2014 US News Rankings released

[gostangs]

And at the risk of beating this into the ground (might be too late for that) - every school in the country "weights" curriculum as part of the admissions decision. They throw out the fluff - look at the grades form the core classes - and then put a weight on it based on the strength of the high school - and they also look at and weigh the standardized tests. To say that TCU does that more than others is false - it is just spin. Rankings are not perfect, but when every single ranking service has SMU and TCU in different categories of student quality than it is pretty telling.

It would be kind of like me saying the score of last years football game does not really reflect who is the better team - since SMU more heavily weighs things other than the score.

[FroggieFever]

And at the risk of beating this into the ground (might be too late for that) - every school in the country "weights" curriculum as part of the admissions decision. They throw out the fluff - look at the grades form the core classes - and then put a weight on it based on the strength of the high school - and they also look at and weigh the standardized tests. To say that TCU does that more than others is false - it is just spin. Rankings are not perfect, but when every single ranking service has SMU and TCU in different categories of student quality than it is pretty telling.

It would be kind of like me saying the score of last years football game does not really reflect who is the better team - since SMU more heavily weighs things other than the score.

We won't come to an agreement unless we have Wes and Ray at the podium, and doubtful even then.

You're suggesting, through your analogy, that an SAT/ACT is the end-all measure of the quality of a student. It isn't. Not even close. Much like a single stat isn't indicative of an outcome: Is SMU a better team than TCU because they had 12 first downs to TCU's 11? Or because SMU had 190 passing yards to TCU's 102? Or because SMU had 220 total yards to TCU's 156? TCU fumbled the ball 2 times, SMU only 1. SMU had a higher passing and rushing percentage.

... ...

[gostangs]

Not the only thing to measure or track. But it is, in the end, the way universities keep score of student quality.

[Pony^]

One reason SMU may have dropped a little has to do with George Washington University. I believe US News did not rank GWU last year due to the misreporting of some data to US News in prior years. This year GWU is ranked at number 52, ahead of SMU.

[Pony^]

Speaking of TCU, they are taking them young these days.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/11-y-o-boy-with-4-0-gpa-and-1770-sat-score-becomes-youngest-student-ever-at-texas-christian-university-103215/

[ponyboy]

To suggest that there's a measurable distinction, as a whole, in the quality of the student at SMU vs TCU is ... silly.

Please. How is this not unadulterated propaganda?

[Mustangs_Maroons]

To suggest that there's a measurable distinction, as a whole, in the quality of the student at SMU vs TCU is ... silly.

Please. How is this not unadulterated propaganda?

Unadulterated and baseless. Froggie has drank too much purple kool-aid. I'll take every rankings source over his assertion, and every ranking shows there is a big difference in the school and student bodies (substantial difference in some cases (over 150 ranking difference)). I've pointed him to sources (ie, Forbes, other rankings on selectivity) but he just points to something completely unfounded.

I don't care about tcu. Just stated it was ranked too high, and this latest ranking is an outlier, as were some other schools. Back to SMU, other rankings show we should be ranked higher and hopefully that is soon reflected in the rankings soon.

[FroggieFever]

Speaking of TCU, they are taking them young these days.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/11-y-o-boy-with-4-0-gpa-and-1770-sat-score-becomes-youngest-student-ever-at-texas-christian-university-103215/

Kid is the real deal. Met him once. Spoke to me in Mandarin. I don't speak Mandarin.

Show off.

[blackoutpony]

Speaking of TCU, they are taking them young these days.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/11-y-o-boy-with-4-0-gpa-and-1770-sat-score-becomes-youngest-student-ever-at-texas-christian-university-103215/

Kid is the real deal. Met him once. Spoke to me in Mandarin. I don't speak Mandarin.

Show off.

I remember we had a girl who was, I think, 9 or 10 in one of my classes freshmen year. She only came to class once or twice a week, but she was way more smart than all of us so it didn't really matter....

