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UMBC
George Mason
Towson
CUA
University of Baltimore
Everyman
UMD at Baltimore
Galludet
Notre Dame of MD University
Loyola University Maryland
American University
Entry level
Goucher
Trinity Washington
HBCU
Bowie State
Coppin State
Howard
Morgan State
Where would UDC fall in this hierarchy? Everyman or Entry Level?
And I thought that American University was a notch higher on the scale.
You should have noted that Gallaudet has a special distinction: It's a university for the Deaf - maybe the only higher education institution in the country that's designed specifically to meet the needs of deaf students. That, IMO, puts it on a plane of its own, even if academically speaking, it's Everyman-class.
But since we're now construction local/regional taxonomies of universities, I should put one together for Philadelphia too.
But I need to preface it with this note: The region may actually be better known as home to three of the top liberal-arts colleges in the country, one of which also offers graduate programs that students enrolled at either of the other two can also enroll in (I think; the school in question is one of the fabled "Seven Sisters" women's colleges).
While this discussion has omitted colleges, I think that no taxonomy of Philadelphia-area higher-ed institutions would be complete without these three, so I've included them in a separate category.
Elite
Penn
Princeton (kinda-sorta)
Villanova
Honorable Mention
St. Joseph's
University of Delaware
Everyman Plus
Drexel
La Salle
Rowan (former Glassboro State College)
Rutgers-Camden
Temple
Widener
Penn State Abington
Penn State Brandywine
Everyman
Holy Family
Wilmington University
The Entry Level schools in this region are its community colleges - Philadelphia (the largest), Montgomery County, Delaware County (which also serves Chester County), Burlington County College, Camden County College (which also serves Gloucester County). The two Penn State "Commonwealth Campuses" in the region (listed under Everyman Plus above) also fill this role through two-year associate degree programs
Elite Colleges
Bryn Mawr
Haverford
Swarthmore
Elite Colleges Honorable Mention
College of New Jersey* (former Trenton State College; also kinda-sorta for the same reason as Princeton)
*What we now know as Princeton University was chartered as the College of New Jersey in 1746; the school took its present name 150 years later. Trenton State College got catapulted into the ranks of "elite liberal-arts colleges" in the 1990s when the influential U.S. News & World Report "Best Colleges" rankings singled it out as the best academic bargain in the nation; applications to Trenton State began pouring in from all over the country. The college then chose to rename itself to reflect its elevated status - and drew a lawsuit from Princeton over use of its former name, which apparently the school never formally abandoned. The two schools worked out a settlement that allowed Trenton State to keep its new name, Princeton's old one.
Last edited by MarketStEl; 04-02-2020 at 09:19 AM..
But since we're now construction local/regional taxonomies of universities, I should put one together for Philadelphia too.
But I need to preface it with this note: The region may actually be better known as home to three of the top liberal-arts colleges in the country, one of which also offers graduate programs that students enrolled at either of the other two can also enroll in (I think; the school in question is one of the fabled "Seven Sisters" women's colleges).
While this discussion has omitted colleges, I think that no taxonomy of Philadelphia-area higher-ed institutions would be complete without these three, so I've included them in a separate category.
Elite
Penn
Princeton (kinda-sorta)
Villanova
Honorable Mention
St. Joseph's
University of Delaware
Everyman Plus Drexel
La Salle
Rowan (former Glassboro State College)
Rutgers-Camden
Temple
Widener
Penn State Abington
Penn State Brandywine
Everyman
Holy Family
Wilmington University
The Entry Level schools in this region are its community colleges - Philadelphia (the largest), Montgomery County, Delaware County (which also serves Chester County), Burlington County College, Camden County College (which also serves Gloucester County). The two Penn State "Commonwealth Campuses" in the region (listed under Everyman Plus above) also fill this role through two-year associate degree programs
Elite Colleges
Bryn Mawr
Haverford
Swarthmore
Elite Colleges Honorable Mention
College of New Jersey* (former Trenton State College; also kinda-sorta for the same reason as Princeton)
*What we now know as Princeton University was chartered as the College of New Jersey in 1746; the school took its present name 150 years later. Trenton State College got catapulted into the ranks of "elite liberal-arts colleges" in the 1990s when the influential U.S. News & World Report "Best Colleges" rankings singled it out as the best academic bargain in the nation; applications to Trenton State began pouring in from all over the country. The college then chose to rename itself to reflect its elevated status - and drew a lawsuit from Princeton over use of its former name, which apparently the school never formally abandoned. The two schools worked out a settlement that allowed Trenton State to keep its new name, Princeton's old one.
I might be bias, but I would put Drexel in the honorable mention under University of Delaware.
The rankings between the two are very close, and Drexel is the 2nd hub of the University City district after UPenn. Rowan and Widener are great universities, but different playing fields than Drexel.
Where would UDC fall in this hierarchy? Everyman or Entry Level?
And I thought that American University was a notch higher on the scale.
You should have noted that Gallaudet has a special distinction: It's a university for the Deaf - maybe the only higher education institution in the country that's designed specifically to meet the needs of deaf students. That, IMO, puts it on a plane of its own, even if academically speaking, it's Everyman-class.
UDC would be Everyman, and reviewing these comments and looking for into AU, I'd confer with reclassifying it to the Everyman Plus designation. Then for the HBCU's that I listed, they're also specially designated like Gallaudet. If they got straight classifications, I'd make Howard an Honorable Mention (it's practically a "Black Ivy"), Morgan State Everyman Plus, Bowie State Everyman, and Coppin State Entry Level. Of course, the community colleges are also Entry Level as you may expect.
Last edited by Borntoolate85; 04-02-2020 at 10:49 AM..
I might be bias, but I would put Drexel in the honorable mention under University of Delaware.
