Most desirable colleges by state
Thought this was a pretty cool representation of the most desired colleges across the country.
http://www.businessinsider.com/desirable-college-state-map-2014-5#!JGGll
Thanks for sharing. The only one I really found odd was Florida and UCF being the "most desirable." I know it's based on applications only, but UCF would probably be 4th on any other list for Florida.
Agreed. I also thought Tulane over LSU, Wash U over Missouri, and Duke over UNC were a bit interesting.
...very good school. Tough one. That one surprises me as well.
It's a strangely tough school to get into. I have two friends who got into Harvard (from Michigan, FWIW); one was waitlisted and turned away from WashU and the other was flat out rejected. Puzzling. Definitely a top notch place
If it goes by most applications only, then Tulane>LSU and WashU>Missouri makes sense. Tulane and Washington University (of St Louis I presume) are both nationally recognized universities. LSU and Missouri are not. I would bet the out-of-state applications for Tulane and WashU dwarf what LSU and Missouri get
I was thinking Marquette was odd for Wisconsin as Wisconsin is usually ranked as the 3rd or 4th best B1G school academically.
I missed that one...another surprising choice.
I didn't scroll down to each state, just glanced at the map. You are right - those are odd.
Their janitors solve complex equations that their students can not.
I believe the school you're referring to is MIT, not Harvard.
date Harvard med students
...and then they all play texas hold 'em with Russian gangsters and wear disguises to bilk casinos out of millions at the blackjack tables.
Only after they're through taking down top secret, black bag, assassination squads and making the CIA look foolish.
Rutgers over Princeton isn't surprising at all. Rutgers (59,000 students) is so much bigger than Princeton (8,000), not to mention that most people realize they have no chance at Princeton or the money even if they got accepted. Plus, it's not Princeton, but Rutgers is a good school, right? The Northeastern one is surprising though. I THINK I've heard of Northeastern University before. Looking at enrollment, it's barely bigger than Harvard.
Duke (over UNC) and Tulane (over LSU) surprise me a little. I guess out-of-state applications tilt the playing field in their favor.
I am aware of that. But UNC and LSU are the flagship schools in their states and I figured a lot of kids just want to go there, and don't bother to aim higher. If you don't get into UNC, you probably aren't getting in Duke.
If I were an undergraduate looking to study Marketing or Supply Chain Management, I would choose Michigan State over any other in-state school, U-M included. MSU gets laughed at for its School of Packaging Engineering, but graduates of that school have developed some truly innovative packaging designs that are probably on your shelves right now.
It comes down to the school that offers the best program in which you are most interested and where you believe you will be most successful.
I generally agree, although choosing a university to follow into one specific course of study can be a little dicey - you may find you don't like it after all.
Oh man, if I had a dime for every time I've heard a joke about State's packaging engineering program...
This made me laugh out loud.
Also, regarding the previous comment, what kind of 17 year old high school kid makes up their mind that marketing or supply chain management is the life for them? MSU grads always talk about those couple random programs they offer that are ranked high or whatever, but aren't program-specific rankings for graduate school? I mean, I'm pretty sure they don't rank majors -- undergrad is undergrad (for the most part -- engineering is obviously different, but that's still a general degree category, not a major), and you're still way better off with a bachelors degree in general studies from UM than a bachelors in supply chain management from MSU, probably even if you want to manage supply chains.
Like seriously, there are like 3 schools that offer a "packaging engineering" degree. So is being #2 or whatever really all that great?
While U-M offers an excellent graduate program in SCM (I work in that discipline) it is not even in the Top 10 for its undergraduate program. MSU's programs are exactly the reverse. And you're not correct when you state that individual majors are not ranked or that a school's reputation in a given program is not considered. I work for a company that measures supply chain programs on both criteria and publishes the findings.
When I was at IBM, we preferenced new college hires from MSU because they were among the very best; elite, in fact. The only schools that were in the same tier are Penn State, Georgia Tech, Arizona State, U-Tennessee and Ohio State. The graduating seniors I interviewed from MSU were exceptionally well prepared for careers in supply chain; many even had certifications in SAP, Oracle, JDA and other enterprise software applications.
Finally, while most business majors may not go into their field of study with a burning desire for supply chain, I heard a graduating high school senior from my daughter's school indicate that she was going to MSU and hoped to pursue a career in SCM. It was the first time I'd ever heard someone say that.
Some exceptions, but mostly just a list of flagship institutions. The interesting part is where the "most desirable" is neither the state flagship nor simply the biggest school.
The most desirable in Mass? The number seems wrong. They cannot possibly have as many application as UM (almost) or more than UMass.
It may have changed since I was applying to school (2009), but I believe back then BC was the hardest school to get into % wise. Some of those schools on the East coast have such a high volume of applicants that they appear/have to be very selective.
"Most Desirable" seems a bit misleading, as it's actually just measuring total number of applications. Percentage accepted seems, to me, a more relevant meaure of how desirable a school is.
But your description wouldn't apply to most of the schools on this list. Michigan, Northwestern, Duke, UCLA . . . those aren't exactly easy schools to get into.
You are correct sir!
Either way, desirable or not, you'll end up paying a shitload of money to them.
NYU is an overrated school.
Seems to be a trend in lower population density states, but some school acceptance rates are crazy high. Wyoming, Kansas and South Dakota State are 96%, 92% and 92% respectively!
Acceptance rates seem to have limited meaning re: desirability until you reach the elite schools. Last year, Central Michigan's acceptance rate was actually 6 percentage points lower than MSU's.
Not much meaning when it comes to desireability, but I imagine you could pinpoint why acceptance rates are high. For example, I would guess South Dakota's comes from the booming oil industry (aka rapid population and economic growth). Schools are trying to create and then fill seats with the money they've been given by the state and will accept just about anyone who applies.
Kids from the great plains need backup schools too.
Glorified commuter school.
I question the accuracy of those numbers. My son applied to UW-Madison for fall of 2014 and at an admitted student event they told us that they'd received over 30,000 applicants this year. Their numbers for 2012 were about that (29,504 http://www.wisc.edu/about/facts/).
By the way, I wouldn't let him go there.
We obviously know how to pump it and sell it (desire->demand).
Now let's figure out how to properly value and price it, because right now something is
horribly out of place here. Prices have derailed from fundamentals.
Student loan debt is the next bubble. $100,000 in debt when I graduated and not everyone is as fortunate as I was to have a decent paying job right out of college.
That graph says more about the defenestration of the middle class than the cost of attending college.
Oh for heaven's sake, if "total applications" is the right indicator of "desirability" than McDonald's is the best restaurant in the universe.
A better measure would be acceptance rate (i.e. Stanford's is about 5.6 ot 5.7 and Harvard's is about 5.9).
If the McRib is back then it would be the best restaurant in the universe. If not, then KFC is best in universe because the Double Down is back!
The KFC Famous Bowl is "A failure pile in a sadness bowl." Other than that, I'm with you on KFC. Their boneless chicken breasts are dipped in crack for extra goodness.
(Former employee and the company has gotten much worse the last 5 years or so)