2 of them. Imagine if Penn excluded its nursing school or Cornell excluded its hotel school from their analysis. Or if HYPSM omitted the stats and profiles of their “non-traditional” students. </p>

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<p>Fine. You want to say “uninformed” instead. Go with that.</p>

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<p>Replace “Columbia” with “Penn” and you sound just like the typical “pie in the sky” Penn student or alum (circa late 1990’s).</p>

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<p>Here’s an interesting article from 2005, written by the former dean of the Penn law school.</p>

<p>[Is</a> There Life After Rankings? - Magazine - The Atlantic](<a href=“http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/11/is-there-life-after-rankings/4308/]Is”>Is There Life After Rankings? - The Atlantic)</p>

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<p>One difference between Columbia and some of the other schools that only recently rose to rankings prominence is that for much of the 20th Century Columbia was one of the top 3-4 schools in the country. Then came the '60s and the collapse of its reputation, very gradually and painfully rebuilt, against, of course, much broader and tougher competition. Columbia is simply back where it was 50 years ago, when its only true academic equals were Harvard, Berkeley, and Chicago. But the restoration is sweet!</p>

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<p>Don’t feed the ■■■■■■.</p>

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<p>@dwharris</p>

<p>Yeah, Columbia’s fortunes essentially mirrored that of New York City. In the decades, when the cities were hollowed out due to white flight, and torn asunder by racial tensions, economic recession as a result of the decrease in industry and manufacturing, and crime, Columbia suffered a lot. The 1968 riot was a watershed moment for Columbia: it changed from Butler’s stable prep and graduate school for New York City elites to a school with passionate students who care deeply about political, social, and cultural issues. It was a painful transition, however, and in the immediate aftermath of the 1968 riots, Columbia lost all its prestige, undergraduate applicants, and alumni donations. Through the 1970’s and 1980’s, as New York was plagued by crime and economic recession, no one wanted to go to Columbia. It’s difficult for modern students (myself included) to imagine how the nation viewed New York, let alone Columbia, in the days when New York evoked images of “Taxi Driver,” not “Sex in the City.” Just imagine Cornell in the ghettoes of Baltimore. Eventually, the fortunes of the city, and Columbia, improved. As crime fell dramatically in the 1990’s, and the United States completed its transition into a service- and knowledge-based economy, New York became incredibly desirable. In the last 20 years, it’s become one of the most desirable cities in the United States, and it’s gained in wealth, power, and influence. Columbia, always the shining jewel of the city, has benefited from New York’s increased visibility and desirability. it has also revitalized itself internally, getting its finances in order (before it sold its midtown property, it had no endowment to speak of), improving its administrative bureaucracy (yeah, it’s an ongoing process), and focussing much of its energy on undergraduate education in the College. We are now seeing the fruits of these labors, as Columbia is finally re-emerging, after decades, as one of the top schools in the United States and the world.</p>

<p>Credit where credit is due: <a href=“http://eye.columbiaspectator.com/article/2010/04/29/finding-bollinger[/url]”>http://eye.columbiaspectator.com/article/2010/04/29/finding-bollinger&lt;/a&gt; This article gives a phenomenal account of Columbia’s postwar history (check out the section “Columbia Before Bollinger”), which I have greatly summarized in this post.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the link! That was very interesting.</p>

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<p>Good news for Columbia, but next year it may drop to 10th…or rise to top…</p>

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<p>ww2015: You are obviously a wealth of knowledge and insight.</p>

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<p>hey ya’ll this might be super late but</p>

<p>1) I think Columbia’s increase this year could be due to the fact that the student it admits that ranked in top 10 percent of their class rose from approx. 91 percent to 97 percent this past year, as well as to is 30 point increase in SAT 75 percentile (2300 to 2330)</p>

<p>2) this year, since Columbia switched to comm app, I’m predicting they will get more apps, making it more selectivity, thus boosting rank moar :D</p>

<p>3) Columbia’s position in NYC I think has both advantages and drawbacks in relation to ranks. I read some post on here about how the vastness of NYC causes a lack of cohesive community in columbia (i don’t personally believe this) and thus might cause less alumni contribution (which, according to us news, is a “indirect measure of student satisfaction”)</p>

