Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I decided to look up my school on the US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY RANKINGS!! The results that I found were surprising. If you have not noticed from my screen-name, I am a student at the University of South Florida. It has the University of South Florida listed as a tier three school. Did the fail to realize that the University of South Florida is the 9th largest university in the country? Did they realize that USF is ranked by the National Science Foundation as one of the top 60 research universities in the country? Did they realize that USF, is the #1 school in the country for federal research funding this year? Did they realized that USF has a 3.2 billion dollar a year economic impact on the state of Florida? I really do not see how they can justify ranking USF so low and as a tier three school. Their formula is whack, it is based on what a group of people that publish a magazine think is good. In order to present a more accurate ranking system, they should just weigh out all the numbers equally, and have a group of distinguished university presidents and administrators determine what factors are important and which are not, these selected members should then reorganize the tier system and rankings that have been previously released by US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT. Each year the members of the board that has been selected to compile these rankings should be rotated out and a new group should come in and make any changes or leave things the same as they see fit to come up with the new rankings... I think this would be more fair and accurate. When a student looks that the University of South Florida on this website, I think it may scare them away, who wants to go to a tier three school. The fact is the University of South Florida should not be classified as a tier three school anymore, maybe that was the case ten years ago, but not anymore, I do not think the US World Report Updates their list appropriately. Honestly if they did they would realize that USF has outgrown that distinction. The incoming students at USF boast a very impressive 3.5 Grade Point Average. They have competitive SAT/ACT scores and they could have chosen to go to other top tier schools, but they are not foolish enough to be discouraged by the bogus US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT ranking system... Anyways, I don't think it matters go with your gut, honestly you can tell how good a school is just by looking at some of their achievements.
I may or may not agree with these rankings, (for the most part I do) however:
-It does not matter what YOU THINK about these rankings
-All that matters is what the RECRUITERS THINK about these rankings.
He who has the money makes the rules. If you attend USF and end up unemployed, you can cry all you want about National Science Foundation grants or whatever - the fact is you would still be unemployed while the guy from Johns Hopkins will be doing research somewhere.
BTW:
Size doesn't mean quality. USF is the 9th largest university in the country but that means nothing in terms of the quality of students.
Amount of research funding means nothing. USF only gets the amount they get because of their sheer size. Are you saying because they get more funding than a smaller school such as CalTech, that USF is better than CalTech?
What the average SAT score at USF? Bet it doesn't hold a candle to a Harvard or Yale.
BTW, peer assessment is only 25% of the US News & World Report ranking. And it is not board members that give these peer assessment ratings - it is the actual deans of the colleges themselves! For someone who supposedly attends a great "research" university, you obviously didn't do your research here.
With students such as yourself, it's no wonder why USF is still a tier-three / tier-four school.
The tier doesn't count. It is the program ranking that matters. But what matters the most is how much you like the college. You shouldn't move somewhere where it clashes with your personality.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry Ray
Hi all!
I've applied to many school and been accepted but stuck with the home state school. Never liked it too much and often hear people refer to it as a third tier school, which I suppose is a bad thing. How much do the lists of college ranking really matter? What is the basis for the tier categories? I recently got accepted to UNT and am very excited to move and have found through such lists, that the school is a fourth tier university . I'm not so sure how much I should I care about this. I know there are better business schools but I feel I will like the enviroment and I cant afford an ivy league. Do those rankings really matter to employers?
I decided to look up my school on the US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY RANKINGS!! The results that I found were surprising. If you have not noticed from my screen-name, I am a student at the University of South Florida. It has the University of South Florida listed as a tier three school. Did the fail to realize that the University of South Florida is the 9th largest university in the country? Did they realize that USF is ranked by the National Science Foundation as one of the top 60 research universities in the country? Did they realize that USF, is the #1 school in the country for federal research funding this year? Did they realized that USF has a 3.2 billion dollar a year economic impact on the state of Florida? I really do not see how they can justify ranking USF so low and as a tier three school. Their formula is whack, it is based on what a group of people that publish a magazine think is good. In order to present a more accurate ranking system, they should just weigh out all the numbers equally, and have a group of distinguished university presidents and administrators determine what factors are important and which are not, these selected members should then reorganize the tier system and rankings that have been previously released by US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT. Each year the members of the board that has been selected to compile these rankings should be rotated out and a new group should come in and make any changes or leave things the same as they see fit to come up with the new rankings... I think this would be more fair and accurate. When a student looks that the University of South Florida on this website, I think it may scare them away, who wants to go to a tier three school. The fact is the University of South Florida should not be classified as a tier three school anymore, maybe that was the case ten years ago, but not anymore, I do not think the US World Report Updates their list appropriately. Honestly if they did they would realize that USF has outgrown that distinction. The incoming students at USF boast a very impressive 3.5 Grade Point Average. They have competitive SAT/ACT scores and they could have chosen to go to other top tier schools, but they are not foolish enough to be discouraged by the bogus US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT ranking system... Anyways, I don't think it matters go with your gut, honestly you can tell how good a school is just by looking at some of their achievements.
I agree with this, except I go to UCF not USF. You chickens for dropping us from the schedule.
