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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 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?
Last edited by J_Treehorn; 02-25-2014 at 10:32 AM..
Reason: Inclusion of University of Miami
The University of Miami is not ranked as highly as Lehigh or Penn St this most current year but has been ranked higher in the very recent past. If you are going to use them as top schools, then the University of Miami should be counted for Miami too.
Penn St is nowhere near Philadelphia. William and Mary is nowhere near DC. Santa Barbara and San Diego are not part of the Los Angeles CSA. UC Davis is basically Sacramento, not part of SF CSA.
I don't really like the whole ranking universities thing. It is an impossible task. The most commonly used US News rankings are well known for their bias. I don't know of a ranking system that isn't in some way or another.
Last edited by EricNorthman; 02-25-2014 at 09:56 AM..
Reason: edited to add rant about rankings :)
The Dallas metroplex is home to SMU and TCU (cue the Fort Worth OMGZ you guyz TCU is in da Fort Worth not teh Dallas). Whether or not those schools rank in the top 50 of anything...........who cares? Perhaps a more interesting question would be, largest metro area with no top schools OR "BCS" caliber schools.
If anyone knows anything about Miami, it is the youngest big city in America so most other
colleges are more established than let say University of Miami which has a fine medical school but the City of Fort Lauderdale and Miami are 100 and 117 years respectively.
The University of Miami is not ranked as highly as Lehigh or Penn St this most current year but has been ranked higher in the very recent past. If you are going to use them as top schools, then the University of Miami should be counted for Miami too.
Penn St is nowhere near Philadelphia. William and Mary is nowhere near DC. Santa Barbara and San Diego are not part of the Los Angeles CSA. UC Davis is basically Sacramento, not part of SF CSA.
I don't really like the whole ranking universities thing. It is an impossible task. The most commonly used US News rankings are well known for their bias. I don't know of a ranking system that isn't in some way or another.
I agree - ranking colleges is a sleazy business, and wildly inconsistent at that. USNWR is probably the closest to reality, but toss in at least a +/-20% variance for crappy methodology and laziness. My list was a bit more "gut" than just a strict cut-off, but sometime you have to call a spade a spade and recognize a school for not being "top". I agree that a good case can be made for the University of Miami.
I understand some of the schools in parentheses are not in a particular CSA, but I think of them in an "orbit" that typically send graduates to a particular nearby city, hence the inclusion. Bat 'em down as you see fit.
SMU and the University of Miami are better than some of the schools you listed in the OP. UC Irvine? Really?
According to the 2013 US News list, UC Irvine sits at #49 (tied with Northeastern University in Boston) and University of Miami sits at #47. SMU sits at #60.
SMU and the University of Miami are better than some of the schools you listed in the OP. UC Irvine? Really?
UC Irvine is quite a bit more selective than SMU (look it up) and has a higher academic reputation probably everywhere but North Texas. UC system schools are like that - well funded, very competitive and legally unable to admit anyone on a quota. But you are right - it is on the far end of the spectrum and in parentheses for a reason. And it is just one of several good schools in LA. That does not elevate SMU.
I see that this list is just the top ten primary census statistical areas (though they are all also the respective CSAs). If I were looking at the list of cities, I'd cut off this comparison after #11 (Atlanta) because the population gap between #10 & #11 is much smaller than between #11 & #12.
I don't know how these are ranked in US NEWS, but in the South, one might make a case for Emory and Geogia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. Both are supposed to be very good schools
Edit: I don't know how big the NY CSA is, but many people here do think of Princeton as more in Philly's orbit than New York's. But West Point, though far from Manhattan, is usually considered to be in the NYC region.
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