OT: US News 2011 Rank Big10

Submitted by maiznblue on

US News Academic Rankings

Public School Rank

  1. University of Michigan #4
  2. Wisconsin #13
  3. Penn State #15
  4. Illinois #15
  5. Ohio State #18
  6. Purdue #18
  7. Minnesota #23
  8. Iowa #29
  9. Indiana #32
  10. Michigan State #34
  11. Nebraska #47

 

National University Rank

  1. Northwestern #12
  2. University of Michigan #29
  3. Wisconsin #45
  4. Penn State #45
  5. Illinois #47
  6. Ohio State #56
  7. Purdue #56
  8. Minnesota #64
  9. Iowa #72
  10. Indiana #75
  11. Michigan State #79
  12. Nebraska #104

I just went through and pulled all the Big10 schools to compile this list myself but here it the link to the National Rankings: http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities. Big Ten has a pretty good showing in public universities. Of course, U of Cal dominated as it always does.

ish

March 15th, 2011 at 12:08 PM ^

a lack of state funding doesn't make them better.  i attended michigan undergrad and a private school on that list of 28 for law school and don't think that the private school was better.

Gulogulo37

March 16th, 2011 at 2:56 AM ^

Any ranking is going to be biased and uninformed. Comments here aren't any different. Why would academic reputation be any better? Professor X things Professor Y's a genius. Maybe he can't teach to save his life and has no interest in it, but he publishes some sweet papers. Let's say UM's a tie with Cal. What does that even mean? Like you can condense the education of tens of thousands of students over hundreds of majors to some single data point. When it comes to your education, you reap what you sow. None of these rankings are about teaching ability. Who knows how well that actually correlates with a professor's reputation in the field. If you could quantify it, I don't think it'd be all that strong. Resources and opportunities obviously help, especially considering how many students don't know what to do or change their focus, that's just one more reason Michigan's a great school. Then again, if you really know what you want, and won't be working on particle physics or something,an intimate, private setting at some liberal arts school may be what's best for YOU. Rankings matter mostly because people care about them. Thus, the mere fact of being highly ranked might make a university better in the sense that it looks more impressive to an employer.

WolvinLA2

March 15th, 2011 at 12:11 PM ^

Yes, but even many of those aren't better.  Also - UCLA is not better than UM.  They get the boost because it's harder to get into, but that has more to do with being in the most populous state in the country, in one of the biggest cities in the country, and being in warm weather.  There are thousands of kids in the non-Michigan midwest who don't consider UM for $$$ reasons.  For high schoolers in CA, of which they are nearly a million, UCLA is a great school and financially within reach. 

Long story short, every kid in CA and many outside of it apply to UCLA, and it's a smaller school than UM.  Thus, it's much harder to get into and US News thinks that means it's better.  Just because a school is more appealing for one reason or another does not make it better.  Another example - NYU. 

UAUM

March 15th, 2011 at 12:07 PM ^

We used to be the #2 public university and ranked #25 nationaly when I was in school only ten years ago.  Get your shit together UM.

At the same time, osu academics were a complete joke.  How the hell is Purdue ranked lower that it now?

I'm having a bad day and needed to vent, sorry.

ish

March 15th, 2011 at 12:11 PM ^

i think we should be able to get ahead of virginia, but getting ahead of public schools in california is nearly impossible given the statistics usnews uses to measure quality.  they have so many applicants and so few spaces in california, that certain scores are necessarily going to be higher.

mEEchigan04

March 15th, 2011 at 12:13 PM ^

like I said above, you can pretty much swap UNC, UVA, Michigan and Berkeley on any given year.  They're all pretty equal. 

Having said that, Michigan moves to #1 overall when you factor in intangibles!

M Fanfare

March 15th, 2011 at 1:08 PM ^

(Edit: meant as a response to UAUM's post about OSU's academics a few posts up.)

