US News college ranking

[robr2]

Originally Posted by Amontillado

It's been in the news that Columbia University provided faulty information to US News, which caused its ranking to be higher than it should have been. One of Columbia's own professors blew the whistle on this error (or deliberate deception) and Columbia withdrew the data. But now I'm wondering, have any other colleges been cheating in the same way? Not that any around here ever would, of course.

The USNWR college rankings began as a way to sell magazines and it's become the end all and be all of many schools and parents. To say your kid got into "top 10 ranked school" is a big deal. And for the schools, the higher the ranking, the better the students, the more full pay. It's all a big game.

Now the professor based his article on his thought that Columbia's "meteoric" rise from 18th in 1988 to 2nd in 2021 would be impossible without deceit. Most importantly, Columbia took his claims seriously, is reviewing how it does it's reporting, and didn't participate this year.

There are two class action suits against the school already saying that the money the students spent wasn't worth it and that they wouldn't have even applied. For goodness sakes - it's Columbia, the Ivy League school that nobody would scoff at going to. And a 16 place jump in 33 years isn't exactly meteoric.

[Boston_Burbs]

Ulowell continues to be a very underrated school. Have worked in Boston/N of Boston, I have come across many more Ulowell engineering grads than Umass Amherst.

Also, Lowell does well with grad degrees as them, Northeastern, and Wentworth are really the only schools left that offer night grad classes in Engineering. Lots of local students with more prestigious undergrad going there for grad school part time. WPI also has a solid Night/Remote engineering grad program.

[matrix5k]

Originally Posted by Boston_Burbs

Ulowell continues to be a very underrated school. Have worked in Boston/N of Boston, I have come across many more Ulowell engineering grads than Umass Amherst.

Also, Lowell does well with grad degrees as them, Northeastern, and Wentworth are really the only schools left that offer night grad classes in Engineering. Lots of local students with more prestigious undergrad going there for grad school part time. WPI also has a solid Night/Remote engineering grad program.

Is a grad degree necessary for engineering? Do you get a big raise for having a Master's?

[Boston_Burbs]

Originally Posted by matrix5k

Is a grad degree necessary for engineering? Do you get a big raise for having a Master's?

My background is mainly Civil Engineering ( transportation, water, wastewater, structures, geotech, etc.) and yes if you are a designer for a consulting firm you typically need a Masters and Professional Engineering license to advance high enough to own stock in the firm.

This is the big reason Northeastern still has their grad classes at night. Sucks big time for the full time students but they make a killing on tuition from professionals in the city. Plus the firm usually picks up 25%-75% of the cost.

[bricka]

Originally Posted by Boston_Burbs

Ulowell continues to be a very underrated school. Have worked in Boston/N of Boston, I have come across many more Ulowell engineering grads than Umass Amherst.

Also, Lowell does well with grad degrees as them, Northeastern, and Wentworth are really the only schools left that offer night grad classes in Engineering. Lots of local students with more prestigious undergrad going there for grad school part time. WPI also has a solid Night/Remote engineering grad program.

agree. umass lowell is underrated in general, but particularly in engineering.

you don't get the quintessential "college" experience like you do at amherst tho.

[MtPleasantDream]

Originally Posted by robr2

UMass has worked hard to shed it's ZooMass, backup school over the past 10-15 years. Like many schools, the more prestige it has, the more students apply, allowing it to lower it's acceptance rate which increases the allure of the school and in turn attracts more high ranking, full pay students which starts the cycle all over again.

There are too many good private colleges in Massachusetts, so it is difficult for the UMass system to attract good students.

California has a much larger population than Massachusetts, but there are only three prestigious private schools: Stanford, USC and Caltech (which is small). As a result, many top students apply for Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB etc. Not to mention people throughout the world want to go to California.

[simplexsimon]

Originally Posted by MtPleasantDream

There are too many good private colleges in Massachusetts, so it is difficult for the UMass system to attract good students.

California has a much larger population than Massachusetts, but there are only three prestigious private schools: Stanford, USC and Caltech (which is small). As a result, many top students apply for Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB etc. Not to mention people throughout the world want to go to California.

I don't think that's the right way of looking at it. Good schools attract good students. For whatever reason UMass Amherst doesn't have the reputation of a strong flagship state school nationally...forget about California what about Virginia, Michigan, or Texas?

[MtPleasantDream]

Originally Posted by simplexsimon

I don't think that's the right way of looking at it. Good schools attract good students. For whatever reason UMass Amherst doesn't have the reputation of a strong flagship state school nationally...forget about California what about Virginia, Michigan, or Texas?

But what’s the reason why Umass doesn’t have the reputation?
Partly because all attention is on those private schools here. Michigan doesn’t have any top private university, and Texas only has Rice.

[simplexsimon]

Originally Posted by MtPleasantDream

But what’s the reason why Umass doesn’t have the reputation?
Partly because all attention is on those private schools here. Michigan doesn’t have any top private university, and Texas only has Rice.

I don't know...there's still a bit of a gap between UC Berkeley and UCLA and the privates in MA that aren't Harvard/MIT.

Public vs private university: completely different operating models. $14k in-state for Berkeley.

California's somehow figured it out and MA has not. Ironically K-12 in CA is near the bottom while MA is tops.

I believe the attention on private schools in the northeast is due to culture.

[massnative71]

National reputations tend to lag in-state reputations. As has been noted, UMass Amherst's local rise in stature has been relatively recent (20 years?). I predict that by 2030, it will have much higher standing on a national level. This goes for private schools as well. I mean, look at BC.. Not too long before UMass Amherst outgrew its "ZooMass" reputation, BC was just a "local Catholic school" (and look now...). BC might have been 10 years ahead of UMass Amherst?