<p>UW fell 4 spots to make it ranked 38th in the US News best colleges. Who reads US News anyways?</p>
<p>I don't see how it is US News pretends like they actually have an objective basis to go off of. Wisconsin is an outstanding school. Ignore the BS.</p>
<p>Also, with UW they're working off of old statistics.. this stuff isn't updated yet. What a joke.</p>
<p>LOL....of course, when next year comes 'round and UW shoots up to #32 everyone will be saying what sound methodology the list uses.</p>
<p>But honestly, I was a little surprised by the drop. It was #10 on the most money raised in 2006 (the only other public in the top 10 was a either Berkeley or UCLA) and I believe the average ACT score for the incoming class increased as well.</p>
<p>I've always hated the ratings, I feel as though they're one of the most rotten aspects of the entire admissions process...but this is coming from somebody who is surrounded by people who have been saying similar things for years.</p>
<p>Last year they were actually tied with 4 schools at 34 so the real rank was between 34 and 37. So they really fell one spot as a tiny change in point score put a couple of the tied schools ahead slightly. Unfortunately money raised is not a factor--they use the % of alums donating which is always lower for state schools.</p>
<p>Good thing is, Wisconsin's business school jumped from 14 to 12, tied with Cornell business, which I was considering. And for Actuarial Science/Risk, UW remains 3rd in the nation. That gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside:)</p>
<p>I think the drop will be a good wakeup to some in state government who think they can keep cutting away at the UW funding without doing any harm. Sometimes good things come out of negative events. I have high hopes the next budget will be much more friendly to the UW and erase some of the losses in ther last two years.</p>
<p>I would have prefered a deeper one-year drop, e.g. 10 places, that will bring out more powerful reaction from alums, donors and legislators. :)</p>
<p>Personally, I fully expect this downward trend in overall US News ranking continues while b-school and engineering progress toward a top-10 ranking.</p>