OT: Rutgers Jumps 13 places in US News!

[Sir ScarletKnight]

From 69th to 56th. Beating Penn State (59th), every other school in NJ sans Princeton, and 5th in the B1G. Tied with Ohio State and Purdue. And we're # 17 for top public schools.

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rutgers-new-brunswick-6964

Not only that but if you take out the UC schools (6 of them in front of us) we jump to #11 in top public schools. Michigan, UNC, GTech, Florida, William and Mary, Georgia, University of Illinois, University of Texas, University of Wisconsin. That's 3 B1G schools in the top 10, and then 3 more tied for 11th. ACC: 2. SEC: 2. Big 12: 1. CAA: 1. B1G: 6. Not too shabby.

Some other interesting\relevant (national) rankings:
Uconn tied with UMD at #63.
UDel at #89 (tied with Iowa), and below Howard.
Syracuse #53
Northwestern #10
Penn State is tied with SMU at #59
NJIT at #106
Rowan at #171 (#91 for public schools)
TCNJ is not considered on the list.

You may or may not have seen my posts about how fake the us news rankings are, and they continue to be dumb, but people still believe them, and perception is really important.

Hope we continue to rise!

 

[colbert17]

Like it but belongs on a different board.

 

[Sir ScarletKnight]

Like it but belongs on a different board.

[eyeroll] what? like the Penn State board to brag? This is the main board, and some of the most popular threads are about baseball, beer, and whether we will weather weather. This thread belongs exactly where it is.

 

[colbert17]

[eyeroll] what? like the Penn State board to brag? This is the main board, and some of the most popular threads are about baseball, beer, and whether we will weather weather. This thread belongs exactly where it is.

Not a big deal.
Very proud of RU.

 

[OriginalKnight]

Like it but belongs on a different board.

Piss off.

 

[ScarletKid2008]

This is a big deal and is great news !

Like others said - the method used to rate is questionable but a lot of people look at it as the Bible of rankings. Top 50 is next !

 

[colbert17]

Piss off.

Wow!! Don't quite understand the sentiment.

 

[BOGDANOVICH]

From a publicity and public perception perspective, this is great and surprising news. Rutgers has been falling in these rankings for quite a while, but something is changing. Rutgers is now 56th nationally and 17th as public university. Last year, they were 25th public and 69th nationally. For the first time in years, they have surpassed Penn State and UConn and now are tied with Purdue and Ohio State and just two rankings begind Wisconsin.

This quite a leap. Somebody must be doing something right ,e.g., The Honors College?

 

[cyrock3]

They probably changed the formula slightly.

Edit: They did. Added a social mobility factor.

 

[bigmatt718]

From 69th to 56th. Beating Penn State (59th), every other school in NJ sans Princeton, and 5th in the B1G. Tied with Ohio State and Purdue. And we're # 17 for top public schools.

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rutgers-new-brunswick-6964

Not only that but if you take out the UC schools (6 of them in front of us) we jump to #11 in top public schools. Michigan, UNC, GTech, Florida, William and Mary, Georgia, University of Illinois, University of Texas, University of Wisconsin. That's 3 B1G schools in the top 10, and then 3 more tied for 11th. ACC: 2. SEC: 2. Big 12: 1. CAA: 1. B1G: 6. Not too shabby.

Some other interesting\relevant (national) rankings:
Uconn tied with UMD at #63.
UDel at #89 (tied with Iowa), and below Howard.
Syracuse #53
Northwestern #10
Penn State is tied with SMU at #59
NJIT at #106
Rowan at #171 (#91 for public schools)
TCNJ is not considered on the list.

You may or may not have seen my posts about how fake the us news rankings are, and they continue to be dumb, but people still believe them, and perception is really important.

Hope we continue to rise!

Where's Temple at on the list?

 

[LevaosLectures]

The readings are a joke, but as long as people take them seriously I'm glad we're moving up.

 

[rurichdog]

I thought one of (former) Chancellor Dutta's tasks was to find ways to increase our ranking. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in future years with him essentially gone.

 

[eddynyse]

Very nice!!! Now RU needs to take advantage of this publicity ASAP!

 

[RUinPAC10land]

This is great news! RU's ranking was falling for a long time. I still can't see why our school is not in the top 10 for public universities (even with the UC's) but this is progress. Way to go RU administration! Keep up the good work. Make the school even more selective!

 

[ScarletKid2008]

I thought one of (former) Chancellor Dutta's tasks was to find ways to increase our ranking. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in future years with him essentially gone.

By all accounts it seemed Dutta was doing a great job. This was one of his major objectives and in year 1 that climb in rankings is a homerun.

