A subject of much consternation on the Parliament has been our fall in the rankings. We appear to have reversed that trend at least temporarily.

I think we were #18 last year, but could be wrong.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreview...iversities

Dang it, get ahead of ND (my daughter's alma mater).

Good stuff! I'm still annoyed that Rice raised tuition so much that we are no longer consistently #1 on the "best bang for the buck" lists. I feel like Rice has suffered a bit of a loss of identity in that regard. But always nice to move to a more prominent spot in any ranking, and I hope the University can rebrand itself based on the consistently awesome "quality of life" and "happiest students" rankings, in addition to fantastic academics.

Worth noting that #15-18 are tied (Cornell, Rice, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt).

(09-12-2016 11:09 PM)mrbig Wrote:  Good stuff! I'm still annoyed that Rice raised tuition so much that we are no longer consistently #1 on the "best bang for the buck" lists. I feel like Rice has suffered a bit of a loss of identity in that regard. But always nice to move to a more prominent spot in any ranking, and I hope the University can rebrand itself based on the consistently awesome "quality of life" and "happiest students" rankings, in addition to fantastic academics.

Worth noting that #15-18 are tied (Cornell, Rice, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt).

It was pretty annoying to be ranked behind ND and Vandy. I guess I'll accept a tie for now, and at least we are ahead of Emory. That was a head scratcher the last few years.

Money magazine just ranked us #4 best value colleges behind only Princeton, Michigan and Harvard...

http://new.time.com/money/best-colleges/...-colleges/

Glad to see Rice move off its long-held #18 ranking and to be back in the top 15, where Rice had been most of the '90s. The best Rice showing in the '90s was #12. It was #9 or so in the late-'80s.

Surprised to see Chicago as high as #3. That's a big jump for them. Also surprised to see Johns Hopkins crack the top 10. Rice used to rank better than JHU pretty consistently, if I recall correctly.

Wash U. at #19 is a big drop for them. There was a time not long ago that they were around the top 10. I never felt Wash U. was a top 10 or top 15 school, but that's just my gut reaction.

My long-held theory: whatever the college rankings hierarchy was when one was applying to schools and during the years one was in college, that will forever remain embedded as the "correct" range of rankings in one's mind.

So, to me, the notion that Rice is tied with Notre Dame or Vandy is laughable. But, of course, Rice has been tied (and even fallen behind) these schools in recent years.

Always have been surprised that Georgetown is not a top-20 school. It's very difficult to get into, and I generally think very highly of it.

Texas schools:

15. Rice University (18 last year)

56. SMU (61)

56. University of Texas at Austin (52)

71. Baylor University (72)

74. Texas A&M University (70)

82. TCU (82)

146. University of Texas at Dallas (140)

176. Texas Tech University (168)

194. University of Houston (187)

214. Dallas Baptist University (unranked last year)

Interesting that the only three schools to move up were Rice, SMU, and Baylor. I hear from people in academia the A&M is a hot mess right now. Sounds like Rick Perry and his buddies have really screwed things up.

(09-13-2016 08:22 AM)grol Wrote:  Texas schools:

15. Rice University (18 last year)

56. SMU (61)

56. University of Texas at Austin (52)

71. Baylor University (72)

74. Texas A&M University (70)

82. TCU (82)

146. University of Texas at Dallas (140)

176. Texas Tech University (168)

194. University of Houston (187)

214. Dallas Baptist University (unranked last year)

So 'Tier 1' is everyone under 200?

North Texas was trumpeting their 'Tier 1' status during their last game

The Tier One boast by our friends on Cullen is such BS. First, there is no official designation of "Tier One." Schools like UH have simply just decided it was a thing. Second, the self-described Tier One category is based on the Carnegie classifications regarding the level of research activity a school engages in. UH in the past few years moved from one level of research output ("higher research activity) to another level ("highest research activity"). Note that the "highest research activity" level--which forms the basis of UH's entire Tier One branding--includes 115 schools. So UH is now among the 115 schools that meet a certain research activity threshold. That does not speak to the school's selectivity, teaching, excellence, or any of the things that the Tier One PR campaign would have anyone believe.

CUSA:

#15 Rice




#159 UAB
#202 La Tech, Charlotte
#210 ODU
#220 So Miss




Rank not published (worse than 231) ... MTSU, North Texas, UTEP, UTSA, FAU, FIU
Regional universities (not considered national universities) ... Marshall, WKU

Remind me not to say anything bad about UH's academics since they would be the 3rd best academic school in CUSA if they had remained.

Understand that I'm not trying to disparage the other universities in CUSA or graduates from those universities. I'm simply reflecting upon my reaction to Rice having zero academic peers in our conference and really zero schools that an average Rice student would likely consider applying to (other than family, financial, or geographic reasons).

