Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This rankings list highlights what is wrong with the Internet: anyone with an opinion can post irrelevant and highly dubious information masquerading as authoritative. Further, llmrkc07's list shows that you cannot rank larger and small schools in one category and then categorically pronounce some better than others with flawed metrics that are not all explained. As proof, the quality of a school's athletics has NOTHING to do with the quality of its academic reputation. If it did, the Universities of Texas and Alabama and LSU would be ranked much higher than Harvard on almost any college ranking list. Texas Tech and A&M better than Trinity with location as one of the determinants? Have you been to Lubbock, College Station, and San Antonio?
To rank Trinity as low as llmrkc07 does shows how little this list addresses REAL academic reputation and quality. Different types of students choose universities for different reasons. Students looking for a big sports or greek experience in college will likely choose a school like Texas or A&M, whereas the ones who are looking for an academic or student-centered experience are more likely to choose a school with smaller sports programs like Rice or a Division 3 school, which will never get the attention of a big D1 school. Small schools like Williams, Swarthmore, or Trinity have great reputations with top students and employers, but would never compete in the sports category outlined for determining the top schools. Yet judging by the author's criteria, Texas Tech ranks much higher than the small schools I listed above--although academically focused individuals or employers know said schools blow Texas Tech or Texas State out of the water academically.
Want to find out what the really top universities are in Texas? You can do a few things: 1) Ask the really smart kids in high school (the ones who graduate in the top 5% of their class) where they are applying; 2) ask them where they would go to school in Texas if money were no object; or 3) measure where the pool of such students who remain in Texas to see where they enroll. I can almost guarantee you that Texas Tech, Texas State, University of Houston and some of the other schools listed would not rank so high. The real winners would probably be Rice, Texas, A&M, and Trinity.
There are so many other contradictions with the list. For example, most would agree Rice is #1 overall, but your price and sports variables are conflicting and would seemingly pull Rice's ranking down: Rice is one of the most expensive schools in TX (financial aid aside) and it has mediocre sports program at best for a D1 school, so how did you weight your variables so it ends up as the top school? Sam Houston State? How did it beat out other schools not on the list?
Needless to say, I hope others do research on the factors that are important to them when choosing a school beyond the vague, undefined ones on this list. Do It Yourself College Rankings is a good place to start. Equating athletic quality to the overall quality of a school is misleading and by llmrkc07's emphasis of athletics as a large determining factor, Rice should not be the Number 1 school on the list.
This rankings list highlights what is wrong with the Internet: anyone with an opinion can post irrelevant and highly dubious information masquerading as authoritative. Further, llmrkc07's list shows that you cannot rank larger and small schools in one category and then categorically pronounce some better than others with flawed metrics that are not all explained. As proof, the quality of a school's athletics has NOTHING to do with the quality of its academic reputation. If it did, the Universities of Texas and Alabama and LSU would be ranked much higher than Harvard on almost any college ranking list. Texas Tech and A&M better than Trinity with location as one of the determinants? Have you been to Lubbock, College Station, and San Antonio?
To rank Trinity as low as llmrkc07 does shows how little this list addresses REAL academic reputation and quality. Different types of students choose universities for different reasons. Students looking for a big sports or greek experience in college will likely choose a school like Texas or A&M, whereas the ones who are looking for an academic or student-centered experience are more likely to choose a school with smaller sports programs like Rice or a Division 3 school, which will never get the attention of a big D1 school. Small schools like Williams, Swarthmore, or Trinity have great reputations with top students and employers, but would never compete in the sports category outlined for determining the top schools. Yet judging by the author's criteria, Texas Tech ranks much higher than the small schools I listed above--although academically focused individuals or employers know said schools blow Texas Tech or Texas State out of the water academically.
Want to find out what the really top universities are in Texas? You can do a few things: 1) Ask the really smart kids in high school (the ones who graduate in the top 5% of their class) where they are applying; 2) ask them where they would go to school in Texas if money were no object; or 3) measure where the pool of such students who remain in Texas to see where they enroll. I can almost guarantee you that Texas Tech, Texas State, University of Houston and some of the other schools listed would not rank so high. The real winners would probably be Rice, Texas, A&M, and Trinity.
There are so many other contradictions with the list. For example, most would agree Rice is #1 overall, but your price and sports variables are conflicting and would seemingly pull Rice's ranking down: Rice is one of the most expensive schools in TX (financial aid aside) and it has mediocre sports program at best for a D1 school, so how did you weight your variables so it ends up as the top school? Sam Houston State? How did it beat out other schools not on the list?
Needless to say, I hope others do research on the factors that are important to them when choosing a school beyond the vague, undefined ones on this list. Do It Yourself College Rankings is a good place to start. Equating athletic quality to the overall quality of a school is misleading and by llmrkc07's emphasis of athletics as a large determining factor, Rice should not be the Number 1 school on the list.
The real winners, based on the system you did, would only be Rice, Texas, and A&M. Trinity isn't in the same category as them.
University of Houston - Sorry but this school has come up a lot, like to the point where it's a better value and ROI than most schools in the State. If you can do well in a relevant field, then Houston is pretty much open for you.
...You cannot rank larger and small schools in one category and then categorically pronounce some better than others with flawed metrics that are not all explained.....
....Want to find out what the really top universities are in Texas? You can do a few things: 1) Ask the really smart kids in high school (the ones who graduate in the top 5% of their class) where they are applying; 2) ask them where they would go to school in Texas if money were no object; or 3) measure where the pool of such students who remain in Texas to see where they enroll.
A very intriguing methodology - perhaps you should formalize it. Especially the "ask the really smart kids" part.
(PS - I somehow doubt somebody is going to consciously chose an undergaduate school based on a forgotten post from 2011 on the City-Data forum, but if they do, so be it - it won't effect your quality of life. No need to get upset about someone's else opinion or at the internet in general).
University of Houston - Sorry but this school has come up a lot, like to the point where it's a better value and ROI than most schools in the State. If you can do well in a relevant field, then Houston is pretty much open for you.
Texas Tech - This school has also come up a lot.
Gap
SMU
UT-Dallas
TCU
Baylor
Trinity
The rest of the smaller state schools
University of Houston four-year graduation rate: 16%
Texas Tech four-year graduation rate: 37%
These are not numbers indicative of stellar universities, and they certainly do not rank above the ones you have listed. How can you measure ROI fairly if a large chunk of your student body is not even graduating?
University of Houston four-year graduation rate: 16%
Texas Tech four-year graduation rate: 37%
These are not numbers indicative of stellar universities, and they certainly do not rank above the ones you have listed. How can you measure ROI fairly if a large chunk of your student body is not even graduating?
Would you really send your kid to Baylor to study chemical engineering if you lived in Houston? UH is a better bargain and has a direct link to the city of Houston's job market. I'm just saying its more practical. The schools rep has gone up over the years.
Would you really send your kid to Baylor to study chemical engineering if you lived in Houston? UH is a better bargain and has a direct link to the city of Houston's job market. I'm just saying its more practical. The schools rep has gone up over the years.
How can you measure ROI fairly if a large chunk of your student body is not even graduating?
4 year graduation rate is a stupid way of measuring ROI. If you want to measure ROI, then measure debt levels upon completion (graduation or non-enrollment) which you can then measure against the student's current income. 4 year graduation rate is only relevant to idiots who think college is an extension of high school.
Not only that, graduation rate is also highly dependent upon socioeconomic factors, so all you are really measuring is the class of the students you admit - you don't need to look at graduation rates to do that. You have all their socioeconomic info on their admittance forms.
As for all the people trumping Rice and Trinity, I'm sure they are great schools, but they are so small as to be irrelevant. Rice has 3848 undergrads and Trinity like 2500 - I'm sorry but that's not producing enough high quality workers in a state the size of Texas. Compare that to Stanford with 15,000, MIT with 5,000 (and 10,000 total). Rice is 50% smaller.
I'm sure if Angelo State (to pick a seriously middling school) had that few students, they'd be able to pick and choose the best few as well. Also at that size, the alumni networks are small and the reach outside of Texas for each is basically non-existent.
Last edited by TheOverdog; 08-13-2014 at 11:23 AM..
University of Houston four-year graduation rate: 16%
Texas Tech four-year graduation rate: 37%
These are not numbers indicative of stellar universities, and they certainly do not rank above the ones you have listed. How can you measure ROI fairly if a large chunk of your student body is not even graduating?
Oh, wait this may be an accurate reflection for Tech.
U of H has probably 30,000 students working full-time and taking as many classes as they can.
So a better comparison would be, possibly, eventual graduation rate. Yeah, that would be tuff to do, considering they may graduate elsewhere.
Would you really send your kid to Baylor to study chemical engineering if you lived in Houston? UH is a better bargain and has a direct link to the city of Houston's job market. I'm just saying its more practical. The schools rep has gone up over the years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PanTerra
Better yet, A&M.
If the chances are higher that my kid would actually graduate, YES. Employers do not recruit exclusively from schools in the city in which they are located. Kids move all around the country, let alone a state, to go to school, and it does not necessarily limit their chances of finding a job in a particular city (not every UT student stays in Austin after graduating, and thousands have found jobs in cities around the state and country).
Also, as an employer, I would care about the reputation of the school. Baylor and A&M have better reputations and stronger student bodies overall than U of H, so, as a parent, I would send my kid to one of those schools over UH.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