His tenure seemingly ended over a disagreement over control and responsibilities with Barchi. Which doesn’t sit right with me - almost as if he was doing too well and was too well liked and wanted to do more. I don’t know the real story but those are the pieces I’ve put together from what I’ve heard and read.

 

[retired711]

It's probably impossible for any outside to do this, but it would be great to know in which ranking criteria we rose. Keep in mind that the raw scores are so close that even a change of a point or two can make a tremendous difference in the ranking.

 

[RUhobbit]

Since taking over Barchi talked of moving the rankings. That went through all departments. Things such as % of alumni who donate, etc. glad to see it finally bearing fruit

 

[retired711]

Ah, now I see: U.S. News changed criteria to put less weight on acceptance rate and SAT/ACT scores and more on the success of the school in graduating low-income students. https://www.nj.com/education/2018/09/8_nj_colleges_rank_among_the_nations_best_includin.html

This also means that year-to-year comparisons are even less significant than they normally would be. (They are normally not very significant because of how close the raw scores are.)

 

[RUnTeX]

Good to see the bump (since perception can be so skewed, unfortunately). Yet, I think this only gets Rutgers-NB just back to about where it was before the recent slide over past decade or so. I think somewhere around mid-2000s the ranking was about #58 +/-. Back then it was discussed on this board that hopefully Rutgers-NB would be poised to start climbing toward top 50, rather than the reverse as actually happened. Let's hope this time some upward momentum can be established.

Based on the adjustment in the methodology to account for a social mobility factor, I would think Rutgers-Newark's ranking in the national universities should have seen a nice bump as well. And probably Rutgers-Camden in the master's regional (northeast) ranking as well.

 

[brgRC90]

The fact that so many UC campuses that really don't have a particularly great reputation within California (UC Irvine?) place so high has always made me suspicious of these rankings.

 

[retired711]

Good to see the bump (since perception can be so skewed, unfortunately). Yet, I think this only gets Rutgers-NB just back to about where it was before the recent slide over past decade or so. I think somewhere around mid-2000s the ranking was about #58 +/-. Back then it was discussed on this board that hopefully Rutgers-NB would be poised to start climbing toward top 50, rather than the reverse as actually happened. Let's hope this time some upward momentum can be established.

Based on the adjustment in the methodology to account for a social mobility factor, I would think Rutgers-Newark's ranking in the national universities should have seen a nice bump as well. And probably Rutgers-Camden in the master's regional (northeast) ranking as well.

The story I linked earlier has Rutgers-Newark at 115 -- pretty high, it seems to me. This probably reflects the high percentage of graduates there who are low-income. Note that a reliance on graduation percentage is good for Ivy League schools, who flunk virtually no one out. It is bad for schools that grade tough and take chances on applicants who may or may not pan out. To put it crudely, the rankings continue to be crap -- but as others have said, we have to take them seriously because everyone else does.

 

[retired711]

The fact that so many UC campuses that really don't have a particularly great reputation within California place so high has always made me suspicious of these rankings.

I think that is because those schools are in the shadow of UCLA and Cal, the schools that a lot of the applicants want to go to. I'm not sure it's a measure of quality.

 

[zebnatto]

I’m guessing that TCNJ as a “college” wasn’t considered in this ranking.

 

[retired711]

I’m guessing that TCNJ as a “college” wasn’t considered in this ranking.

I don't really see why it wouldn't have been; there are colleges (that is, places without much in the way of graduate programs) in the rankings. Just today I got an e-mail from Agnes Scott College in Atlanta congratulating itself on its improved ranking. (I have a high school friend who went there.)

 

[TonyLieske]

Where's Temple at on the list?

Temple is @ 106. Just Below Oregon (102), tied with NJIT (106), University Arizona (106) and University of South Carolina (106), and just ahead of Arizona State (115), Auburn (115), Rutgers-Newark (115), and University of Tennessee (115). Seton Hall is just a bit further down @ 119 which is tied with Iowa State (119) and University of Utah (119).

Some other "big name" or local universities further down the list: University of Oklahoma (124), University of Alabama (129), University of Kansas (129), University of Missouri (129), University of Nebraska (129), LSU (140) Oregon State (140), Washington State (140), Kansas State (147), University of Kentucky (147), St John's (152), University of Arkansas (152), Ole Miss (152 - This surprised me), Oklahoma State (157), Rowan (171), Louisville (171), Mississippi State (177), Texas Tech (187), and WVU (205).

 

[Leonard23]

Fantastic news. Next up is getting into the 40s. Can anyone fill in the blanks below?

Rutgers US news rankings
1996 #45, #12 public
1997 # ?
1998 #16 public
1999 # ?
2000 #22 public
2001 #24 public
2002 # ?
2003 # ?
2004 #58/60?
2005 #58
2006 #60
2007 #60
2008 # ?
2009 #64
2010 # ?
2011 # ?
2012 # ?, #24 public
2013 #69, #25 public
2014 #70
2015 #72
2016 #70
2017 #69, #25 public
2018 #56, #17 public

 

[Scarlet_Scourge]

This is Huge!

