UT Moves Up in 2011 US News Rankings
While we've gotten a bunch of bad news over UT Athletics the last few days, the academic (say what?) side of our university got some good news today.
After sitting at 47th last year, UT moved up to 45th in the surprisingly vaunted 2011 US News Rankings. Perhaps more importantly, UT moved up to 13th in the public university rankings. UT was just a point away from joining a four-way tie for 41st.
Here's the 2011 rankings of the other members of the Big 12-2...it's not great.
A&M: 63rd
Baylor: 79th
ISU: 94th
MU: 94th
KU: 104th
OU: 111th
OSU: 132nd
KSU: 132nd
Tech: 159th
I've got a lot of thoughts about this, but that is perhaps for another day...
almost 2 years ago
txtwstr7
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Sounds right
High % of acceptance is due to the top 10% rule. Pretty much everyone in the top 10% applies to UT as a backup school or they are interested in going there
Not 100% true
When I graduated high school in 2006, UT still had the CAP (Coordinated Admissions Program) which allowed for students who were rejected from UT yet met some form of parameters (top 50% of class or like a 900 or 20 score on your SAT or ACT respectively) to be automatically admitted to some of the satellite schools (UT-Arlington, Tyler, San Antonio).
If after the first year, the student had a GPA of 3.2 or higher, he/she was guaranteed admission to UT. A bunch of people I knew in high school did this.
I do remember my counselor asking me where I wanted to go to school the most, and I told her Texas and she kept urging me to apply even if I didnt think I was going to get in. My GPA was top 22% at my high school, so this is why she thought I would just end up in CAP. Luckily, I had a good ACT score and snuck in as a summer freshman.
Anyways…I remember guidance counselors urging people to apply to Texas even if they thought there was no shot they would get in.
Believe the CAP program is still available
A friend’s daughter just finished her year at UTSA. I believe the GPA requirement was a 3.5.
still in action...at least as of fall 09
I know at least 3 people that came in from UTSA
Still in action. Available to all students who get into a University of Texas school.
Only about a third accept their CAP offer.
by InDKR'sShadow on Aug 17, 2010 11:21 PM CDT up reply actions
Not necessarily
I wasn’t in my class’s Top 10%, but I received an academic scholarship from UT. So, in my opinion, UT did a good job of finding some treasure buried in the chaff.
Every time I feel down and depressed, I think of seven simple words by a true wise man, Matt Leinart: "I still think we're the better team" and I usually end up hurting myself by laughing so hard.
by SurferHorn257 on Aug 17, 2010 6:58 PM CDT up reply actions
how does this happen :[
Im shouldering like 50,000 in loans at this point (senior now)
Don't worry, dude.
It wasn’t worth too much (only $575 a year), so I’ve still got a lot to pay as well. But on the plus side, I’m a senior too, so everytime I balk at the cost of a beer, I just remember it’s a raindrop in the ocean to the loans I get to start paying off in January. So let’s drink up those worry-free beers, my friend. Senior class!
Every time I feel down and depressed, I think of seven simple words by a true wise man, Matt Leinart: "I still think we're the better team" and I usually end up hurting myself by laughing so hard.
by SurferHorn257 on Aug 18, 2010 4:04 AM CDT up reply actions
UT is terrible with academic scholarships
I was a National Merit Scholar and only got the equivalent of about a year’s tuition.
Never ask a man if he's from Texas. If he is, he'll tell you soon enough. If he's not, don't embarrass him.
Admissions
It’s currently the top 8% of Texas graduating high school seniors.
In most states, most students apply to the flagship university because every applicant receives a holistic review. In Texas, anyone below the top 12% realizes they are not competitive because they are fighting for an incredibly small number of spots and chooses not to apply. Only students who have a high probability of being accepted apply.
It really throws off our admissions data and hurts us in the rankings.
by InDKR'sShadow on Aug 17, 2010 6:09 PM CDT up reply actions
Proves that
Academics has NOTHING do with conference realignment. Most of the big 10 schools are pretty respectably ranked…as you can see nebraska is not that great. The argument that we should have gone to the pac 10 over SEC is null too because look at the academic rating of texas tech
Check the graduate programs, using Iowa as a baseline, and get back to me.
proud to swim home
by learned hand on Aug 17, 2010 5:51 PM CDT up reply actions
are you implying that big 10 schools have a good overall academic reputation? I wasnt nagging on the big 10 (northwestern, uwisc, penn st, ohio st, and umich are pretty well respected)…in fact i said that “Most of the big 10 schools are pretty respectably ranked”…im not familiar with iowas graduate program so i dont have a comment about it
I'm talking about undergrad's being an afterthought in the world of university adminstrators
Nebraska’s reputation as a graduate institution (read as profitable) outstrips its reputations as an undergraduate institution. Iowa is a comparator, with highly regarded graduated programs and largely unmentioned undergraduate programs.
