(09-12-2017 11:10 AM)Kronke Wrote: (09-12-2017 10:06 AM)HoustonRocks Wrote: http://www.usnews.com/education/best-glo...es&page=12
U.S. News - Best Global Universities Rankings 2016 112 368 United States
We're ahead of Syracuse globally, but 130+ spots behind them in the US? Interesting.
Global rankings (whether from the US News, AWRU or Times Higher Education) are almost entirely based on graduate research activity and reputation. That actually levels the playing field a bit between private and public universities.
The US News undergrad rankings, though, are based on undergrad *selectivity*. Note that selectivity isn't just acceptance rate (an overrated factor in the minds of the public and actually accounts for a fairly small percentage of the US News methodology), but the 25th/75th percentile SAT and ACT scores and how many freshmen were in the top 10% of their high school class (which count for much more). A lot of the non-flagship public universities from the largest states like California, Texas and Florida (e.g. NOT Berkeley or UT-Austin) actually have superficially low acceptance rates compared to flagship public universities in other states because of the sheer number of applicants, but on the flip side, they also have lower SAT/ACT scores and class rank metrics than those flagships, which is why they get dinged in the US News rankings. The schools with student bodies that have those higher test score and class rank metrics are considered to be more selective even if they might superficially have a lower acceptance rate... which actually makes sense in reality. Of course, the truly elite schools have BOTH those metrics AND low acceptance rates.
Also, note that it's more difficult to get into virtually EVERY school in the top 100 or so of the US News rankings than it was 5 years ago. That's why every FBS school can probably truthfully and legitimately announce that they have the most academically talented freshman classes in their respective histories this year... but can still be stuck or even move down in the US News rankings. Virtually every school at a certain level is getting more competitive in terms of admissions than ever before, so even if a school is getting better students in an absolute manner, they actually aren't getting better in a *relative* manner to everyone else that are improving at the same or greater rate.
FWIW, there are certain elite professions where your undergrad school matters a ton (such as investment banking or top-level management consulting). Unless you get a job in those firms right out of school, it's VERY tough to break in afterwards unless you subsequently go to a super-elite grad school or you've got a direct nepotistic connection (so the populist belief that you can work your way into those jobs regardless of where you went to school generally doesn't apply). Where the elite education matters most is in the top Wall Street, Silicon Valley, Hollywood or DC jobs. Those are dream jobs for many people, so in those locales, I would never say that an elite education is underrated. (Even the famous college dropouts of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of *Harvard* and you're not getting hired at Microsoft or Facebook out of school without top educational credentials.) The value of those schools is in the alumni network -- to the extent that you don't have personal connections in those industries, your school *becomes* your personal connection (and that's essentially what you're paying for much more than what you're learning in the Econ 101 class that's effectively taught the same everywhere).
However, if your desire is to work in most other markets and industries in the US, then there are diminishing returns (e.g. if you want to become a CPA, there is ZERO reason for you to pay a single cent more than what you'd be paying for in-state tuition at a public university). The company that I work for hires a good-sized contingent of UH engineering and business grads in our Houston office every year and they perform very well next to their peers from UT, A&M and Texas Tech (or else we wouldn't keep hiring them). There's certainly more of an advantage if you went to UT or A&M in the sense that there's more leeway on GPA and we'll hire larger classes from there, but the best at virtually any school can compete with anyone else.