If you are like me, you probably react with mixed feelings towards the U.S.
News and World Report's annual ranking of colleges and universities. On the one
hand, I don't agree completely with the methodology used to make the rankings,
but my competitive nature wants UNC to do as well as it can in spite of my
concerns about methodology.
I decided this year I would give these rankings a more detailed look than in the
past, and I thought some of you might be interested in what I found.
For those of you not familiar with the rankings, let me explain that two
rankings come out each fall. One is devoted to undergraduate education, the
schools of Engineering, Law, Medicine and Education. The second is devoted to
Graduate Schools. My first report will be on the undergraduate etc. rankings.
While I have particular interest in UNC, I am also interested in other N.C.
schools, schools in the ACC area and the South. What I found this year makes me
proud to be a Tar Heel and proud to be a North Carolinian.
One word of caution before I divulge what I found.
As a general rule, private schools tend to be ranked higher than public
institutions. Whether you agree or not, money talks and another general rule is
that the cost of attending a private university is much higher than the cost of
attending a public institution.
This post is running longer than I thought it would, so I am going to label this
section, Part 1 and write Part 2 at a later date. I don't seem to get any more
concise as time moves on.
Before I summarize the rankings for the year 2001, maybe it would be beneficial
to provide the basis for the rankings. While I will not itemize the elements
which constitute the categories, they are contained in the report.
Academic Reputation..............25%
Graduation and Retention Rate....20%
Faculty Resources................20%
Student Selectivity..............15%
Financial Resources..............10%
Alumni Giving.................... 5%
Graduation Rate Performance.......5%
I will also provide a comparison of sorts between the ACC Schools and our
neighbors in the Southeastern Conference since they seem to be so fond of
athletic comparisons.
National Universities
ACC
8. Duke
20. Virginia (tied)
24 UNC (tied)
28. Wake Forest
35. Georgia Tech (tied)
Southeastern
22. Vanderbilt
Public National Institutions
ACC
1. Virginia (tied)
3. UNC (tied)
8 Ga. Tech.
24 Maryland (tied)
33.N.C State
38.Clemson (tied)
47. Fla. State (tied)
Southeastern
18. Florida (tied)
20. Georgia (tied)
42 Auburn (tied)
44. Tennessee
Business Programs
(Undergraduate)
ACC
5. UNC (tied)
8. Virginia (tied)
21. Maryland (tied)
28. Wake Forest (tied)
34. Ga. Tech (tied)
41. Florida State (tied)
Southeastern
21. Florida (tied)
28. Georgia (tied)
41. Tennessee (tied)
Engineering
ACC
7. Ga. Tech. (tied)
22.Duke (tied)
22. Maryland (tied)
27 Virginia (tied)
35 N.C. State
59 Clemson (tied)
Southeastern
27 Florida (tied)
44 Vanderbilt (tied)
59 Auburn (tied)
67 Tennessee (tied)
So there you have it. It's tempting to analyze and editorialize, but the figures
speak for themselves.
One word of caution. Just because a school is not listed, you should not automatically
assume the school is below the ratings posted. It may be that the area being
rated does not exist at the school in question. A good example is Duke is not
rated in the undergraduate business school ratings but I an told there is no
undergraduate school of business or undergraduate business major at Duke.
Next time, the graduate schools of Business and Education and the Schools of
Medicine and Law.