usnews.com College Rankings Out

Xenon14

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Oct 9, 1999
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USNews released new college rankings, but they only reveal parts of them, and you have to register to get the rest. Does anyone have access to the Gerenal Undergraduate Business rankings, if so PM me or Post them here. Thanks.
 

olouie

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Sep 19, 2001
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nice my school is back up to 7th (Middlebury, VT) .... was 5th when i got here, but 7th is not too bad
 

ElFenix

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Mar 20, 2000
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usnews rankings don't mean sh!t and never have. they change the formula so that harvard, princeton, and yale are number 1 as often as they can make them. they start with a preconception and then collect statistics and manipulate the data to "prove" their preconception. its just a gigantic farce. i might as well come up with my own rankings.
 

Feebes

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Sep 12, 2002
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I'm looking to see how the University of Florida ranks for Undergraduate Finance. That's the program I'm in now. Can anybody help?
 

ElFenix

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Originally posted by: Feebes
I'm looking to see how the University of Florida ranks for Undergraduate Finance. That's the program I'm in now. Can anybody help?

get good grades and a few internships and it doesn't matter! its a farce! you're just playing into the hype!
 

FrontlineWarrior

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Apr 19, 2000
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Originally posted by: ElFenix
Originally posted by: Feebes
I'm looking to see how the University of Florida ranks for Undergraduate Finance. That's the program I'm in now. Can anybody help?

get good grades and a few internships and it doesn't matter! its a farce! you're just playing into the hype!

Everyone else does also, so does it really matter? If Employer X is going to hire me over Joe Schmoe because USNews says my college is better, then USNews pwnz me.

 

Xenon14

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Oct 9, 1999
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Last year's rankings for my school.... University of Maryalnd Robert H. SMith school of business was 16. The year before that it was 21. So we're moving on up! Hopefully by the time i graduate we'll rival Stern. But I want to know where it ranks this year. And I agree that these rankings aren't an exact representation of the education...for instance NYU is ranked high b/c it's in the city, and a lot of graduates find good paying jobs and internships... that's why the school itself gets a higher rank, amongst other things. So if anyone finds out. Post it here.
 

oLLie

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Jan 15, 2001
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Originally posted by: ElFenix
Originally posted by: Feebes
I'm looking to see how the University of Florida ranks for Undergraduate Finance. That's the program I'm in now. Can anybody help?

get good grades and a few internships and it doesn't matter! its a farce! you're just playing into the hype!

So can you help me see how University of California Irvine is doing in Computer Science?

Or is that a farts too?
 

bmd

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Feb 17, 2001
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Pfft. Caltech 3rd behind MIT and Stanford. /rude usnews. GO TECHERS BABY, YEAH!
 

Jfur

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Jul 9, 2001
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Originally posted by: ElFenix
usnews rankings don't mean sh!t and never have. they change the formula so that harvard, princeton, and yale are number 1 as often as they can make them. they start with a preconception and then collect statistics and manipulate the data to "prove" their preconception. its just a gigantic farce. i might as well come up with my own rankings.

Some of the selection criteria are suspect. For example, why does the % of alumni that make donations affect college ranking? Also, it measures incoming variables like SAT but nothing outgoing. So if a school attracts a bunch of higher SATS and then everyone lies around and masturbates for 4 years it would rank higher than a school with a slightly lower average SAT where people did actual work. The formulas used also DO give an edge to *SURPRISE* the alma maters of the people behind it. The one year the formula was changed CalTech came out #1 (there was an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education about this a few years back).

I wouldn't say it is worthless, but I wouldn't give it too much credence when selecting where to apply.
 

dethman

Lifer
Oct 12, 1999
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they change the formula so that harvard, princeton, and yale are number 1 as often as they can make them. they start with a preconception and then collect statistics and manipulate the data to "prove" their preconception.


this is pretty much true, as in adjusting so that the ivy league schools always get top ranking. i don't know if it's done every year though. it's not a complete farce, but don't take too much stock into these rankings.

