Rising University Cities: Top 100 University Rankings Change (2014 > 2022) (employment, private schools)

[the resident09]

Originally Posted by manitopiaaa

The price of higher education has skyrocketed and private universities have been at the forefront of that price creep. The tuition at Brandeis University and Tufts alone (neither a nationally known commodity by any means) is now at $60,000 per year.

I can absolutely understand why some top-tier students are saying: "You know what. I can pay $18,000 to go to the University of Virginia, get a Top 25 education, and save $30k from a comparable private university. Why not?" I also think State Universities have gotten really smart about this and have really built up Honors Colleges that compete very well with private universities. Some of them even have eligibility requirements like 32-33 ACT scores (see Michigan State) that basically means you can be surrounded by Ivy League-quality peers without the $$$$$.

I've noticed the same here in D.C. Universities like American University and George Washington University have seen their star fade as tuition has skyrocketed and who wants to pay $57k for a school ranked #50-100? Especially when you can pay $55k and attend Johns Hopkins, a Top 10 university, or $56k for Georgetown, a Top 25.

I think public universities will continue to rise, expensive B-tier private universities will continue to collapse, and Top 25 (and especially Top 50) universities will continue to thrive due to large endowments (Bloomberg casually donates billions to Johns Hopkins) and the continued influx of wealthy Asians who are willing to pay top-dollar for an elite degree.

Although, Howard University's meteoric rise is pretty astonishing for a private HBCU.

Howard University (#142 > #83) +59

Sure it ranks #83 overall, but by far and away has to be the highest ranked HBCU. Howard has recently gained a lot of donations, as well as top prominent Black professors/writers to come join the faculty. It's nickname as "the Mecca", and "Black Harvard" has really been a draw to the incoming generation of students. The school has a global pull and cache that's only growing.

[2Easy]

Originally Posted by masssachoicetts

I am Aa Seeing a very interesting trend here.

Most of the large increases in university rankings seem to be coming from state universities like the University of Florida Rutgers Texas UMass Amherst and more.

This is a pretty interesting trying to watch. Go State U!

I can't imagine that state universities are getting that much better or that private universities are getting worse. I think that it has to do with US News' continued tweaking of their criteria. I believe that SAT/ACT test scores used to be much more important criteria than they are now. Also, they no longer appear to weigh admission percentages at all.

[masssachoicetts]

Originally Posted by 2Easy

I can't imagine that state universities are getting that much better or that private universities are getting worse. I think that it has to do with US News' continued tweaking of their criteria. I believe that SAT/ACT test scores used to be much more important criteria than they are now. Also, they no longer appear to weigh admission percentages at all.

Eh i think with further inflation, a Fordham or Tufts wont see the increase in applications of state schools over time. Costs are just so much lower at state schools, and the programs are equally as great.

[PolarSeltzer]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

A quarter of the top 100 are in NYC Boston and DC...

Wheres Johns Hopkins? https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/jhu-2077 this says #9

And 15% of the top 100 are in one state, California.

[RocketSci]

Originally Posted by PolarSeltzer

And 15% of the top 100 are in one state, California.

California has 15% of the nation's wealth and 12% of all Americans live there, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise California has 15% of the top universities.

[masssachoicetts]

Originally Posted by RocketSci

California has 15% of the nation's wealth and 12% of all Americans live there, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise California has 15% of the top universities.

Agreed. I think states like MA CT RI NY NJ VT etc punch way above their weight.

[18Montclair]

Here is the original US News College Ranking from 1983:
1 Stanford
2 Harvard
3 Yale
4 Princeton
5 UC Berkeley
6 U of Chicago
7 Michigan
8 Cornell
9 U Illinois
10 Dartmouth
11 MIT
12 Cal Tech
13 Carnegie-Mellon
14 Wisconsin

Honorable Mention:
Brown
Columbia
Indiana
UNC Chapel Hill
Rice

It was a survey taken by university presidents. They were asked to rank the Top 5 schools in the country, and above was the result. From what I understand, public juggernauts Berkeley and Michigan being so highly regarded did not sit will with many elite privates so they lobbied hard to have criteria like student-to-teacher ratio and alumni giving included, which permanently shut out public universities from the top 20.

Also, keep in mind this is also an undergrad, domestic ranking. As far as grad school rankings, the list is completely different as those elite publics really shine.

[OyCrumbler]

Here are three other commonly cited university ranking systems and a brief breakdown of their methodologies:


https://www.topuniversities.com/univ...ogies-compared


In all of these, among US universities, the public universities end up jumping into the top twenty among US universities pretty easily despite different methodologies.

[elchevere]

State schools no doubt can give as good an education; for me, I’d be paying for job placement which elite privates still carry clout (some of which comes via strong alumni connections who take care of their own—not just locally, but nationally). Also, depends on your field. Some elite private schools are still the golden ticket to Investment banking and top law firms.

[BigLake]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

Here is the original US News College Ranking from 1983:
1 Stanford
2 Harvard
3 Yale
4 Princeton
5 UC Berkeley
6 U of Chicago
7 Michigan
8 Cornell
9 U Illinois
10 Dartmouth
11 MIT
12 Cal Tech
13 Carnegie-Mellon
14 Wisconsin

Honorable Mention:
Brown
Columbia
Indiana
UNC Chapel Hill
Rice

It was a survey taken by university presidents. They were asked to rank the Top 5 schools in the country, and above was the result. From what I understand, public juggernauts Berkeley and Michigan being so highly regarded did not sit will with many elite privates so they lobbied hard to have criteria like student-to-teacher ratio and alumni giving included, which permanently shut out public universities from the top 20.

Also, keep in mind this is also an undergrad, domestic ranking. As far as grad school rankings, the list is completely different as those elite publics really shine.

Thanks for posting that original list from 1983. Very Interesting.

It's true that more recently, some of the top public schools (Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, Virginia) often never place higher than 20 or so in the rankings. It does seem like some of the criteria is stacked against them, or there may be some bias.

Frankly, I don't think academia really views the USNews ranking very seriously. The UK Times and QS rankings are think are viewed as more credible.