The rankings between the two are very close, and Drexel is the 2nd hub of the University City district after UPenn. Rowan and Widener are great universities, but different playing fields than Drexel.
Drexel average SAT score is 1280. I don't see how that rates honorable mention. Penn is 1500.
What's missing at the top are Swarthmore and Bryn Mawr. Small liberal arts schools on the Main Line that are prestigious nationally. Grads from those two places, particularly Swarthmore, tend to land in top graduate and professional programs.
UMBC
George Mason
Towson
CUA
University of Baltimore
Everyman
UMD at Baltimore
Galludet
Notre Dame of MD University
Loyola University Maryland
American University
Entry level
Goucher
Trinity Washington
HBCU
Bowie State
Coppin State
Howard
Morgan State
I also believe that American and Catholic U. rank higher than "everyman" colleges. Both certainly rank considerably higher than Univ. of Baltimore, which is a local commuter school.
I'm not sure what you mean by "Entry Level" but certainly Goucher and Trinity would appear to deserve better.
I would also place Howard University on a higher level than being just another, typical HBCU... It's the oldest and, in many eyes, the most prestigious of its type and garners lots of praise and respect in the general academic community. Its alumni list is quite amazing.
UMBC
George Mason
Towson
CUA
University of Baltimore
Everyman
UMD at Baltimore
Galludet
Notre Dame of MD University
Loyola University Maryland
American University
Entry level
Goucher
Trinity Washington
HBCU
Bowie State
Coppin State
Howard
Morgan State
I'm not sure how we are defining these categories but American should def be higher. it is a relatively well known university than Notre Dame of MD, more competitive than George Mason, and larger than CUA for example.
UDC would be Everyman, and reviewing these comments and looking for into AU, I'd confer with reclassifying it to the Everyman Plus designation. Then for the HBCU's that I listed, they're also specially designated like Gallaudet. If they got straight classifications, I'd make Howard an Honorable Mention (it's practically a "Black Ivy"), Morgan State Everyman Plus, Bowie State Everyman, and Coppin State Entry Level. Of course, the community colleges are also Entry Level as you may expect.
More on the boldfaced part below.
Something I learned when I was invited to be a respondent to a symposium on Baltimore's future from an up-from-the-bottom, think-beyond-the-box perspective there four years ago:
Morgan State University has the only architecture program in the city of Baltimore. Any Baltimorean who wants to pursue a career in architecture and wants to study in Baltimore has no other choice but to go there.
I also learned that Morgan State's architecture program graduates 45 percent of all African-Americans practicing in the profession. It's a mighty impressive statistic, and it's no knock on Morgan State that it's diminished by the fact that African-Americans make up about 1.5 percent of all practicing architects in the United States.
Is there an "Everyman Double Plus" category?
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheProf
I also believe that American and Catholic U. rank higher than "everyman" colleges. Both certainly rank considerably higher than Univ. of Baltimore, which is a local commuter school.
I'm not sure what you mean by "Entry Level" but certainly Goucher and Trinity would appear to deserve better.
I would also place Howard University on a higher level than being just another, typical HBCU... It's the oldest and, in many eyes, the most prestigious of its type and garners lots of praise and respect in the general academic community. Its alumni list is quite amazing.
"Practically a Black Ivy"? It's long been known as the Harvard of the HBCUs.
Last fall, the two schools played each other in football for the first time ever. (Harvard's PR machine characterized it as a game 109 years in the making, dating I guess to whenever Howard first fielded an intercollegiate football team.) I shared the news with my classmates with the tagline, "This fall, Harvard plays Harvard at last."
An up-and-coming social-impact developer I know here in Philadelphia is a Howard grad. We had discussed going up to see the game together, but it didn't materialize.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffD
Drexel average SAT score is 1280. I don't see how that rates honorable mention. Penn is 1500.
What's missing at the top are Swarthmore and Bryn Mawr. Small liberal arts schools on the Main Line that are prestigious nationally. Grads from those two places, particularly Swarthmore, tend to land in top graduate and professional programs.
You left out Haverford, and I put all three into a separate category labeled "Elite Colleges" in my taxonomy, because this discussion started out as about universities exclusively.
Swarthmore actually isn't on the Main Line: It's in east-central Delaware County. Anyone who's read Tom Wolfe's novel "I Am Charlotte Simmons" might recognize it as the fictional "Dupont University" located in a Philadelphia suburb just up the road from a dangerous slum. That slum is Chester, home to Widener University, one of the "Everyman Plus" schools. (I worked in Widener's communications office from early 2006 to late 2007.) It's a small industrial city (with its own suburbs) whose industry disappeared from the 1970s onward. One industrial employer remains in the city: a tissue plant Kimberly-Clark acquired when it bought Philadelphia-based Scott Paper Company. Otherwise, the city's economic mainstays right now are a casino attached to a harness racing track, a soccer stadium, a state prison and Widener.
Drexel and its current president, John Fry (who I met when Penn picked him to serve as its Executive Vice President [chief operating officer]; I was in the Office of University Communications at Penn at the time), are both overachievers. (Fry is one of only a very few university presidents in the country without a Ph.D. degree; his highest degree is an MBA.) Like Temple, Drexel has made great strides in both its status and its reach over the tenure of both Fry and his predecessor Constantine Papadakis, adding a slew of professional schools (law, business, medicine, media arts and design), upgrading its student body, and casting its sights on students well beyond Philadelphia - it opened a satellite campus in California, and if you listen to public radio or watch PBS, you might hear or see an occasional sponsorship message from the school employing its current marketing slogan, "Ambition Can't Wait." (See what I mean?) But yeah, it hasn't yet risen to the Elite Honorable Mention ranks yet, just like Temple hasn't yet.
Last edited by MarketStEl; 04-02-2020 at 11:26 AM..
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