This time of year, a lot of young and eager students around the country and around the world are making their decisions as to what colleges they will be attending for the following school year. The most predominant of these college decisions deals with undergrad, but there are other decisions too: grad school, med school, study abroad programs, etc., etc. I can speak only to undergrad and law school rankings as these are the only ones I have EVER used and the only reason I have EVER read US News for. Here's a list of my reactions to the most updated 2011 rankings:
1.) Law school rankings are pretty standard at the top, and the bottom ones don't really matter (despite high level of movement within the bottom tiers). The top 14 are mostly established and don't budge for the most part.
We have HYS (Harvard, Yale Stanford)......CCN (Columbia, Chicago, New York), MVP (Michigan, Virginia, Princeton).......expect, this year Berkeley slides in there at #9. Very interesting, but probably justified: Boalt fields GREAT candidates is widely renowned.
2.) UCLA has always been rumored to be cracking the top 14, but it never has......it might never do so. UT-Austin looks most well-positioned to do so at this point.
3.) Ah, USC and WashU, tied at 18......the 2 schools I was deciding between. I'd still say that USC still has the greater advantage of being in the second-largest legal market in the US and thus a better locale for young law students to network and internship, but that's a USC Trojan talking. Still, I'm happy with USC's ranking, and as long as they don't fall out of the Top 20 I'd say that's a fairly justified ranking.
4.) Quite the move for George Washington University, it used to be 30+, now it's technically in the Top 20 law schools. Rumblings of the school doing some "gaming" of the rankings to get a higher US news ranking, but may be unfounded. Maybe it has more to do with being close to a large legal market? (D.C.?)
5.) Nice to see UIUC come in at #23......it's a nice school that has nice ties to Chicago, and if you can stand the winters and the college-town atmosphere of Champaign, that's a great school to go to.
6.) Maybe just me, but Emory being at #30 seems low......I remember I was considering the school in my law school search. And Fordham is another one of those schools at 30 where I value it more for being in NYC and a big legal market than it might get credit for.
7.) Hastings at #42......heard a lot of things about this school, have met people from this school, seems alright......I just question what kind of school it is because it doesn't have an undergrad, it's just a law school. I personally wouldn't go for that as I'm much more about the overall university and quality of campus, etc., , but for people who are just using it for the degree, by all means........
8.) Loyola is the next L.A. school after USC at #54, but I think in L.A., just from my perspective, it's USC and UCLA at the top tier, and then Loyola and Southwestern and Pepperdine, etc. at the next tier. Just what I've seen/heard from my colleagues, lawyers, etc.......keep that in mind in terms of lay prestige. Loyola may be ranked higher, and I might be selling it short, but alas, that's my view.
9.) Ranking 100 and below.......Don't go to those schools. Seriously. Just with cost of tuition and law school job prospects, etc. nowadays, the cost/benefit analysis just says not to go there, unless you're already set with a job and just need a JD as an admission ticket to the bar exam.
Undergrad Rankings
1. Harvard.....yea.
5. Stanford.....wow, under Columbia? That's a little surprising and having went there for a month of summer school, I gotta disagree. Stanford is legit and should be in Top 4, if not 3.
7. Cal Tech.......great for SoCal, but I question whether it's worth it to go to this school for anything under than engineering, science, etc.... maybe I'm misinformed, but I wouldn't go there for a liberal arts degree.
8. MIT.....I like Cal Tech and MIT being next to each other, pretty close together in my mind and the minds of others, IMO.
10. Duke......was very close to going to this school. I feel like people in North Carolina, the South value this school much more than I do....in Midwest Illinois and West Coast Cali, I haven't heard that much from Duke. But I respect it.
13. WashU: I share this sentiment I'm sure with many others: If WashU changed its name to "Pennbrooke" or "Swarthmore" or some regal-sounding last name, it might move up even more. Lack of recognition may be hurting in from getting even more top students. Great school. (Also, not being in STL might help).
19. Notre Dame: a bit of a stigma whether you need to be Catholic, religious, etc. to attend...I know I didn't bother to attend because of that.
22. Cal-Berkeley. People in Cali probably don't agree with this. Berkeley is like the public version of Stanford for some in my Chinese-American neighborhood. VERY highly regarded, it'd be like #9 or #10 probably for the Cali-adjusted rankings.
23. Carnegie Mellon- least well-known school in the top 25, IMO. Most people don't know where this school is.
23. USC: Nice jump in the past few years for USC. I like it. Probably proudest that it vaulted over UCLA. Gotta feel good.
25. UCLA: I imagine I would have enjoyed going here undergrad. I've went to this campus numerous times and you're gonna LOVE visiting if you haven't been.
29. Michigan: should be higher. Probably impacted by its public university status, but this is a great school. And I'm an Illini alumni saying this.
37,39. UC-SD and UC-SB being in the top 40 speaks to the quality and depth of the UC schools, like the Boston Red Sox lineup: good schools up and down the state.
41. Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute: Honestly never heard of this school.
41. UC-Irvine: another UC.
47. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Considering its right near UMiami, UT-Austin, UW-Madison, I'd say this is pretty fair for UIllinois. In general, I'd say large state schools are underrated because their top end is just as good as some of the top 25 schools but their bottom ends weigh them down (because they have so many students, they have many more programs). Just saying.
**** Note: If only there were a fantasy US News Ranking Colleges League. Managers take a batch of schools and gain points based on how much schools go up (or go down) in the rankings every year. Not many accumulated stats and it'd be a little boring and sporadic to play, but I'd think I'd be pretty good at it.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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