Large metro areas without a "top school" (namely Dallas and Miami) (America, people)
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Of course "good schools" are highly concentrated on America's far older East Coast, but aside from California and parts of the South, it seems the sun-belt really strikes out. Leave anything out?
The southern metros with the best schools may be Atlanta with GT/Emory and RTP with UNC/Duke. Also aside from the ones that you already mentioned there's Vanderbilt in Nashville, Texas in Austin, Tulane in New Orleans, Florida in Gainesville (who'd a thunk this 30 years ago?), UVA in Charlottesville, and maybe Georgetown in DC. I guess the southern schools are often outside the larger metros. People would "go away" to school rather than stay home. Not sure of the reason for this, although it's the same in England with Cambridge and Oxford.
How can the OP not count SMU? It's considered a pretty high end school. Sure its still a school where rich kids who couldn't get into an Ivy go to but it's a great school to go to in Texas with some fine connections.
For Texas and especially Dallas SMU is one of the top schools. UT Dallas is supposedly the second best UT after Austin.
SMU is not really an ivy reject school. It's more like Dallas's version of USC or possibly NYU, without the film school draw.
IE a good, not great, school with a reputation for being for rich kids. I think the University of Miami may have the same type of rich kid repuation as well but would need feedback to confirm that..
Quote:
Originally Posted by radiolibre99
How can the OP not count SMU? It's considered a pretty high end school. Sure its still a school where rich kids who couldn't get into an Ivy go to but it's a great school to go to in Texas with some fine connections.
For Texas and especially Dallas SMU is one of the top schools. UT Dallas is supposedly the second best UT after Austin.
SMU is not really an ivy reject school. It's more like Dallas's version of USC or possibly NYU, without the film school draw.
IE a good, not great, school with a reputation for being for rich kids. I think the University of Miami may have the same type of rich kid repuation as well but would need feedback to confirm that..
I agree it most certainly is the Texas answer to nyu and usc.
UMiami is also in this category but to a smaller extent.
SMU doesn't really have any sort of national reputation. Sorry. NYU and USC, on the other hand, have huge national AND global (APAC primarily) presences.
NYU and USC rank among the top 15 in selectivity criteria. That's not everything, we all know that, but the caliber of student is a decent indicator for the quality of school.
The PNW does not have a major private university, but it does have a spectacular college in Reed, which is in Portland. Reed is an academic powerhouse, produces a huge number PhDs per capita, and has faculty, students, and curricular rigor that are second to none. It is super rigorous and intellectual, although not widely known to the Average Joe.
The PNW does not have a major private university, but it does have a spectacular college in Reed, which is in Portland. Reed is an academic powerhouse, produces a huge number PhDs per capita, and has faculty, students, and curricular rigor that are second to none. It is super rigorous and intellectual, although not widely known to the Average Joe.
Reed College is probably the true academic juggernaut that is not as known the general public but it is to those in the know.
It just chooses not to be included in the whole rankings game. It's like a really cool kid who does what he does for the intellectual journey not to be trendy.
Was having a chat with a friend last night, and we discussed how among the largest cities in America and their surrounding metropolitan expanses, most seem to have an anchor "top school" or two. By "top school", I mean an institution which is pretty much universally accepted to have both undergraduate and possibly relevant graduate programs that are among the best in the nation and are centrally located with the CSA catchment of a large city. They need not be Ivy League, but of that rough caliber. These schools often form a very big part of the history and "success" of their host metros, and ensure a flow of high-achieving alumni and active academic and professional accomplishment (with associated networks).
It seems in America that Dallas-Forth Worth is the largest metro that distinctly does not have anything that could pass for a top school. (EDIT: University of Miami is a very good school, and a strong case can be made for it being a "top school". My initial categorical exclusion of it was wrong)
I am by no means trying to insult alumni of school X that is outside this list, and I recognize that literally millions of people without a "top school" degree will far outpace those with one, but it seemed like an interesting observation to throw out there and start a typical City-Data grind. I've listed the largest CSAs (a better definition when scoping the flow of academia to and from a metro), and listed relevant schools that are either in the CSA or in that "orbit" (mostly ones that are around the top-50 on the USNWR rankings for undergrad and/or grad, an imperfect but still the best ranking out there). Some places, like Princeton, may be listed twice as they are equidistant geographically and culturally among two places. Here's my list:
1. New York CSA: Princeton, Yale, Columbia, NYU, (West Point?) 2. Los Angeles CSA: CalTech, UCLA, USC, (UC Santa Barbara?), (UC Irvine?), (UCSD?) 3. Chicago CSA: University of Chicago, Northwestern 4. Washington-Baltimore CSA: Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Naval Academy, (UVA?), (William and Mary?) 5. San Francisco-San Jose CSA: Stanford, UC Berkley, (UC Davis?) 6. Boston CSA: Harvard, MIT, Brown, Boston College, Tufts, Brandeis, Boston University, Northeastern (Dartmouth?) 7. Philadelphia CSA: Penn, Princeton, (Lehigh?), (Penn State?) 8. Dallas-Fort Worth MSA:Nothing (SMU is well outside almost every top 50 list) 9. Miami CSA: University of Miami 10. Houston CSA: Rice University
Getting further down the list, you can also raise questions about Denver (Air Force Academy? UD?), and Phoenix (nothing). Of course "good schools" are highly concentrated on Americano far older East Coast, but aside from California and parts of the South, it seems the sun-belt really strikes out.
Leave anything out?
Colorado Springs is not in the Denver CSA and the AFA doesn't get a lot of attention here. After all, it's very much a specialty school. CU-Boulder is in the CSA, also Colorado School of Mines, and CU-Denver and DU.
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