<p>I have a question about the USNEWS rankings.</p>
<p>Ok, for the regional rankings (Universities - Master's is the title)...are the universities ranked at the top very good?</p>
<p>For example...Rollins College is ranked 2nd in the South region but it isnt ranked in the top 50 liberal arts colleges.</p>
<p>I would appreciate it if someone could explain this....other schools in the regional rankings include Villanova, James Madison, St. Joe's etc.</p>
<p>i dont quite understand the distinction myself, but i can tell you this: it seems like the top 3-5 regional schools in each region are very good, but after that, they tend to drop off in nat'l rep. For example, I know Santa Clara is a great school, its on the regional list... I would consider it better than many of the lower top-tier nationals (such as Seton Hall). But there is a very rapid drop off. </p>
<p>I wouldnt worry too much about teh distinction... it has no real bearing on a ranking of the quality of the education. Look at teh factors like average SAT, percent of applicants admitted, and student:faculty ratio to get an idea of how good the school is.</p>
<p>Sure, plenty of those colleges are good. To compare & contrast the regional colleges with perhaps others you might know on the national university or LAC lists, realizing of course that there are some fundamental differences between a full research university, liberal arts college, & "regional" masters' granting institution. Look at some of the columns in the USNews rankings that interest you....take "graduation rate" (IMO an important statistic)..Villa Nova scores an 85% and Univ of Richmond is 82%. This compares to the Best LAC colleges ranking roughly 15th to 40th, pretty darn good. You'll want to look at several measures, probably including SAT range.</p>
<p>You cited Rollins, ranked #2 for the South:
SAT 25%-75%= 1080-1260
avg graduation rate= 62%</p>
<p>Compare to Best LAC page. First thing you might notice is that Rollins SAT range is below top 50, but roughly in the same range as 2nd tier, ranks 51-105. 62% graduation rate is on the low end for that same range, though.</p>
<p>I'd suggest you align all the stats of each college that interests you from each US News section, so you can compare. Goodluck.</p>
<p>The other thing to examine is the % of liberal arts majors there. Sometimes those schools are mainly business, communications, education, criminal justice providers. Nothing wrong with that unless you are looking for a good strong English department and you want to be a liberal arts major.</p>
<p>ok thanks alot, that really clears things up.</p>
<p>And I did notice a sharp decline on the regional rankings. Notably, Appalachian State is 15th so thats not a good sign.</p>
<p>What exactly is a University - Master's granting institution.</p>
<p>Taking a solid guess I suppose it is the intermediate between a full-research university and a liberal arts college (does not offer graduate degrees). Thus it is mid-small sized university that offers some graduate degrees but is overall focused on undergrad...i guess comprehensive is the term.</p>
<p>The regional rankings are somewhat of a catch-all category IMO. They are not full research universities, with PhD programs, & they are not the pure LACs with a ciriculum that promotes undergraduate, required learning in many academic areas, partcularly the "arts". As jamimom said, many of the regionals may be schools that produce professional, terminal degrees, like MBA's, with some undergraduate departments that are likewise professional degree oriented. Many are a combo of some liberal arts & non-PhD granting graduate studies. You'll have to dig into each college you are interested in to figure out what the degree possibilities and subject areas of strength are (because they most certainly will be more limited compared to full research universities), and they may not have the same type of broad ciriculum as the LACs, but there is still plenty to pick from.</p>
<p>RE: regional universities...many of them ARE liberal arts institutions; specifically, many that are Catholic and/or Jesuit, like Villanova, U of Scranton, Loyola, Saint Joseph's, Fordham. All these institutions have required core curriculums based in the liberal arts since their inception (many of them were founded in the 1840's or 1850's and on up). Their pre-professional, business or graduate programs or schools are usually much later additions.</p>
<p>So look through some of them very carefully; they may have very broad liberal arts courses just like the LACs - and will produce researchers, historians, sociologists, mathematicians, and teachers along with accountants, and lawyers, doctors and business people!</p>
<p>most of the top regional universities in the west (the only ones i know) are schools that are more undergraduate based than a nat
l university, but arent quite as small as a LAC. For example, St. Mary's College of California is 2500 students.. it is mostly an LAC, but has some masters degree programs (for teaching and business and such, at most colleges, these programs have just been added recently because the MA is the new BA and its an easy way to make money). However, many of the regionals also have some aspects of a big college. For example, St. Mary's and Gonzaga and Santa Clara all have division one athletics.</p>
<p>ohn Carroll U., Cleveland Jesuit college, is a fine school that's been high-ranked on the US News regional report for a while. It's in a beautiful, secure upper middle class burb (University Hts.) and its got a fine business school and number of good LA progs. It's also accessible, by light rail train to Cleveland's emerging downtown area.</p>