<p>4) Its location in NYC of course offers its students countless intellectual, social, and political interactions via internships, jobs, and such, giving students that come out a path to stability</p>

<p>5) Columbia’s science research is actually better (in my opinion) than yale or stanford’s, and it seems like Columbia has more citations and nobel laureates than both these schools. In the past decade, Columbia has pretty much rivaled even harvard in science research, an aspect thats quickly coming to dominate the job market and international focus</p>

<p>6) i think a new measure thats out this year is “counselor rankings” which I find absurd and stupid. First of all, how would you expect counselors to have in depth knowlege of academic stamina of a university, aside from shear name and popularity alone? Im betting a counselor in rural kansas or alabama (plenty where I come from) will rank harvard ahead of Columbia, simply because harvard holds a perceived higher “prestige”</p>

<p>7) adding on to the previous point, counselors can be very whimsical. for example, whose to say a counselor won’t rank columbia lower than upenn this year simply because 2 of her students got in upenn, while both those students got rejected from columbia?</p>

<p>8) i think that if columbia pushes its SAT scores ( i know, i know, im shallow and SAT scores aren’t everything, but they ARE a big factor of us news rankings :D) a bit farther, and even if the rest stands in impasse, Columbia just might pass Yale in US News Rankings 2012 :D</p>

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<p>also, I’m not sure how the manhattan project thats in progress will affect Columbia’s outward appearance. But its definitely gonna give Columbia more resources, a sharper edge in science and research, and hopefully that will make Columbia more influential.</p>

<p>also, idk about ya’ll, but where I come from a lot of ppl haven’t heard of Columbia (some of you will say who cares if they havent heard of it? I think the same, but at the same time its kind of irksome.) like my friend was joking the other day and was like I’m going to get acceptances from harvard, yale, Stanford, MIT, and princeton…and i was like pshhh columbia all the way…and he was like Columbia? wheres that? huh? <em>facepalm</em></p>

<p>so i hope columbia stays in the top 5 (perferbally top 4) for at least a couple of years more so its name can really get out there and more ppl apply and stuff :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :D</p>

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<p>US News uses data from like 2 years ago, so Columbia’s increase in selectivity last year/this year had nothing to do with their rise in rank. Plus, you should’ve just started a new thread instead of bringing up a pretty old one.</p>

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<p>uh oh – we’re nuking japan again???</p>

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<p>hey oldmoney, I’m so, so, so, so sorry for my lack of ignorance in thread making skills on college confidential, will you forgive me?</p>

<p>also, can someone explain to me why us news takes data from more than 2 years ago??? I thought it was cuz they couldn’t compile everything immediately after the school year…but still…</p>

<p>i mean like when you look at the rankings, youre like wow columbia’s 4th this year they must have done pretty good…you rarely stop to think that the 4th rank was actually from how they did more than 2 years ago…idk its really weird to me now that im thinking about it</p>

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<p>Plead all you want; I’ll never forgive you.</p>

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<p>^ hey man you’re cool</p>

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<p>Yea people say it’s because Obama went there. That gives more credibility to the school.</p>

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<p>I don’t think having Obama as an alum adds to credibility, but it does give it some good advertising…no one’s seen his transcript and he admits lots of drug use there - he doesn’t talk about what a great academic institution it was. Not a criticism, but a fact. It’s just in the forefront of people’s minds. It’s a great school in a wonderful city and having a popular politician go there makes people consider it more seriously.</p>

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<p>@swimmer. um not really… ‘popular politician’ and nobel prize winning president are two very different things. and it certainly adds to the credibility - as does any very accomplished, well-known alum.</p>

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<p>Not the place for politics, but the Nobel prize was questionable…he’s a good man, but that was awarded before he had done anything - it was the promises, not the actual accomplishments. Anyway, in this sound-bite, facebook, twitter world, he’s very popular and anything he’s done is noticed. Columbia has benefitted from having him as an alum, for sure.</p>

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<p>a #4 ranking for columbia is a joke. either they are gaming the statistical components --like UPENN and WASHU – or the subjective rankings were skewed by temporary obamamania. there is no way that columbia wins the cross admit battles with HYPSM or Brown for that matter. Moreover, Columbia’s endowment and finaid dont match up either. so enjoy the anomaly while it lasts.</p>