My biggest issue with US NEWS is how they treat UC Irivine and UCF/USF so differently. They were all founded around the same time, same campus design.....yet they decide to rank UC Irvine higher than UF and UT Austin yet they place UCF and USF in third tier.
No school....I don't care what system they are in.....founded in 1965 should be ranked higher than Ut-Austin and UF and other flagship state schools......while they leave UCF and USF as tier 3.....really? UCF had a 48% admission rate and Oklahoma had a 80% admission rate.....yet UCF is tier 3 and Oklahoma is tier 1?
What do they base these rankings off of? If it's historical prestige UC Irvine should be much lower, if it's admission selectivity Oklahoma should be much lower.
So UT-Austin gets a high ranking just because it is old???? Mkay. No. They stink.
Quote:
Originally Posted by th3vault
I agree with this, except I go to UCF not USF. You chickens for dropping us from the schedule.
My biggest issue with US NEWS is how they treat UC Irivine and UCF/USF so differently. They were all founded around the same time, same campus design.....yet they decide to rank UC Irvine higher than UF and UT Austin yet they place UCF and USF in third tier.
No school....I don't care what system they are in.....founded in 1965 should be ranked higher than Ut-Austin and UF and other flagship state schools......while they leave UCF and USF as tier 3.....really? UCF had a 48% admission rate and Oklahoma had a 80% admission rate.....yet UCF is tier 3 and Oklahoma is tier 1?
What do they base these rankings off of? If it's historical prestige UC Irvine should be much lower, if it's admission selectivity Oklahoma should be much lower.
So UT-Austin gets a high ranking just because it is old???? Mkay. No. They stink.
You an Aggie or a Sooner?
If you're not....care to explain how UC Irvine is better than UT-austin or UF. Those schools are not only much older, but they are excellent in many fields and leaders in research and quality instruction and are highly selective with a proven record that spans decades..... what exactly does UC Irvine have on them other than being a UC?
Well, according to my USN&WR, UCI is ranked 46 and UF and UT are tied for 47. So there isn't much of a difference.
Of the seven categories that USN&WR uses, all three schools are very similar in each category (i.e. student selectivity, reputation, etc.) except for 1) Faculty Resources (UCI is much better and it counts for 20%) and 2) Alumni Giving (UCI is much worse but it only counts 5%).
I think USN&WR defines Faculty Resources as the salary for professors adjusted for locality, % of full time faculty, % of small classes, % of big classes. So UCI wins for having higher paid faculty teaching smaller classes. I guess this offsets their alums not donating anything to the school. I guess as a student this might be important to you, but I don't think an employer would care.
As for student selectivity, it does note that the avg. ACT for UCI is 27, UT is 27, OU is 25, and USF is 22, so this might be part of the reason why UCI is ranked much higher than USF. I have family in Orange County. They tell me UCI is full of middle to upper middle class asian kids from families that put insane pressure on them to do well, but didn't do well enough on the ACT/SAT to get into Berkeley or UCLA. Orange County is a very wealthy area with a very good public school system, so that's why they get a relatively high caliber of students compared to UCF or USF.
But all of those schools are pretty regional, so if you are looking for a job in Tampa you will have an easier time as a grad of USF than UT or UCI.
My biggest issue with US NEWS is how they treat UC Irivine and UCF/USF so differently. They were all founded around the same time, same campus design.....yet they decide to rank UC Irvine higher than UF and UT Austin yet they place UCF and USF in third tier. No school....I don't care what system they are in.....founded in 1965 should be ranked higher than Ut-Austin and UF and other flagship state schools......while they leave UCF and USF as tier 3.....really?
So? The date these schools were founded says nothing about the academic quality of the schools.
Quote:
UCF had a 48% admission rate and Oklahoma had a 80% admission rate.....yet UCF is tier 3 and Oklahoma is tier 1?
Admission rate means little to nothing - what are the quality of students that each school admits? Average ACT / SAT scores? Percent of students in the top 10% of their HS Class?
Methodology, in chart form, is right here. Peer assessment and faculty resources make up almost half of the rating. Class size is included in faculty resources, so having a large enrollment probably doesn't help this statistic.
The other issue, which is really the main one, is what is the specific program "rating" within the school. Since most general universities have most majors, they won't all be rated at the top. If you go to a #100 school, but the program you go to is top 10, that's more important.
UT has the largest class enrollment in the nation. LOL. That will help their statistics
Believe me. UT is nauseatingly bad.
Quote:
Originally Posted by f_m
Methodology, in chart form, is right here. Peer assessment and faculty resources make up almost half of the rating. Class size is included in faculty resources, so having a large enrollment probably doesn't help this statistic.
The other issue, which is really the main one, is what is the specific program "rating" within the school. Since most general universities have most majors, they won't all be rated at the top. If you go to a #100 school, but the program you go to is top 10, that's more important.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
How much do the lists of college ranking really matter? What is the basis for the tier categories? I recently got accepted to UNT and am very excited to move and have found through such lists, that the school is a fourth tier university 
. I'm not so sure how much I should I care about this. I know there are better business schools but I feel I will like the enviroment and I cant afford an ivy league. Do those rankings really matter to employers?