Until ~2001, any student that graduated from high school in Ohio got an automatic acceptance to OSU. Since Ohio has a high population (7th in the nation in the 2000 and 2010 censuses) that meant two things--OSU had/has a TON of students (currently around 38,000 undergrads--U of M has around 26,000), and many of them were not very bright. OSU still has around a 50% acceptance rate, but cutting out that portion of the bottom 50% that they used to have to take can account for the rather large jump they've made in the rankings over that time.

OSU has also made an effort to improve its academics by throwing a lot of money at the in-state kids that used to leave for places like Michigan, Notre Dame, Purdue and others. I grew up in Ohio and graduated from Michigan, but I know quite a few people who I would say are as smart or smarter than me who went to OSU because they could go there for free or close to free, whereas the better out-of-state schools they got into were not affordable--one friend of mine got into Northwestern but ended up going to OSU for financial reasons.

bronxblue

March 15th, 2011 at 3:21 PM ^

The thing is, the way USNWR rates schools, big public institutions tend to be lumped together and are generally unable to move up or down the lists, while smaller schools can ratchet up the admissions numbers a bit and jump ahead.  Globally UM is a great research and academic institution, and so if some smaller school like Wake Forest or Tufts jumps ahead by one metric, I'm not super-worried. 

M2NASA

March 15th, 2011 at 12:17 PM ^

Michigan at #29 is a joke.  You can compare the value of degrees in the job market from M versus a number of those schools, which is really what's important.  Still a joke though.

GW at #51?  GW: Where you can buy a degree.

Looked at GW when looking at grad schools and couldn't get over the little you get for so much money.  Going to Michigan was the best choice I've ever made.

Ohio State tied with Purdue? bahahahahhahahahahah

Captain

March 15th, 2011 at 1:40 PM ^

Before the sciences contingent gets all high and mighty, I'm pretty sure that Dinosaurs, Ice Ages Past and Present, Continents Adrift (srsly), Introduction to Botany, Physics 106 (whatever that was called), and several other whimsical and fantastical classes dot your resume.  They were enjoyable.

BlueDragon

March 15th, 2011 at 6:59 PM ^

Don't forget about my music!  #1 department in the B1G!  Probably a shade or two below a Juilliard but the variety and quality of programs, as well as the overall quality of the faculty and support staff, are second-to-none.  Not to mention that music majors get to perform in Hill, Rackham, and the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre in the Michigan League, among other first-rate University and off-campus venues.

kgh10

March 15th, 2011 at 7:56 PM ^

Lol if you're referring to the S's including Chemistry, Biochem, Physics, and various fields in Biology, Michigan isn't spectacular (read: still very, very good, but like under 15th in the country good).

The "L" and "A" programs at UM are, however, fucking spectacular as well as rigorous. Most programs in Anthropology, History, Humanities, Classics, Literature, Psychology, Sociology, Philosophy, Music, Languages (including English), Political Science rarely if ever dip below top 10 in the nation.

Yes Engineering is very good at UM, but it's not in the LSA.

UAUM

March 15th, 2011 at 12:16 PM ^

A public institution, University of Michigan--Ann Arbor was founded in 1817. University of Michigan--Ann Arbor offers a Greek system, where 19.0 percent of the student body is involved in a sorority and 15.0 percent is involved in a fraternity.

Could we have a less academic description. Weak.

The Claw

March 15th, 2011 at 12:25 PM ^

These ranking are so subjecttive.  US News ranked the 400 Best World Universities.  So how can they be the 28th best in the Nation but 15th best in the World?

#15 Michigan

#26 Northwestern

#48 Wisconsin

#63 Illinois

#87 Purdue

#96 Minnesota

#98 Penn State

#124 Ohio State

#188 Iowa

#207 Michigan State

#219 Notre Dame

#227 Indiana

Nebraska is not ranked.

 

UAUM

March 15th, 2011 at 12:59 PM ^

Those World Rankings are based on global perspective, which means who have the .5 billion high school students in India and China heard of? 