Colin Powell Wrote:The simple but true fact of life is that you become like those with whom you closely associate - for the good and the bad.

Rice's #14 ranking for Best Value Colleges somewhat overshadowed by the fact that 12 of the 13 schools in front of Rice are also ahead of Rice in the academic ranking!

#5 in Undergraduate Teaching ... now that's a ranking I like to see!
#19 in Most Innovative is a bit disappointing, but I didn't look at the methodology

Mrbig, you are absolutely correct. What makes good rivalries? Close distance and some similarity/commonality. See the great rivalries: Stanford/Cal, Duke/UNC, Harvard/Yale, UT/A&M. Familiarity breeds contempt, and contempt is a great ingredient for a rivalry.

In the SWC, Rice had at least some reasonable commonality with conference mates UT and SMU. When it came to the other SWC schools, the commonality was that everyone knew someone who had gone to one of those other schools.

Now, we got nuthin'.

(09-13-2016 10:21 AM)mrbig Wrote:  CUSA:

#15 Rice




#159 UAB
#202 La Tech, Charlotte
#210 ODU
#220 So Miss




Rank not published (worse than 231) ... MTSU, North Texas, UTEP, UTSA, FAU, FIU
Regional universities (not considered national universities) ... Marshall, WKU

Could you do this for Rice's ranking relative to the current membership of the MWC and Big12?

(09-13-2016 10:31 AM)Barrett Wrote:  Mrbig, you are absolutely correct. What makes good rivalries? Close distance and some similarity/commonality. See the great rivalries: Stanford/Cal, Duke/UNC, Harvard/Yale, UT/A&M. Familiarity breeds contempt, and contempt is a great ingredient for a rivalry.

In the SWC, Rice had at least some reasonable commonality with conference mates UT and SMU. When it came to the other SWC schools, the commonality was that everyone knew someone who had gone to one of those other schools.

Now, we got nuthin'.

Also overlap in applicant pool. We have barely any (if any at all) with our current conference.

(09-13-2016 10:36 AM)Grungy Wrote:  

(09-13-2016 10:21 AM)mrbig Wrote:  CUSA:

#15 Rice




#159 UAB
#202 La Tech, Charlotte
#210 ODU
#220 So Miss




Rank not published (worse than 231) ... MTSU, North Texas, UTEP, UTSA, FAU, FIU
Regional universities (not considered national universities) ... Marshall, WKU

Could you do this for Rice's ranking relative to the current membership of the MWC and Big12?

B12

15 Rice
56 Texas
71 Baylor
82 TCU
111 Iowa State
111 Oklahoma
118 Kansas
135 Kansas State
152 Oklahoma State
176 Texas Tech
183 West Virginia

(09-13-2016 11:05 AM)loki_the_bubba Wrote:  

(09-13-2016 10:36 AM)Grungy Wrote:  

(09-13-2016 10:21 AM)mrbig Wrote:  CUSA:

#15 Rice




#159 UAB
#202 La Tech, Charlotte
#210 ODU
#220 So Miss




Rank not published (worse than 231) ... MTSU, North Texas, UTEP, UTSA, FAU, FIU
Regional universities (not considered national universities) ... Marshall, WKU

Could you do this for Rice's ranking relative to the current membership of the MWC and Big12?

B12

15 Rice
56 Texas
71 Baylor
82 TCU
111 Iowa State
111 Oklahoma
118 Kansas
135 Kansas State
152 Oklahoma State
176 Texas Tech
183 West Virginia

interesting that the 3 Texas schools occupy the top spots, w only TT buried in the pack

AAC:
#39 - Tulane
#56 - SMU
#60 - UConn
#86 - Tulsa
#118 - Temple
#135 - Cincinatti
#159 - So Florida
#176 - UCF
#194 - UH
#210 - ECU
RNP - Memphis
#12 (Liberal Arts) - Navy

MWC:
#129 - Colorado St
#146 - SDSU
#171 - Wyoming
#176 - New Mexico
#197 - Nevada-Reno
#220 - Fresno, Utah State
RNP - Boise St, UNLV
Regional - San Jose
#32 (Liberal Arts) - Air Force

So MWC is obviously better than CUSA, but not exactly anyone Rice would consider a peer institution that we would love to associate with, other than maybe Air Force. AAC is significantly better than MWC or CUSA. Looking at this list, I would go to the AAC and beg for admission, offering to only take the same amount of $$$ that we will get from the next CUSA contract (even though adding a 2nd school in Houston would probably be worth more than that to the AAC). Full $$$ if any AAC school leaves the conference.

UAA

3 Chicago
19 Wash U
20 Emory
24 Carnegie Mellon
32 Rochester
34 Brandeis
36 NYU
37 Case Western