:cool2:[cheers][banana]:americanflag:

 

[Zombo NJ]

TCNJ falls out because of new criteria...which does not emphasize
SAT and ACT and other areas

good for RU PR wise but this criteria is not what I would use to rate a school..it partly works..Princeton duh...but falling off a TCNJ beyond some on the list like Rowan makes me ignore this one and look at ratings based more on academics than social areas...just my opinion

 

[TonyLieske]

TCNJ falls out because of new criteria...which does not emphasize
SAT and ACT and other areas

good for RU PR wise but this criteria is not what I would use to rate a school..it partly works..Princeton duh...but falling off a TCNJ beyond some on the list like Rowan makes me ignore this one and look at ratings based more on academics than social areas...just my opinion

Its not apples to apples.

TCNJ is ranked very highly among regional (generally smaller) universities. Its #4 in the northern region.

 

[zebnatto]

I don't really see why it wouldn't have been; there are colleges (that is, places without much in the way of graduate programs) in the rankings. Just today I got an e-mail from Agnes Scott College in Atlanta congratulating itself on its improved ranking. (I have a high school friend who went there.)

Just rechecked the OP which says TCNJ was not considered.

 

[rubaseball78]

Like it but belongs on a different board.

Don’t agree. He did put OT in title so one could have easily skipped over thread. I wouldn’t have been aware if it wasn’t posted here.

 

[1873]

Rating is BS but we must be King of BS hill.
Would love to know the real deal Dutta v. Barchi. I'm underwhelmed by Barchi so I assume pro-Dutta.

 

[Leonard23]

TCNJ is not considered on the list.

TCNJ falls out because of new criteria...which does not emphasize
SAT and ACT and other areas

Hasn't TCNJ always been considered a regional university in these rankings?

 

[Scarlet_Scourge]

Big Ten Schools:

#10 Johns Hopkins University
#10 Northwestern University
#27 University of Michigan--Ann Arbor
#46 University of Illinois--Urbana-Champaign
#49 University of Wisconsin--Madison
#56 Ohio State University--Columbus
#56 Purdue University--West Lafayette
#56 Rutgers University--New Brunswick
#59 Pennsylvania State University--University Park
#63 University of Maryland--College Park
#76 University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
#85 Michigan State University
#89 Indiana University--Bloomington
#89 University of Iowa
#129 University of Nebraska--Lincoln

 

[Upstream]

Based on the adjustment in the methodology to account for a social mobility factor, I would think Rutgers-Newark's ranking in the national universities should have seen a nice bump as well. And probably Rutgers-Camden in the master's regional (northeast) ranking as well.

The social mobility factor represents 5% of a college's score. But it isn't for having a lot of students from disadvantaged backgrounds; the social mobility score doesn't care if you have 2 or 20,000 students from disadvantage backgrounds. There are two pieces to the social mobility score: (a) the graduation rate of students who receive Pell Grants, and (b) the graduation rate of students who receive Pell Grants compared to the graduation rate of other students.

 

[retired711]

Just rechecked the OP which says TCNJ was not considered.

Thanks for correcting me. I think Agnes Scott is, in fact, another example of a school that, while rated about liberal arts colleges, is not rated on the "main" list.

 

[retired711]

The social mobility factor represents 5% of a college's score. But it isn't for having a lot of students from disadvantaged backgrounds; the social mobility score doesn't care if you have 2 or 20,000 students from disadvantage backgrounds. There are two pieces to the social mobility score: (a) the graduation rate of students who receive Pell Grants, and (b) the graduation rate of students who receive Pell Grants compared to the graduation rate of other students.

Again, the fancy schools will do well because they don't flunk anyone out (e.g. Stanford will do better than Berkeley; the latter grades much more strictly). And they are additionally helped because the number of low-income students is not considered. Another rip-off by US News!

 

[dconifer]

That's pretty great, way to go, Rutgers! I hope you milk this for all it's worth!

 

[Scarlet_Scourge]

I think it is funny how the usual actors are trying to negative spin this..
[roll]

 

[T2Kplus10]

Ah, now I see: U.S. News changed criteria to put less weight on acceptance rate and SAT/ACT scores and more on the success of the school in graduating low-income students. https://www.nj.com/education/2018/09/8_nj_colleges_rank_among_the_nations_best_includin.html

This also means that year-to-year comparisons are even less significant than they normally would be. (They are normally not very significant because of how close the raw scores are.)

Hmm, I like the bump in rankings, but this change seems like PC nonsense.