Which underrated colleges are on the way up?

@Hanna not to disagree because you are “God like status” lol I crack myself up, but I think it 100% goes both ways. I was at a school this week very popular on CC and every student on the student panel talked about: inclusion, more diversity we must have more diversity, more international, this is a huge problem, more LGBTQ rights, more anything that is seen as left.

In my head I’m like I don’t think some of these kids will be happy until the population is 75% international and multifaceted minority with 50% identifying as LGBTQ and then maybe the rest can be straight and that other color. I have never been to BYU, so I would imagine it is pretty straight laced, but it does go both ways.

I think @Hanna just described why it does go both ways; birds of a feather…

Of - Univ. of South Carolina, TCU, College of Charleston, Arizona and Auburn, which one is the most underrated?

TCU

Absolutely Santa Clara University. The university got 130 million dollars last year to build STEM Campus. It is just one building that will move SCU significantly forward. Other buildings like New Law School Building and New Dormitory will also move SCU forward.
These buildings are either finished or under construction, but they are not counted to previous usnews ranking.

The university also has 2020 Plan. The Campaign result will be announced in 2020.

Meanwhile, Carnegie Classification will be changed at the end of 2018. The old classification criteria classified a doctoral university as the university offers more than 20 PhD degrees in one year. SCU doesn’t offer that amount of PhDs (16 PhDs in 2017). So SCU is a master university and cannot participate in the Usnews National University Ranking. But the new criteria of Carnegie Classification will include the professional doctoral degrees. That means SCU will meet 20 doctoral degrees offered in one year if it includes Juris Doctor degrees offered by the law school. There must be one spot in the Usnews National University ranking.

So I can imagine SCU will be like Villanova University in the next couple of years.

I would second WPI. Like the city it is in, it has been overshadowed by schools in Boston. I’m hearing a lot more about it these days…and the several students that I know who attend absolutely love it.

I’m looking for a good excuse to bring my son to Santa Clara…but we are from the east and I think the quarter system might be a deal breaker for him. But I hear SUCH great things about that school and it offers a lot of what he is looking for.

But too many midterms and finals would not be a good thing for him. Sounds too intense. But I have to agree I have been hearing about that school a lot lately and it sounds like an amazing place!

SCU ranks No.3 in the Northwest, following Stanford and Berkeley. https://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/find-colleges/articles/2019-university-rankings/top-25-best-colleges-in-the-northwest-2019-rankings/

Looks like Clarkson has not been mentioned here. Excellent engineering program. Generous scholarships. They probably get overlooked by most because of their location in little know Potsdam, NY. In the words of my friend @RightCoaster, Clarkson is a place “with good school spirit if you love hockey. They have really cool stuff there like a wind turbine and they have a program where students learn to build huge model airplanes that they race/fly in competitions. Super hands on school, great labs, and a very good education for a kid who wants to explore.”

@Silivon I think it’s important to see how they came up with the rankings of SCU at #3 in the Northwest. You can pretty much cherry pick the criteria to achieve the desired result:

These factors are weighted as such:

23% – First-year retention rate
11% – Median SAT/ACT
11% – Average faculty salary
11% – Student-to-faculty ratio
6% – Selectivity index
6% – Endowment per student
16% – Four-year graduation rate
16% – Six-year graduation rate

Note: These weightings are shown in rounded percentages.

@socaldad2002 If SCU wants to manipulate college ranking, they will manipulate Usnews, not this one. Who care about College Raptor Ranking?

And last time I checked, Santa Clara is NOT in the Northwest (neither are Cal or Stanford) so that speaks to the reliability of College Raptor.

I hope my alma mater doesn’t game the ratings but they want to make themselves known outside of ‘Bend it Like Beckham.’ Somehow the charm of the school will be lost if they want to become part of the national rankings.

@Hamurtle The national ratings are very important. If SCU become a national university, it will attract more talent students and notable professors, and they will also attract more companies outside of California to give SCU students job opportunities, and then SCU will get more endowments so that SCU can improve the reputation in the US or even the world.
You should know Northeastern University. If NEU can game ranking and improve its reputation significantly in the last decade, why not SCU? But as a student in SCU, I don’t feel SCU game the ranking. They just begin to care about how to go to national or world’s stages. Otherwise, they might lose their Silicon Valley location strength in the future because other places outside Silicon Valley, such Seattle, also attract high-tech companies.
Do you know many Top universities now expand their master programs and increase their master programs’ class size to gain money to support undergraduate programs and PhD programs to improve national rankings and world rankings? They sacrifice their master students and treat them as cash cows, which are not moral. (I don’t want to say the names of these universities here). But at least, SCU keeps its morality. In SCU, even in master programs, class sizes are small (less than 40 students, usually around 20 students).
I don’t feel SCU games any ranking and the university just does what they need to survive and break out. God will bless SCU! God glory will shed on the school!

As a Santa Clara alum, I hope they keep their core Jesuit values. Maybe they should join the rankings of LACs if they want to increase their visibility (like Harvey Mudd).

For anyone interested in the school, it’s a great place to go, but you will be paying Stanford/Ivy prices for tuition and room + board. And outside of the Bay Area not too many people have heard of it.

My guess is SCU doesn’t even know what collegeraptor is (I don’t either) yet give it one ounce of attention. Most every respected private school is similar in price to Stanford or Ivy’s. If someone doesn’t want to/can’t spend 60K+ or can’t get admitted to them, they need to look at alternatives. I personally know 3 recent SCU engineering grads that had jobs at top companies lined up a year ahead of graduation, all starting with 6 figure salaries. Two in bay area, one to NYC. All very bright kids, super human beings. The investment SCU is making in STEM and their law school is impressive. Their goal is to be a better school, not game some silly ranking. They aren’t lacking great applicants and people willing to pay full freight.

@Hamurtle A problem is SCU cannot cut down master programs. So SCU cannot go back to LACs.

As a graduate of SCU I have been impressed over the years by the alumni of my university.
Just go the the website and check out the alumni section in the areas of engineering, business, and public service-as well as arts and entertainment.
The list is too long to detail.

Lot of debate about Santa Clara - thread is getting off topic.

Pitt

Thanks for all of the SCU info. Sorry if it monopolized the thread a bit.

@Hamurtle one of the reasons I am interested in SCU is because it’s a Jesuit school. Love the inclusive, community focused philosophy. My two daughters are both at Jesuit schools (BC and Georgetown).

We are heading to CA in November to see U of San Diego (my husband’s alma mater), Loyola Marymount (Jesuit), and USC. SCU is too far to get to then, but I may try to get my son there another time.

I will report on those three schools if this thread is still active at that point.

Heading to Richmond and either UVA or UMD in a few weeks…