 

ElFenix

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Mar 20, 2000
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ok, so caltech came out on top, the next year the rankings were adjusted to bias against state-schools (they weighed spending/student more, and since schools spend pretty similar amounts of money on admin for both public and private the private schools got boosted). thats enough to have put harvard, princeton, and yale on top for the last few years.

i got a letter backed by the dean of pretty much every law school in the country saying that using the rankings was a pretty bad way to determine where to go.
 

Jfur

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Jul 9, 2001
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Originally posted by: ElFenix
ok, so caltech came out on top, the next year the rankings were adjusted to bias against state-schools (they weighed spending/student more, and since schools spend pretty similar amounts of money on admin for both public and private the private schools got boosted). thats enough to have put harvard, princeton, and yale on top for the last few years.

i got a letter backed by the dean of pretty much every law school in the country saying that using the rankings was a pretty bad way to determine where to go.

That was really my point. Having met many people who attended those schools there is no way anyone is going to convince me that CalTech should be buried on that list. As far as enginnering goes CalTech is way better (if you are looking at the quality of graduate it produces). After the one year "oops" they reverted back to the Hahhhvard formula. Harvard, btw, in another recent expose was disclosed to give about 90% A's. Hmmmm.... So when you are applying for jobs or grad schools against Harvard grads you not only get the name competition but zillions of magna cum laude 4.0 "mental wizards". Students from comparable schools with lesser reps giving out fewer inflated A's would suffer.
 

gopunk

Lifer
Jul 7, 2001
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Originally posted by: ElFenix
usnews rankings don't mean sh!t and never have. they change the formula so that harvard, princeton, and yale are number 1 as often as they can make them. they start with a preconception and then collect statistics and manipulate the data to "prove" their preconception. its just a gigantic farce. i might as well come up with my own rankings.

it's just cool for bragging rights. well unless you're in one of the "third tier schools"
 

aphex

Moderator<br>All Things Apple
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Jul 19, 2001
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Originally posted by: Feebes
I'm looking to see how the University of Florida ranks for Undergraduate Finance. That's the program I'm in now. Can anybody help?

Glad to see another gator round these parts, theres a few of us here now.... I'll be back in g'ville in the spring.... Good luck bro!

<-- 4th year BABA/GB :)
 

Lucky

Lifer
Nov 26, 2000
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For example, why does the % of alumni that make donations affect college ranking?


Well, I suppose that's intended to measure how the endowment ranks or how much money is raised from alumni, a very important factor if you ask me. mabye not the best way to compute this but i cant confirm what you are saying is true so its moot.
 

Jfur

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Jul 9, 2001
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Originally posted by: Lucky
For example, why does the % of alumni that make donations affect college ranking?


Well, I suppose that's intended to measure how the endowment ranks or how much money is raised from alumni, a very important factor if you ask me. mabye not the best way to compute this but i cant confirm what you are saying is true so its moot.

If you go to their site, you'll see it explicity listed as one of their criteria. It's listed separately from financial resources. I don' think it's irrelevant but it seems to have helped Princceton take the top spot this year (along with several other factors that were quite close).

 

hans007

Lifer
Feb 1, 2000
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Originally posted by: ElFenix
usnews rankings don't mean sh!t and never have. they change the formula so that harvard, princeton, and yale are number 1 as often as they can make them. they start with a preconception and then collect statistics and manipulate the data to "prove" their preconception. its just a gigantic farce. i might as well come up with my own rankings.

he is very right. they change it all the time. that one year where they put that cal tech as number one i think yale harvard and princeton were about to pee their pants.

they weigh a lot of stuff that you wouldn't care about. like per student research grants donated, things like that. us news/newsweek college rankings are just as bad as sysmark macro loops. all these rankings do is just give asian parents a list of schools they can push their kids to go to .


playboy's top 10 schools has ucla as #3. i'm pretty happy with that one.