The reason many of us argue that academics matter in the realignment process is a financial one, and graduate programs are much more valuable from a monetary standpoint than undergraduate. In the meaty sweet-spot of the CIC, Iowa and Nebraska acquit themselves quite well as schools that punch research/graduate-program weight well above their national reputations.
So, in effect, my argument is that using US News undergraduate rankings as a metric in a realignment conversation misses the relevant metrics entirely.
proud to swim home
by learned hand on Aug 17, 2010 6:12 PM CDT up reply actions
A popular line in the Office of Admissions is that UT is less than the sum of its parts
Each of the individual schools and programs are incredibly highly ranked but the school itself is not ranked among the elite. Because UT offers such a broad range of academic programs, it is much more important to look at colleges and programs inside the university.
Completely agree
When you are looking at a chemistry degree, the rankings of the history program are completely irrelevant. Even the individual colleges have wide variations among their programs. Our graduate engineering program is #10 overall but our graduate petroleum engineering is #1. If you are the business of getting a petroleum degree you’re not going to choose another school just because it has a higher overall ranking.
You make a good point
1 Business – Accounting
6 Business – Finance
4 Business – Management
3 Business – Marketing
4 Business – MIS
4 Business – International Business
6 Business – Production/Operations Management
7 Business – Entrepreneurship
8 Business – Insurance/Risk Management
5 Engineering – Chemical
8 Engineering – Aerospace
4 Engineering – Civil
7 Engineering – Computer
4 Engineering – Environmental
9 Engineering – Mechanical
what what Intl Bus
Never ask a man if he's from Texas. If he is, he'll tell you soon enough. If he's not, don't embarrass him.
When I was hearing their spiel as a business freshman four years ago they said it was basically for people who wanted to work abroad and bring a western perspective to international companies. It’s a pretty small major, I think there were less than 30 of them that graduated this year.
yeah, i know
That was my major. Shoutout.
Never ask a man if he's from Texas. If he is, he'll tell you soon enough. If he's not, don't embarrass him.
So what weighs us down?
If we’re that highly ranked in so many programs (I assume those listed above are all undergrad, right?), what’s the counterbalance sending us much further down the rankings?
by Hopkins Horn on Aug 17, 2010 10:38 PM CDT up reply actions
everything else
thats not business or engineer. Liberal arts, communications, and natural sciences? Dont quote me on this. Those are our largest depts at UT
There is not one area that ways us down.
Communications, especially Radio-Television-Film and Advertising, ranks well. As does Social Work, Nursing, and Pharmacy. A number of smaller programs like Athletic Training are the some of the best in the country.
A large part of the study body is in Liberal Arts or the School of Undergraduate Studies, which does not have the same distinctions because every school in the country offers those programs.
The ranking system is biased against us. Large components include a school’s reputation and its retention rate. Being known as a party school doesn’t help the former. Larger schools naturally have higher dropout rates, even though ours is one of the lowest for a school of our size. Other components include classes sizes are and teacher accessibility. 70% of our classes are less than 30 students and our student-faculty ratio is 17-1 but if you look at the big picture we look bad in those two areas.
I could write a whole post about it. Bottom line: if you talk to professionals in any field, they know about UT.
by InDKR'sShadow on Aug 17, 2010 11:20 PM CDT up reply actions
Just to add
The rankings are also deeply biased toward smaller student-faculty ratios, with faculty quality a distant second. That tends to impact some of the liberal arts and science programs more severely than B-School or Engineering.
proud to swim home
by learned hand on Aug 18, 2010 1:50 AM CDT up reply actions
The admin should make moving up
To the UNC, UV and Michigan ranks. Our goal should be top 5 public.
Our legislature doesn’t seem to want to help make this happen though. I’m not saying the rankings are the end all be all of respect but most causal observers look at this like the bible.
The Tower should look at how we can move up and improve education at the same time.
Yee-haw!!!
by UT2001 on Aug 17, 2010 8:49 PM CDT via mobile reply actions
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