They're going to have heard of the top tier, like Harvard, etc. and then they're going to know of the big schools that accpet lots of foreign students, like a Michigan or ohio state, versus a Notre Dame, who doesn't have the sheer number of foreign students. 

That ranking is next to meaningless.

WolvinLA2

March 15th, 2011 at 6:56 PM ^

Correct.  ND has a good undergrad school, but their grad programs range from average to kinda bad,  Michigan's grad programs, OTOH, range from spectacular to literally the best.  This makes a huge difference. 

Also, when you get a chance, take a look at University endowments on wikipedia.  Michigan is a very big fish when it comes to this stuff.

dharmabum

March 15th, 2011 at 6:08 PM ^

The national rankings relate only to undergraduate education, while the world rankings speak to the university overall (undergrad, grad, research).  This makes sense, Michigan's grad programs are generally more well respected than their (also well respected, but slight less so) undergrad programs.

JimLahey

March 15th, 2011 at 12:29 PM ^

Guys who gives a shit about these lists. The school itself is not nearly as important as the specific program or field of study that you choose to study within a school. I go to a school at the top of that list for law school and my undergrad comes from a school that you guys would make fun of me for having gone to. The education I have received from both are of similar quality. These rankings mean fuck all and do nothing except artificially alter the job market. That's my 0.02...I went to the university of Windsor Ontario and it was fantastic, and briefly MIT after that and now I go to Harvard Law.

Zone Left

March 15th, 2011 at 12:41 PM ^

In my experience, brand matters. Michigan has a great brand, and thus is a great school. Harvard has the best brand, and thus is the best school. I went to a no-name undergrad school too, and felt like I got a great education, but no one has heard of it, so I didn't necessarily get the real return I wanted out of it.

UAUM

March 15th, 2011 at 12:55 PM ^

That's why people with the same standardized test scores (which would indicate equal intelligence), but different undergrad schools get accepted to different grad schools.

All other factos being equal, if someone goes to UM for undergrad and has a 30 on his LSAT, they will get accepted at better law schools than someone who went to osu and got a 30 on their LSAT. 

MGoSoftball

March 15th, 2011 at 1:09 PM ^

I can attest to this from personal experience with law schools.  They look at the quality of the undergrad with equal importance to the LSAT.  They also took race into account back then.  Not anymore thanks to Prop 2.

Law School admissions is gray matter.  I had a 75% chance of getting into Wayne State with LSAT and GPA but was denied.  I can only determine it was my race and my undergrad.  My gender may had an impact but I doubt it.

Urban Warfare

March 15th, 2011 at 1:21 PM ^

I think if someone gets a 30 on the LSAT, they won't get into law school no matter where they went to undergrad.  Well, Cooley might let them in, but that's about the only place.

JimLahey

March 15th, 2011 at 2:17 PM ^

I don't think we are in disagreement. The "brand" is only part of the essence of an educational experience but is highly overvalued in the real word. This is why studies show that 20 years down the road, incomes are relatively even on average between those who went to higher ranked schools and those who went to middle ranked ones. Professional school is a different animal though.

My point is, I got a great education at a no name school and now I'm at Harvard. The only reason I came here is for the prestige/to say I went there. I have no shame in admitting that. However, brand and actual quality of education are completely different.

Jasper

March 15th, 2011 at 12:31 PM ^

Dang -- either OSU has come up in the world or, as someone else here suggested, the digits were switched and they're really 81.

I'm sure glad the Big Ten's academic profile was boosted by the Huskers.  I kid!  Really, I'm glad to have their football program in the conference.  They seem to be getting better at hoops, too.

Also, UNC has really come up in the world over the past thirty years.  It's my understanding that they used to look *up* to Wisconsin.  You can read about that here (and probably other places):

http://www.amazon.com/Whistling-Dixie-John-Shelton-Reed/dp/0156961741