U.S. News & World Report College Rankings - SMU #70

[MrMustang1965]

from the Star - Telegram:

If Texans took college academic rankings as seriously as they took football polls, you might find fans howling for somebody's blood.

U.S. News & World Report released its annual ratings of American colleges today, and Texas came up short against a rival state: Texas had only two schools on the list of top-tier national universities, with just one, Rice, in the top 20.

California, on the other hand, had eight in the top tier, with two -- California Institute of Technology and Stanford University -- in the top 20.

The University of California System, with about 208,000 students, had six schools in the top tier of 51.

Only one member of the University of Texas System made the top 51: The University of Texas at Austin tied with four schools at 47th place, last in the category. Texas A&M University was ranked 60th.

No Texas schools made the list of top liberal-arts colleges.

The annual study, slated to hit newsstands Monday, bases its rankings on factors such as graduation rate, student-faculty ratio, acceptance rate and SAT/ACT scores.

Robert Morse, the magazine's director of data research, said the UC System's selective admissions policies gave it an edge, compared with UT System schools.

"Their financial resources are higher," Morse said, adding that faculty members there are typically better paid.

SAT scores for the students in the middle of the class admitted to Berkeley in 2005 ranged from 1220 to 1450; scores for the same class at UT-Austin ranged from 1110 to 1360, according to the study.

Morse noted that several UC System campuses also have medical schools. Some academics believe that the net effect of having a medical school connected to an undergraduate campus boosts the budget and faculty resource category since medical professors are typically higher paid than, say, someone who teaches freshman journalism. They also generate huge research expenditures.

The UT System's medical schools are predominantly stand-alone facilities, but they account for two-thirds of the research dollars in the system, according to Geri Malandra, interim executive vice chancellor for academic affairs for the UT System.

Private schools occupied the top 20 spots on the magazine's list. Ivy League schools dominated the top tier, with all eight of them in the top 15. Princeton, Harvard and Yale were Nos. 1, 2 and 3, respectively.

Texas Christian University tied with four schools at No. 105, down from 97 last year.

"While we are concerned that TCU's overall ranking has dipped slightly, we are pleased that the university is still ranked among the top institutions in the country," TCU Chancellor Victor Boschini said in a statement. "These rankings, which can easily change from year to year, are only one indicator of our success. ... This year's freshman class is the most talented and diverse to date. This is a clear indicator that more and more highly qualified prospective students and their parents are showing an increased interest in our institution."

The top five public universities were Berkeley, the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

UT-Austin has done considerably better in at least one other poll. England's 2005 The Times Higher Education Supplement put UT-Austin at No. 26 in the world, ahead of all the UC System schools except Berkeley.

The 2005 Times survey put Texas A&M at No. 125 and Rice at No. 150. No other Texas schools made the top 200.

Malandra said a soon-to-be-announced UT System 10-year strategic plan should begin yielding results as soon as next year.

As for the University of Texas at Arlington, which was in U.S. News & World Report's fourth tier, along with the University of Texas at El Paso, Malandra said it wasn't valid to compare it to a school such as UCLA.

"UT-Arlington is not part of a purely research university system, which is what the UC System is," Malandra said. "Up until recently, they were primarily a commuter school."

Michael Moore, UTA associate provost, cautioned students and graduates not be too upset at the ratings if their alma mater isn't No. 1.

Rankings such as the U.S. News don't benefit schools such as UTA without an extensive base of rich alumni, selective admissions, big research dollars or name recognition that boost others.

The fact that UTA, for example, will be building a state-of-the-art engineering building in the near future isn't yet widely known and hasn't had a chance to raise its reputation.

"There are many, many quality programs out there," said Moore, adding that prospective students need to do their homework when it comes to choosing schools and weighing the ratings numbers. "They're a tool. They're not the tool."

IN THE KNOW

College rankings

U.S. News & World Report publishes annual rankings of the nation's top universities based on factors such as graduation rate, student-faculty ratio, acceptance rate and SAT/ACT scores. The annual study is slated to hit newsstands Monday.

Texas schools' rankings among national universities:

17. Rice

47. University of Texas at Austin*

60. Texas A&M University*

70. Southern Methodist University*

81. Baylor

105. Texas Christian University*

Third-tier universities (unranked: listed alphabetically)

Texas Tech University

University of Texas at Dallas

Fourth-tier universities (unranked: listed alphabetically)

Texas A&M University-Commerce

Texas A&M University-Kingsville

Texas Southern University

University of North Texas

University of Texas at Arlington

University of Texas at El Paso

* Indicates tie for position

[SMU Football Blog]

For those curious, SMu was 71 last year, so SMU moved up one.

[mrydel]

For those curious, SMu was 71 last year, so SMU moved up one.

I am glad you stated the amount difference between 70 and 71 so the NTSU folks would not need to get out their calculators.

[me@smu]

Didn't a froggie start a thread about how TCU was not only our academic equal but was being more selective and would soon leave us in the dust?

[MrMustang1965]

Didn't a froggie start a thread about how TCU was not only our academic equal but was being more selective and would soon leave us in the dust?

Yep. But now he'll say that 'rankings' don't mean anything in the academic world.

[Big10Ponyfan]

Thank God, because on FOX 4 news this morning, they talked about this and didn't list us, but listed TCU. I was outraged.

Oh, and tell Froggie, I love that TCU's national ranking slipped from 97 to 105.

[LonghornFan68]

Well, Rice may not be able to beat a Peewee football team, but they sure can beat you in the classroom. Sheesh.

I am proud that my alma mater is still in the top 50. I'd been afraid we'd go down in ranking ever since I left in 2002.

[ponyplayer]

Well, Rice may not be able to beat a Peewee football team, but they sure can beat you in the classroom. Sheesh.

I am proud that my alma mater is still in the top 50. I'd been afraid we'd go down in ranking ever since I left in 2002.

your alma mater is fine, it`s just you that is slipping in the rankings................

[LonghornFan68]

Well, Rice may not be able to beat a Peewee football team, but they sure can beat you in the classroom. Sheesh.

I am proud that my alma mater is still in the top 50. I'd been afraid we'd go down in ranking ever since I left in 2002.

your alma mater is fine, it`s just you that is slipping in the rankings................

oooooooo. buuuuurn

[jtstang]

My wife the UT chick was looking over my shoulder at home the other day and was mesmerized by your little halfbreed drawing there. She called it a Musthorn. She's clever like that.

Thought you should know.

[mrydel]

My wife the UT chick was looking over my shoulder at home the other day and was mesmerized by your little halfbreed drawing there. She called it a Musthorn. She's clever like that.

Thought you should know.

If it were a Longstang you might be related.

[OC Mustang]

G-rated guys...keep it G-rated....

[ThadFilms]

My wife the UT chick was looking over my shoulder at home the other day and was mesmerized by your little halfbreed drawing there. She called it a Musthorn. She's clever like that.

Thought you should know.

And that's the bes kind of horn. Kind of like the Matterhorn only different/better.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matterhorn

[LonghornFan68]

Awesome. I'm gonna start referring to myself as a Longstang. Haha.

[ThadFilms]

ROFL

Isn't that the bad guy in Braveheart?