Academic Reps of BCS schools

by UT2001 on May 4, 2007 9:26 PM CDT Comment 24 comments

Academic rankings of BCS schools by Conference

Boys,

I'm drinking my Bourbon well, pre-drinking for the Derby tomorrow. Anyways, I'm thinking about the Academic reps and standards of BCS schools. I know I could probably be all PHF or Billyzane and look it up on US News and World report, but I'm curious as to your opinions. I know some of you have attended other universities or lived in other regions (only Tejas for me) so what do you think of ranking the major BCS confs. by academic standards?

It's just an opinion and I'm really trying to see what the majority of people would say is a better overall school. So most people would say Vandy is a more prestigese college than say Miss state I'm assuming. Please post your ranking below.

Here are mine for the Big 12 but keep in mind I'm drunk:

Big 12

Texas

Baylor

Agrics

Nebraska (I know the guy from Corn nation will be reading this)

Colorado

Kansas

land thieves

Missouri

Iowa State

Tech

Ok State

K state?

Please comment on that and change accordingly and add the other major conferences if you have time. Thanks!

All comments, FanPosts, and FanShots are the views of the reader-authors who create them.

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hmm

Before I start typing, I want to say that this is not an all-encompassing generalization, but I do think that it applies to a fairly wide scope of athletes (specifically football). I have a friend in chemical engineering who also does football (practice squad, self proclaimed tackle dummy and route-runner) and I am amazed that he hasn't failed out, given the amount of work required for both activities. Smart guy.

However,

I feel like the course of study for a good portion of the athletics department is a joke. I guess you could say that UT is at the top of the list because they graduate their players and bla bla bla but my impression from talking with people in athletics here at UT is that it's a mindset of putting the least amount of effort in for the subject that requires the least amount of work.

Graduating players is important, but I feel like the lack of dedication that is put toward the academic side of life makes it a moot point. Kind of like the scrawny, short kid in high school running cross country to fulfill an athletics credit, I feel like a good portion of the football team majors in football and is pestered by the requirement to fulfill an academics credit.

I personally have no problem with this, as I recognize the amount of work they put into their support is on par with the amount of work I put into my major. I feel like the 'academic rep' of a school is more accurately put as a 'not having players fail out rep.'

by whoopspat on May 4, 2007 9:48 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Uh Oh

Oh no, my secret is out!

by james on May 5, 2007 11:37 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not athletics really

just schools in general. I have some Baylor friends and Tech friends and it's really interesting how each environment can brainwash us to a certain extent.

Street level

by UT2001 on May 4, 2007 10:01 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

ahh

Gotcha, just schools in general, whoops.

Texas

A&M/Colorado/Kansas

After that I have no idea. I have friends at Baylor and I am not impressed with what they have going on up there. A&M has a bunch of UT rejects, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Colorado is an attractive school to go to, although it doesn't have a marquee program like UT's McComb's school of business or our College of Engineering. Kansas is not dumb.

Tech is where you go if you dont get into UT or A&M and don't want to go to Texas State.

OU is a mystery to me. I think they have a decent discipline or two in their college of engineering, though. Nothing compared to UT, though.

Not sure about everything else.

by whoopspat on May 4, 2007 10:11 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Note

I would say that Texas is best in the Big XII by a wide margin. Like I said before, I'm in Chemical Engineering and there are people in that building that put me to shame every day. It's depressing how smart they are.

by whoopspat on May 4, 2007 10:12 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Chemical Engineering

This is off topic, but is Willson still teaching. I graduated in 2005 and have been meaning to come up and visit him. If you haven't had the opportunity, you should really get to know him. He's one of the good guys.

by Texas Wahoo on May 5, 2007 12:09 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Chemical Engineering

Since Prof. Willson is my dad, i guess i'm qualified to answer this.

He's still there, and he loves when old students come and visit. Surprise him in his office sometime, it'll make his day.

by Applewhite is my homeboy on May 7, 2007 10:42 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Formation of the Big 12

What you said kind of makes me think of the early 90's when the story goes...(if I remember correct) we we're seriously considering the PAC 10 b/c of their academic rep rather than say the SEC where I believe the agrics were looking. We said no to the SEC supposedly due to academics. Maybe that's just what I remember rather than the truth.

Street level

by UT2001 on May 4, 2007 10:19 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

interesting

It's funny the kind of interesting stuff I miss out on having only lived here since 2003. I had no idea there was ever any question of the Big XII formation save a Baylor/TCU/Houston debate. Anyway, dug up a link and here are some highlights:

First, the Longhorns looked west, to the Pac-10. Berdahl found it appealing that seven of the 10 schools in the Pac-10 were members of the American Association of Universities, a group comprised of the nation's top 62 research universities.

Distance was the main drawback. The University of Arizona, located in Tucson, was the nearest Pac-10 school to Austin — and still 788 miles away. Eight of the 10 schools were in the Pacific Time Zone, meaning a two-hour time gap with most of Texas.

"Texas wanted desperately the academic patina that the Pac 10 yielded," recalls Berdahl, who went on to serve as chancellor at Pac-10 member California-Berkeley. "To be associated with UCLA, Stanford and Cal in academics was very desirable."

Still, expansion in the Pac-10 depended on unanimous approval of the member schools. And Stanford, which had long battled UT in athletics as well as academics, objected. For UT, the way west never materialized. "

"That left the SEC as a possible relocation target for the Longhorns — until Berdahl let it be known that UT wasn't interested because of the league's undistinguished academic profile. Only two of 12 schools in the SEC were American Association of Universities members and UT officials saw admissions standards to SEC schools as too lenient. "

Side note: My UGA friends were telling me this spring how easy South Carolina, Alabama, and Auburn were to get into, something that surprised me. It's funny how a school's football reputation can sometimes substitute for an academic reputation.