[mrydel]

Speaking of TCU, they are taking them young these days.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/11-y-o-boy-with-4-0-gpa-and-1770-sat-score-becomes-youngest-student-ever-at-texas-christian-university-103215/

Kid is the real deal. Met him once. Spoke to me in Mandarin. I don't speak Mandarin.

Show off.

So what you are saying is that I could walk up to you and just spew out a bunch of jibberish and then say I was speaking Manderin and you would not know any different. I may start doing that to people so they will think I am real smart.

[deucetz]

I've seen that the students feel differently. They think they've been shafted with higher tuition/fees(yes, we are reeling from that) and some controversiesabout the campus changes. They have no voice, however, which is unfortunate. Sigh, can we forget about ratings and concentrate on the student experience. Seems to me that the ratings will follow.

+2 Billion

Couldn't agree more

Increase the endowment, the quality of the professors, and focus on research and class experience.

To get better quality students, professors, and administrators, you need money.

The school should focus the students on getting more national fellowships--such as Rhodes, Fulbright, etc.

While I understand the importance of a liberal arts education, the school should be exploiting math, science, and business. If everybody in liberal arts major and student's in Meadows had to couple their degree with something from Lyle or Cox, the school would boost in rankings.

It will be a slow process, but the perception of the institution would change for the better.

[NavyCrimson]

Great points!!!

[tristatecoog]

Academic smack! When I was in NYC for a while, there was a strong SMU alumni group up there. UT had a strong one too. A&M less so and I never heard much from the others. Part of that can be attributed to SMU's geographic diversity and wealth. TCU has a well endowed student body but I'd venture a bit less than SMU, and it has quite a bit fewer out of state students. I was in UH's Honors College and the honors dorms were cool because the majority of the students were from out of state. I liked that aspect a lot.

BTW, UH at #191 doesn't seem horrible (given where it's been), but being 30 spots behind Tech is wrong. There's a much bigger pool to draw from in the greater Houston area, and UH will have 8,000 residents as of next fall so they are drawing outside Houston too.

So, TCU focuses on academic quality at the expense of the rankings? Hmm, I hope Wes didn't bring that perspective with him to SMU. I agree to focus on the whole student, including leadership and focus/passion, but class rank and test scores are the best measure we have to determine college success. Family income is a high predictor as well. It has the highest correlation with SAT scores. The UH Law School went away from grades and LSAT for a while and its ranking dropped to around #70. Make that move at one's own peril. That Dean was soon replaced and UH is now back in the 50s.

Since we're dealing in anecdotes, a recent HPHS grad got into Baylor but didn't get into A&M. I suspect that person may be paying a large amount of the sticker price at BU, which could help as well. So, many at A&M may be more test or book smart, but the wealthier students at nearly full price, along with plenty of highly touted students on scholarship, make for a stronger dynamic.

BTW, I don't think hoops success will have a huge impact on the coolness of SMU or help with admissions in a very demonstrable way. The Bush Library well help more and that impact should be first felt next fall since the opening was in April 2013.

[blackoutpony]

BTW, I don't think hoops success will have a huge impact on the coolness of SMU or help with admissions in a very demonstrable way.

You're a fool if you don't believe having a nationally relevant basketball program helps with a "cool factor" or help raise it's profile thus garnering more attention and applications.

I had no idea VCU was even a school before their final four run, now it's widely known by anyone with a brain who has ever watched a college basketball game. You think that doesn't help them???

[tristatecoog]

The study concluded, “… schools which do well in basketball are able to recruit an incoming class with 1 to 4 percent more students scoring above 500 on the math and verbal SAT. Similarly, these schools could expect 1 to 4 percent more of their incoming students to score above a 600 on the math and verbal SAT.”

http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/dollars/post/_/id/3222/how-fgcus-run-can-benefit-admissions

So those are figures that appear statistically "significant" but are they meaningful for a school with an average SAT of 1300+? Butler's applications grew 50% from 2009 to 2011. What about their quality?