tomslawsky

"Interesting that the only two SEC publics that can compete nationally happen to be in the two states most culturally affected by northern transplants. Just saying..."


I completely agree. Oh no I don't because I can't think of a public school in:

*New york
*Massachusetts
*New Jersey
*Maine
*Vermont
*New Hampshire
*Connecticut
*Delaware

that is as good as Florida or Georgia. The one public in Pennsylvania that can even come close, Penn State (possibly Pitt), has an almost open admissions undergrad school and is lacking in undergraduate student aptitude, as a whole. Ironically, these states have some of the highest taxes and certainly tax more than Florida (with NO state income tax) or Georgia. Way to set the standard, Norrthern States- Tax more and produce lower quality.

But hey......you can still be right LOL!

bclintonk

^ Well, let's at least get our facts straight. US News, which ranks Penn State ahead of both Florida and Georgia in its overall rankings, reports that Penn State had a 51.0% acceptance rate in 2007---slightly lower than Georgia's 54.3% and not too far behind Florida's 42.1%. And those Penn State undergrads so "lacking in aptitude"? Well, their middle 50% SATs of 1090-1300 are actually quite comparable to Florida's 1140-1360 and Georgia's 1130-1310. So if Penn State students as a whole are "lacking in aptitude", then presumably so are the 90% + of students at Florida and Georgia who enter with comparable stats.

But why so selective in your choice of northern states, tomslawsky? What about the fact that the state flagships of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Pennsylvania ALL outrank Florida in the US News rankings? What about the fact that all these, plus Ohio State and Maryland ALL outrank Georgia---with Pitt, the #2 state university in Pennsylvania, tied with Georgia? Or what about the fact that EVERY Big Ten school outranks EVERY SEC public university except Florida and Georgia---as do Pitt, Rutgers, and the Universities of Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware, and SUNY Binghamton?

Hmmm . . . mayb e you DO get what you pay for.

Lbr218

Here is my list from the "Ranking the D1 Schools" thread. I live in Georgia, and next year I am attending Georgia Tech, in the ACC. That being said, I'm a huge Tech fan (and somewhat of a Florida fan) and I hate the Georgia Bulldogs. But I still respect that UGA is a very competitive, selective, highly-ranked academic institution.

Vandy
Florida
Georgia
Tennessee
Alabama
Auburn
South Carolina
Kentucky
Ole Miss
LSU
Miss. State
Arkansas

GiggitusMaximus

I thought this would be about the Securities and Exchange Commission. I'm such a nerd.

SSobick

"What about the fact that the state flagships of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Pennsylvania ALL outrank Florida in the US News rankings?"

It's only going to be a matter of time for UF to catch up to Penn State, UIUC, and Wisconsin. Over 18 million people live in Florida, and the demand at UF is getting insane.

ScottieMix

Yeah, I don't think the Northern transplants are the driving force behind UGAs increasing quality. Instead, I'm going to point out the HOPE scholarship program, which provides free in-state tuition to any Georgia kid with a 3.0 high school GPA. This made college feasible for a HUGE number of Georgians. It also drove up demand for UGA because top kids who would have gone out of state (or to schools like Mercer, Emory, Vandy, etc) want to stay in-state and public for the free tuition. You can map UGAs increasing prestige to the implementation of the HOPE program.

nyccard

"SEC" and "academics" in the same sentence! Who knew?

nyccard

Although I'm no fan of the SUNY system, some of the schools are quite decent. SUNY Geneseo's students, for example, have higher SAT scores than U Florida's students.

jec7483

Bclintonk, you beat me to it. I just the nonsense of tomslawsky's post. I am glad you pointed out how ridiculous it was. You saved me the time.

rjkofnovi

Penn State is a better school than anything in the SEC, save Vanderbilt.

jec7483

I finally agree with rjkofnovi. The Big Ten is just much more of an academic conference, hence why Penn State is #5 in the Big Ten and would be #2 in the SEC.

LennyPepperidge

As for Florida's ranking. Yes, it has risen admirably over the last decade and a half, but that is not the complete picture.That half billion dollars in research would put it in the bottom third in the Big Ten. Ohio State by comparison did 3/4 billion dollars last year, and that was only good enough for 4th in the conference. Florida's endowment would put it in the bottom half of the Big Ten. Ohio State's is approaching 2 1/2 billion, and Michigan's is over 4. It still lags severely behind almost every Big Ten university in department rankings as well as key faculty indicators such as National Academy members, Guggenheim Fellows and AAAS Fellows. Given Florida's decision to balance its budget in large part on the backs of its state universities on top of already weak funding, I don't see Florida being able to catch up any time soon. Again, for all that rabid alumni support, they've only built up a mediocre--by Big Ten standards--endowment base.

I commend Florida for breaking out of the traditional SEC mold of football first and mediocre academics, but let's be realistic. Florida's rise in the USN&WR rankings is largely the product of Florida's demographics--i.e. way too many applicants for far too few spots. While it has come a long way, it has a lot further to go before it could truly compete with most Big Ten schools as a comprehensive national research university.

Hanna

"the nonsense of tomslawsky's post."

The main reason the post is silly is that the Northeast's public schools suffer brain drain to its legions of outstanding private schools. There's a centuries-old private school tradition in those states. That's not the case in the SEC states. UF really has no in-state competition at the elite level; UGA has some, but it can't compare to the in-state options available in MA, NY, etc.

Sam Lee

^I saw the same thing. Thanks for saying it for me.

tomslawsky,
You forgot SUNY , which is more selective than UF/UGA (please don't post the scores for "admitted" students to argue). Are UF/UGA better than Rutgers? That's debatable. Now, I am not aware of any good privates in the state of Florida and that seems pathetic for a state that large.

rogracer

I think many of the Big-10 schools are absolutely wonder research universities...I have the opportunity to recruit at many of them. But do not sell UF short on the research front...I think they actually out-rank all the Big-10, except for Michigan, if terms of patents awarded and technology transfer-to-market.