I don’t read it that way. Plenty of privates on the decline from 2011 to 2018:
Yeshiva -44, U of Dayton -25, Marquette -15, U of the Pacific -11, Lehigh -9, Drexel -8, St. Louis U -8, Howard -6, Syracuse -6, Fordham -5, George Washington -5, SMU -5, Wash U (WUSTL) -5
And some publics rising sharply:
NC State +30, Arizona State +28, UMass Amherst +24, Buffalo +23, Florida State +23, Oklahoma +14, U Conn +13, Florida +11, Oregon +8, South Carolina +8, UCLA +4,
So it’s really a mixed bag for both private and public schools.
Lovin’ this thread. It’s similar to a thread “which schools are hot” from a few months ago. But “underrated” is a very interesting way to look at it. I think there are a TON of underrated schools. Looks like people began analyzing this as rankings. I see these two things are different entities. Many schools are excellent, but not ranked as high as other equallly fine schools. “On the rise” seems to indicate that the overall reputation, academic rigor and diverse student body is getting more attention, and more applications.
People have listed most of the ones i’d cite, but for underrated, I’d add Lawrence University, Gonzaga, and Beloit.
I’d love to hear opinions on University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa as an underrated and rising school. My S17 applied for engineering, was accepted, and was offered honors and very generous scholarship money, but he ultimately decided on Virginia Tech. To me, USF looked like an excellent “under the radar” Florida public school. It has a great price, great facilities, improving rankings, and even some good sports teams. I still have two kids in the pipeline and may encourage them to take a look. Any thoughts?
I agree that USF is under-talked about, if not under rated (30,000 students, so someone is going there). It has two different campuses and I believe students go to them equally (depending on major). A friend picked the St. Pete campus and really likes it.
Tampa/St. Pete is so much nicer than Orlando, Gainesville, or Tallahassee. I’d definitely go there before the Big 3.
USF has been a great fit and option for my Midwest daughter; she is a raising senior and has been involved with research projects since sophomore year. She is in a program that is nationally recognized in the top ten for her degree. The school is definitely a contender if one is interested in health science; bio-medical research. She is home this summer because she snagged a great internship for the resume. More then anything she has enjoyed the sunny weather during the winter months; definitely does not miss the snow
They (USF) are serious about graduating there students in 8 semesters; her group of friends are on track to graduate next spring; they were all freshmen when they enter in the fall of ‘15
Although I have no kids at USF, I live right down the street from main campus (way more kids go to main campus than USF St. Pete). Several professor friends in our neighborhood. Have lived in Tampa for 25 yrs. USF has made major progress in that time. The President, Judy Genshaft, has done a wonderful job. Fundraising and local partnerships with business, the city, and local hospitals have helped. The Moffitt Cancer center is heavily partnered with USF research and is becoming an incubator for biotech startups (although UF in Gainesville dwarfs USF in that regard).
USF used to be considered a commuter school with very few dorms and less school spirit. That has all been changing since we’ve been here. Tons of new facilities (dorms, academic, athletic) . It still doesn’t compete for the best students who stay in state as UF leads in that category by a long shot but it has several solid programs.
Southern Methodist University – they have become a lot better over the years as they have increased their financial aid (their aid packages are now comparable or even better than GW, BU, Tulane, etc.).
Saint Louis University – their stats have gone up a lot in the last 10-15 years, though oddly enough, I think it is becoming less affordable… As their tuition has gone up, but their scholarship amounts remain the exact same as when I was in high school nearly two decades ago!
USF’s rise is being driven by demographics (increasing state population), increased number of well prepared students (due to state sponsorship/funding of AP, IB, AICE and DE classes), increased state funding, and increased research funding.
It’s getting harder and harder for a “B” student to get accepted into USF.
University of Florida. My daughter applied there and it was the only school we didn’t get a chance to visit beforehand. She was autoadmitted to their honors program and given a new research opportunity they were doing so we went down to visit(we are in Alabama). We were blown away by everything we saw! I knew it was a good school, but it really impressed me more than any other school we visited, including Georgetown and Purdue. Purdue was her #1 choice, but she qualifies for instate tuition at UF thanks to the post 9/11 GI bill, so it was a no brainer. Really, a top 10 public university for $6300/year? Insane!
@tif1972 and don’t forget many in-state students have Bright Future scholarships that cover tuition, +$300 a semester for books. At UF, that’s over 80% of the in-state kids (100% in the Gator88NE household) @-) $-)
These lottery supported state scholarships have had a positive impacted on the public universities in those states (Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, etc.).
@jym626, so if I understand you correctly, it’s old news that UGA started to rise after Hope and Zell Miller scholships began 15 years ago, so we should ignore the fact that in the last three years, UGA moved from 62 to 61 and this year 54 on the USNWR best college ranking? UGA has also moved up in the past three years on the best public national universities list, now at #16 in the country.
Also, UGA has several top graduate programs, including the School of Public and International Affairs ranked in the top six nationally and several top business specializations such as Insurance and Risk Management ranked #2 in the country and Real Estate #5 in the country at the Terry School of Business. UGA Law School is also on the rise, with International Law being in the top 15 in the country.
UGA just built a brand new three building complex for the business school. The UGA MBA Program at the Terry College of Business rose eight spots to No.40 and climbed to 19th among public institutions last year. It was the largest gain of any business school that was ranked in the top 50 by USNWR. Finally, Alumni donations are significantly up at UGA and this usually translates to a school on the rise!
This isn’t about grad schoo, @Nomorelurker l. That’s a different topic. And most schools add new buildings . Construction is part of campus life. to saying UGA isn’t doing a much better job overall than years ago. Just don’t see it as an “underrated college not he way up” which is the topic of this thread.
@jym626, True that it isn’t about grad school, but the quality and rise of a graduate business school can impact the rise in the undergraduate one. Those numbers I quoted for real estate and risk management were for the undergraduate business school.
As far as the general undergraduate school, UGA has been steadily increasing their required stats for admission in the last couple of years. As an example, metrics reflect the steady rise in the quality of the UGA student body. Last year marked the fifth consecutive year that the freshman class set a record for academic qualification. Class of 2021 enrolled with an average high school GPA of 4.0 and a record average ACT score of 30. Forbes recently ranked UGA at No. 17 in its 2017 list of top colleges that dominate academically and athletically. Kiplinger ranked UGA No. 10 on its most recent list of 100 best values among public colleges and universities, and The New York Times ranked UGA at No. 10 among public universities doing the most for low-income students in its 2017 College Access Index.
The percentage of incoming freshmen in the top 10 percent of their high school class increased to 55 percent last year and will be higher this year. While it is true that schools routinely add new buildings, not all do it at the level that UGA just did for the remake of the Terry Business School. All of these factors, including a significant rise in alumni donations point to a school on the rise, also evidenced by the move from 62 to 54 on USNWR in the last three years. Look for a lower number this fall.
This is not a thread to cheerlead, IMO. Happened to have been on the UGA campus a few weeks ago. Am familiar with it. But again, my opinion was a this is a discussion of previously underrated schools. Terry school of business was not underrated. Moving on…
Don’t mean to cheerlead. I believe my previous comments were on topic in that UGA is on the way up (or noticeably getting lower in the rankings the past few years). I suppose it is relative as to whether one believes a school was previously underrated.
I wouldn’t say that it’s moving up as much as some of the other schools mentioned here, but UNL (University of Nebraska Lincoln) used to be almost exclusively for in-state students but I’ve noticed it getting on the radar of students from the mid-west and mountainous west.
Generally speaking, I would think for a school to be considered on the way up, it has to have appeal to many - not just those inside that state. Can a school like that only has less than 15% enrollment outside of it’s state ever be considered as on the way up? I would think of it as stalled , where I would consider something like an Alabama with it’s generous scholarships and 40%+ OOS (good diversity), which both attract more talent from everywhere as on it’s way up for a long time. UNC CH has always been regarded strong (so not sure on the way up) even with 80% being NC. Not sure if there is a chart of which state flagships have lowest and highest OOS populations, different thread but would be curious.
