New U.S. News & World Report Top College rankings

I talked to someone who is high up at the local Microville Tech about theserankings just last Saturday at our sons' soccer game. He said you will see a huge rise in MT's USNWR ranking this year because they took more time and more care filling out all the data forms. Predictably, MT's ranking rose.

Reads to me as if land-grant schools are generally undervalued; MT has top-level programs in nuclear engineering, forestry and oceanography, ag studies/engineering/research, a vet school and is very serviceable civil/mechanical/computer/construction engineering department, yet was ranked below some schools I know it's better than.

My own alma mater cracked the top 30 in its national category. Obviously it's gotten much better since I graduated.

 

New York City has a ton of Syracuse -- and even Fordham -- grads working in broadcast.

 

I didn't mean it like that, just that folks outside of the New York metro might be surprised by the number of Fordham grads working in broadcast.

Didn't Vin Scully go there as well? Not that he's worked in New York for a while.

 

mad props and respect to those in the biz who have made it w/o attending those three or columbia. but no doubt it's become tougher and tougher to do so.

 

I was looking at the data used to compile the rankings, and I just don't get it.

Percentage of applications accepted . . . tells me you're picky, not that you will teach them well when they get there.

SAT averages . . . tells me smart people are going to your school, not that you will teach them well when they get there.

Freshman retention rate . . . tells me how satisfied the students are, but satisfaction has hundreds of variables that may have nothing to do with "this law school has really molded my brain."

It's almost like saying the NBA is the best place to learn how to play basketball, because it's hard to get into and a lot of really good basketball players go there and once they get there they rarely ever want to leave.

 

These aren't law school rankings.

 

I don't know, the NBA never goes to Alaska so I could see the prospect of that trip being very enticing for certain college studs.

 

Yes, rank should play a role in making that decision, insofar as rank affects hiring.

Anyone who chooses their law school - or business or medical school - based upon the "quality of life" they will enjoy while there, I'm sorry, deserves what they get afterward. There are years to work and years to play. Those are years to work.

 

Are the two mutually exclusive?

Given equivalent scholarships to Johns Hopkins or the Sorbonne, which city would you choose?

 

They aren't mutually exclusive, no.

But it should only be an, "All other things being equal" factor.

 

I wasn't being subject specific. You could have substituted "law professor" with a professor of any subject.