US NEWS college rankings

[setshot]

The 2013 edition is out. No change from last year. Valpo tied for 4th. with Xavier. No 1 next year.

[covufan]

The 2013 edition is out. No change from last year. Valpo tied for 4th. with Xavier. No 1 next year.

http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2012/09/12/top-schools-harvard-princeton-williams-continue-reign-in-us-news-best-colleges-rankings

[agibson]

We're "urban" and Butler is "suburban"?  Interesting!

[VULB#62]

Indianapolis apparently is not considered a legit city???

[okinawatyphoon]

I am not exactly sure how us news defines cities, but Valpo is located in an urban area (it's practically in downtown Valpo) and has a parking garage and public transportation on campus. I don't know a lot about where Butler is located in Indy, but the surrounding area may well be more suburban than Valpo.

[vu72]

I just did an incredible amount of research, well, maybe I just wasn't tired yet, but anyway, I thought I'd take a look at the rankings of our fellow conference mates to see whether or not we were similar, academic wise, as is promoted by the conferences.

What I found is that the Pioneer League really is very similar while the Horizon is not even close to being similar.

Let's take a look at the Pioneer League where most all of the schools are ranked in the Regional University category.

Here's my rankings:   

Davidson--12th National Liberal Arts
Butler---2nd Midwest Regional Universities
Drake---3rd Midwest        "              "
Stetson-3rd South           "             "
Valpo -- 4th      "             "             "
Stetson-7th      "             "             "
Marist---8th  North  Regional Universities
San Diego--92nd  National Universities
Dayton--    115th       "              "
Campbell--28th South Regional Universities
Jacksonville-53rd  "           "                "
Morehead St  55th "         "                 "

I would equate our 4th Midwest Regional University rating to a top 100 National University. No rationale, just my feeling. That would put 7/10th of the conference ranked at nearly that level or higher (Davidson).

Now, on to the Horizon:

Well, there's us and Detroit (ranked 20th in the Midwest Regional Universities) and Loyola,(ranked 106 in the National University category), and then you drop to UIC ranked 147 in the National University ranking-(not bad!)) and then, you go to Green Bay, ranked 66th in the Midwest Regional University level and then...all the rest are ranked (not) in the National University category, which ranks up to 200 then--"not ranked". thus, we can't really differentiate as to academic reputation between the group.

Intersting stuff, don't you think??  OK, now I'm ready for some sleep 

[FWalum]

I really have to question these rankings.  I was much more involved with the school when we were ranked #1 or #2 and in almost every critical category that the ranking looked at in those days the school has improved, in some cases dramatically, and yet our ranking has gone down.  Just interested in what they are looking at now and why we don't rank as high as in the late 80's and early 90's.

[valpotx]

Hadn't seen these reports in a few years.  I believe we were #1 when I was in school...1999-2004?

[78crusader]

The early years of the US News rankings were based on academic reputation only.  And VU enjoyed a tremendous academic reputation.

Now US News employs a rather complicated methodology that goes into figuring these ratings, and other factors would probably explain our drop.  I would imagine our retention rate and entering class ACT/SAT scores are part of the reason we rank 4th instead of 1 or 2.  Athough our ACT/SAT scores have improved, they are not as good as the schools above us.  I'm going from memory here, but a couple years ago VU had average ACTs in the 22-29 range, while the schools above us were in the 25-30 range.  That is a significant difference.  Same with retention rate.  A couple years ago it was in the 80% range.  The schools above us were in the 88-90% range.  Again, a big difference.

Paul

[okinawatyphoon]

Also of note in the US News rankings, the College of Engineering is now ranked 17, up 10 spots from last year!