"Dean later told reporters that he believed UT was "headed north" — to the Big Eight or Big Ten — while A&M was the "most logical addition to the SEC.""

by whoopspat on May 4, 2007 10:50 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

i totally did look it up on US News

the US News rankings are totally stupid for entire universities, but whatever. it's something.

Pac10 is by far the best academic BCS conference. Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA and USC are all top-30 schools. UW is ranked 42.

The SEC has Vandy and.....well, Florida is tied with Texas at 47. The ACC is pretty good as well with Duke, UNC, UVA, BC and Georgia Tech in the top 40. The Big 10 is good too, with Northwestern, UMich, Wisconsin, Illinois in the top 40 and Penn St. is also tied with Texas.

By far the worst are the Big East and the Big 12. The big East is better as a basketball conference because they add in G-town and ND, but as a football conference, they're terrible. No one in the top-50.

Texas is tops in the Big 12 ranked #47. That ranking seems low to me, but whatever. Then a&m, colorado, baylor, iowa state, kansas and missouri, nebraska, ou, kansas state. tech and osu are tier 3 schools and not ranked.

by billyzane on May 5, 2007 11:37 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Washington Monthly

They have a completely different standard for rating schools. They have a research score, a public service score, and a social mobility score. It just shows that there are many reasonable ways to rate institutions of higher learning.

They have the Big Ten and Pac Ten as the best, but the Big XII does somewhat better. The strange thing is that due to the community service component, including ROTC, Texas A&M is rated highest in the Big XII and 5th overall. Damn liberal bias putting those Aggie hippies in the top 5.

by Bob LaBlog on May 5, 2007 12:09 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

US News law school rankings though....

are TOTALLY accurate. or rather, they are now that my beloved violets have passed those uptown jerks from columbia.

by billyzane on May 5, 2007 12:19 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Fine by me

As long as US News keeps Wisconsin in the top-3 social policy programs, I'll be supportive of them. Stupid Michigan being ahead of us. And to Brandeis, keep dreaming, you'll never pass us.

Now, Texas just has to care about social policy and I'm set.

by Bob LaBlog on May 5, 2007 12:27 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Colorado below Nebraska?

UT2001, you are dead to me.

by Wells on May 7, 2007 11:57 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

High Admission Standards, right?

I know that in 1997, Colorado had roughly the same out-of-state admission standards as Texas. I don't know how that translates to quality of education or academic reputation. I know that they riot about as well as the Wisconsin students and for equally random reasons.

by Bob LaBlog on May 7, 2007 12:45 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Riots

idiots pissed that the cops were taking their beer. Followed by years of new idiots coming in who decided that it was a right of passage to burn couches and get teargassed.

I don't think that is still true, but that is more about supply than demand. UT only has about 20 percent out of state (10% being international), where as CU has about 30% (only 3% international).

by Wells on May 7, 2007 1:57 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Forgive me kind sir

The Corn Nation guy sent me a threatening email I tell ya honest.

Street level

by UT2001 on May 7, 2007 12:57 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

and you felt threatened?????

Wow!

I feel so powerful!

Go Big Red Nebraska!
Corn Nation - Graduating more of our players than you are!

by cornnation on May 7, 2007 11:53 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well...

my oldest isn't that far away from college any more, so I give this a lot more thought than I used to. I have come to the conclusion that US News rankings and the ilk are a large bunch of bullshit put out to convince people like me that I need to chunk down as much money as possible for my kids to attend a 'great' university - whatever that might be.

As a Nebraska alum, I don't really care whether or not my kids go to Nebraska. If they want to go to Texas, Iowa State, or whatever (not Colorado I like my kids too much for that), then that's fine as long as that they pick a place that they can get a good education in whatever discipline they choose for a reasonable amount of $$$.

I would prefer they'd got to a larger public university so they can get exposed to a diverse environment - with a preference to a 'college town' - some place that isn't so big the school gets lost amongst the rest of the population.

When the time comes, I'll be looking more closely at the specific major they choose rather than worrying about overall rankings.

Go Big Red Nebraska!
Corn Nation - Graduating more of our players than you are!

by cornnation on May 8, 2007 12:15 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

It's all about the fit

You and your kids know best, but some people need that small liberal arts college for whatever reason. My wife went to a school of a thousand and I went to UT and then Wisconsin for grad school, so big schools aren't so much a problem for me.

The college guides can be somewhat useful, but mostly I think that the impression one gets from visiting a campus is most important.

Good luck with that process. I imagine it can get stressful for a parent.

by Bob LaBlog on May 8, 2007 1:34 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

While I don't agree with your sentiment about

Colorado (I think the flat monotony of you your state has driven you mad) you are correct that you don't have to throw down all kinds of cash to get a good education.
It seems like you know what you want your kids to gain out of their education, so just balance that with what they want and see where that gets you.
While the top tier schools will give them a slight competitive advantage in getting their first job or get into the gradschool of their choice, you have to balance that with the debt they or you will incur.
I work with a lot of smart people, some went to U of Maryland and some went to MIT, and no one here cares which ones are which.

by Wells on May 8, 2007 8:35 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Excellent point

The large number of extemely succesful Texas alumni is testament to this point. UT has long been one of the cheapest institutions of higher learning in the nation for both in-state and out-of-state students (though I'm not sure where it ranks now).

I work with a bunch of Ivy League pricks who were no better prepared for their careers than me (in a more liberal-arts slanted government agency than Wells) and are still paying off school debt ten years later.

In the end, the only siginificant difference between the major universities is their football team, which is why I'm supremely glad that I went to Texas.

So take that.

by Kahuna on May 8, 2007 8:59 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs