College Rankings!

August 23, 2003 8:54 AM

College Rankings! Seems like everyone's talking about 'em. There's the good ole controversial US News & World Report rankings, but thanks to the the librarians at UIUC, this wonderful site has links to many, many, many different rankings, including ones that let you make your own rankings. There's also rankings of some of the more important non-academic features of colleges, too. Does college rank really matter?
posted by Jos Bleau (19 comments total)

the only college rankings that matter, are the ones that have to do with sports. Here comes football season!
posted by howa2396 at 8:58 AM on August 23, 2003

Are you ready, for some football?!
posted by ejoey at 9:17 AM on August 23, 2003

I know that all my rowdy friends are coming over tonight.
posted by graventy at 9:35 AM on August 23, 2003

My alma mater Reed, refuses to participate in these rankings because they're such a skewed view of the value of a college education. I'm proud of them for that.
posted by Nelson at 9:38 AM on August 23, 2003

My school keeps slipping in the U.S. News and World Report rankings, despite our president's effort to overhaul the unique aspects of our college life and homogenize things to make us more like an Ivy League school. As far as those of us who have tried to figure it out can tell, we keep slipping in the "Undergraduate" rankings because we don't have a med school or a law school, and we don't pay our professors as much as some other top universities. None of which really have an impact on UG education, which I guess is another way of saying that to some extent the rankings are bullshit. (Not entirely, but somewhat.)
posted by nath at 11:56 AM on August 23, 2003

wow, UIUC is my alma mater and they didn't make the USN&WR this year... they've really gone down the pooper since I graduated... state budget cuts etc...

I don't know how much college rank matters, but I can say that at least with UIUC, it has correctly dropped lower and lower because budget cuts etc have really screwed it over...
posted by twiggy at 12:56 PM on August 23, 2003

wow, UIUC is my alma mater and they didn't make the USN&WR this year...they've really gone down the pooper since I graduated... state budget cuts etc...



Whaaat? We're #40. We were around there last year also.
posted by gyc at 1:19 PM on August 23, 2003

I started out at a top-25 US News school. I went for two years and dropped out. Then I went to a big state school, where I got a much better education. College is what you make of it.
posted by emptyage at 1:24 PM on August 23, 2003

We? Where do you go to school again, gyc?
posted by Eamon at 2:51 PM on August 23, 2003

I didn't even know about the US news rankings until after I'd enrolled in college. That fall a press release was dropped in all the student's mailboxes telling us Grinnell College was #12 on the liberal arts college listing. "Crap, I go to a good school, who knew?" I thought.

Ever since then I've been obsessed with the school's status -- which has waivered between 11 and 16 in recent years. I just want it to break the top 10 dammit.

Interesting to see that Grinnell isn't even on the uius listing, even though I'm sure it's more academically rigorous than some of the schools that are. Then again, that list seems to have a heavy focus on large universities.

Pretty arbitrary, though. I agree with emptyage that college is what you make it.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 4:56 PM on August 23, 2003

The only ranking that matters is Playboy's Party School Ranking... go ASU!
posted by ph00dz at 5:12 PM on August 23, 2003

ejoey, thanks for taking a shot of my comma use.
posted by howa2396 at 5:13 PM on August 23, 2003

err... thanks for taking a shot at my comma use?
posted by howa2396 at 5:14 PM on August 23, 2003

We? Where do you go to school again, gyc?

Oh come on Eamon, I'll always consider myself an Illini. Now, don't you have a Britney Spears concert to go to?
posted by gyc at 5:24 PM on August 23, 2003

Go Tigers.
posted by caddis at 6:18 PM on August 23, 2003

Geaux Tigers.
posted by turbodog at 10:49 AM on August 24, 2003

In Canada Maclean's magazine does a issue every year in which they rate the universities and declare a number one. It doesn't seem like useful information to me. If I were looking at schools I'd choose the one with the best version of the program I wanted and that was possible for me location and cost-wise.
posted by orange swan at 2:07 PM on August 24, 2003

My alma matter, San Francisco State University, has ranked #1 under the category for Most Debt: Universities–Master's (West).

School: San Francisco State University
% of grads with debt: 39%
Average amount of debt: $31,491

WE RULE! ...Spare change, mister?
posted by Down10 at 10:39 PM on August 24, 2003

I was somewhat shocked when I started my first (real, post-college) job, and the first person I met was OBSESSED with these college rankings. She asked me where I went to school (common question, as there were a fair number of entry-level folks around), and then immediately asked "What number is it?" I didn't know what she was talking about, and when she explained, I had no idea. She was utterly taken aback that someone wouldn't know the exact ranking of their college on the USNWR scale.
posted by Vidiot at 4:24 AM on August 29, 2003