UConn beats out Brown, NYU ranks in top 50 on Wall Street Journal's 'Best Colleges in the U.S.' list

[upstater]

First, there is no Princeton Law. But I'm only being a jerk and I understand your point. I had a classmate in law school that bragged about getting into Princeton Law. Nobody took him seriously after that.

Interesting point re grad school vs. job. You're right (or so I've heard) about grad schools, but it's a metric that is hard to find. You can absolutely get into an elite grad program from a UConn, but the grad schools also have a good understanding about the quality of an undergrad education and the person that may have gone to that school. So, you can be middle of the class at Amherst and get into a grad program that would require you to be towards the top of your UConn class. They aren't using US News.

Re jobs, however, as much as we want to crap on rankings and reputation, I think it DOES matter when looking for a job out of undergrad. We give too much credit to HR people... or just people involved at hiring in general. They don't always know everything about every school. They'll know local schools, schools where they've had success with hirings and schools they've heard of. And they'll look at US News or others for their rankings. So, we can mock the rankings, but I believe they do matter (even if they shouldn't).

Good post Chuck. As for grad school, the professional schools (Business, Law, etc.) may indeed admit students that way.

But in the sciences and humanities, it's much easier doing admissions, since faculty are doing the admitting, and not admissions professionals; so they'll look at the actual work you produced as an undergrad. Projects, research, etc. It's pretty clear to see who is prepared. Almost nothing else matters, not GREs, not subject tests, and not grades (unless they are bad). These decisions are clear cut and not at all mysterious.

 

[Nostical]

Why are we burying the lead? The New Wall Street Journal College rankings are eye opening. The WSJ, not some promotional rag, ranked every college on a uniform list of criteria and the top five blue bloods were predictable.
Princeton 1
MIT 2
Yale 3
Stanford 4
Columbia 5
But now let’s look at the rankings of the schools on our football schedule. There were some surprises (to me).
Duke 16
FIU 29
BC 45
UConn 46
Rice 64
NC St 106
USF 151
JMU 152
UMass 190
Tenn 193
Sacred Heart 263
Utah St 293
Georgia State 369

Would any of you have predicted FIU being that high? UConn is in a great spot but I wonder how many folks out there—in media or otherwise—might have the same surprised reaction to us being where we are,— equal to BC and ahead of Rice—-as I had to FIU. Say what you want, but I’d lumped FIU in with Utah St, Ga St. and JMU. Not any more.
Let’s beat them on the field but I have a new respect for the school. And that’s a good thing.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Why are we burying the lead? The New Wall Street Journal College rankings are eye opening. The WSJ, not some promotional rag, ranked every college on a uniform list of criteria and the top five blue bloods were predictable.
Princeton 1
MIT 2
Yale 3
Stanford 4
Columbia 5
But now let’s look at the rankings of the schools on our football schedule. There were some surprises (to me).
Duke 16
FIU 29
BC 45
UConn 46
Rice 64
NC St 106
USF 151
JMU 152
UMass 190
Tenn 193
Sacred Heart 263
Utah St 293
Georgia State 369

Would any of you have predicted FIU being that high? UConn is in a great spot but I wonder how many folks out there—in media or otherwise—might have the same surprised reaction to us being where we are,— equal to BC and ahead of Rice—-as I had to FIU. Say what you want, but I’d lumped FIU in with Utah St, Ga St. and JMU. Not any more.
Let’s beat them on the field but I have a new respect for the school. And that’s a good thing.

Look, these rankings aren't any more correct than any other ones. Just different. FIU is massive, like Arizona State, which also scored high. It's the only public in Miami-Dade county. All the Florida public schools scored high. They aren't expensive and kids who come out of them have generally good outcomes, in part because they are in the most booming state in the country. FIU tuition is under $7k in state. Many of the students live at home. So it's truly affordable.

Really surprised by Tennessee though, it's a good school in another state that is growing.

 

[AreBee1969]

UConn has also moved up to the #9 spot for public universities as rated by the WSJ.

The 10 best public colleges and universities in the U.S.—none are in California

Private colleges and universities take up many of the tops slots in Wall Street Journal's latest national ranking. These are the best-ranked public schools.

www.cnbc.com

 

[Chuck]

The Wall Street Journal 2025 rankings are out. UConn's ranking, along with a bunch of other schools, changed dramatically. I get changing criteria periodically to try to make the rankings more "accurate." But, I'm not sure if the WSJ even changed their measurements this year. UConn went from #46 and the #9 public school to #99 and the #41 public school (behind URI in New England). I'm not sure how anyone would find such annual swings helpful. I'm glad my kids are done with the college decision process.

 

[temery]

Looks like the old US News law school rankings. "The biggest factor in determining the outcome was a statistical model used to project the median salary for graduates. Schools whose graduates were projected to earn more money than graduates from comparable institutions ranked higher. Other factors in the student outcomes were graduation rate and how long it would take students to pay off the net cost of their education, including room and board."

I'm not saying that isn't a good methodology, and this is the Wall Street Journal. But, it's going to favor schools with big business / stem programs in high wage areas.

The salary stat needs to be compared by major - education majors at UConn vs education majors at other universities, etc.

Rural universities will have a hard time moving up in rankings with the new methodology.