They're not ranking how well students are going to perform this year. That really has nothing at all to do with it. Maybe when they rank middle schools or something they would take student performance on standardized tests into consideration but that is not what universities are about or how they are ranked.
One criteria that seems to be omitted from US News' formula that is often paramount in other similar rankings seems to be the amount of quality research being produced by that university. Maybe this only factors in when evaluating graduate schools, though.
And some of the criteria, IMO, hurts/helps school rankings in ways they shouldn't. For example, they often use freshman retention as a major component (or alternatively, 4/5 year graduation rates of incoming freshmen). Changing majors isn't unheard of. And if you decide to pursue a different major and your school doesn't offer it, you're likely to transfer for obvious reasons. That hits retention and (depending on how it is calculated) graduation rates.
For a large state school, this may not mean anything. But if you have a school like Caltech, and you decide after a year you aren't cut out for science or engineering and want to pursue a business degree? Well, tough.... you have to transfer. Doesn't mean the school isn't good - just that they're highly specialized.
Agreed. The list is completely wrong. How did Carnegie Mellon end up below Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, Rice and Georgetown. Where is UT @ Austin. By the way, it would be nice to add tuition fees to the quiz. Then we parents know what we are against! Thanks for the quiz.
Enjoyed this quiz, but there's a problem with the way it reads answers. I tried typing in Michigan State and it said "Michigan has already been guessed". Michigan and Michigan State are NOT the same. This happened with another state also, but I can't remember which one.
Yeah, just about the only school in the world where you can get a PhD. in packaging. That must be some really outstanding education system you got there!
The question asks for *universities*, which by definition, are only PhD-granting institutions. This is why a lot of smaller colleges that would otherwise be on a "top schools" list do not appear.
"Penn" refers to University of Pennsylvania, a private, Ivy League school in Philadelphia. Penn State is a HUGE public university, located in the boonies a couple hours west of Philadelphia, and is well-known for its successful football program under Joe Paterno (and the unfortunate Jerry Sandusky child rape scandal).
Same. When I first saw public institutions on the list, I was all like "Oh, Texas is probably on there," but then nothing worked- Texas, University of Texas Austin, UT Austin, Austin, Texas Austin. Nothing.
Given that UCLA and UCSB were acceptable answers, when I typed UCI, and it didn't work, I reasonably concluded that UC-Irvine didn't make this. UCI certainly should be an acceptable abbreviated form, as I know that is how my California friends always referred to it.
I went to George Mason (currently #136) and UVA (currently #25). But I graduated from GMU in '07. Not sure what it was ranked back then. I know it had one of the top law schools in the country but I wasn't studying law.
Depending on your career, the majority of these should not be on the list in regards to cost to value. Unless you are going into the sciences or law, I would bet at least 75% of these would never pay for themselves.
It definitely makes sense that Georgia and Georgia Tech are not both filled in when you type “Georgia”; similarly, it’s appropriate that the UC schools need to all be guessed separately. So then why oh why do you have Boston College and Boston University both filling in for the guess “Boston”? Having gone to BU, I tell you that being confused with BC – especially during the Doug Flutie years – has been much to the eternal chagrin of both schools. BC is the one with football. BU is the one with hockey.
…Okay, okay, so BC has a hockey team, too, but ours is much better! Other differences include: BC is a small, Jesuit, liberal arts college with a nice green campus in the ‘burbs. BU is an enormous (one of the biggest private schools in the US) research university in a very urban environment. Would you consider dividing them into two separate guesses?
Or as my tour guide said when I toured BU, "BC isn't in Boston, it's in Chestnut Hill. It's also not a college, it's a university. So why would you want to go to a school that doesn't know what it is or where it is?"
And some of the criteria, IMO, hurts/helps school rankings in ways they shouldn't. For example, they often use freshman retention as a major component (or alternatively, 4/5 year graduation rates of incoming freshmen). Changing majors isn't unheard of. And if you decide to pursue a different major and your school doesn't offer it, you're likely to transfer for obvious reasons. That hits retention and (depending on how it is calculated) graduation rates.
For a large state school, this may not mean anything. But if you have a school like Caltech, and you decide after a year you aren't cut out for science or engineering and want to pursue a business degree? Well, tough.... you have to transfer. Doesn't mean the school isn't good - just that they're highly specialized.
JeromesNiece - GO BLUE.
http://www.jetpunk.com/quizzes/qs-world-university-rankings-quiz.php
Go 'Cats!
#12 on the list!
No space, only the C is capitalized.
…Okay, okay, so BC has a hockey team, too, but ours is much better! Other differences include: BC is a small, Jesuit, liberal arts college with a nice green campus in the ‘burbs. BU is an enormous (one of the biggest private schools in the US) research university in a very urban environment. Would you consider dividing them into two separate guesses?
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges
LOL!!!