Colleges that Went Down in Prestige

College Search & Lists
1

<p>I often hear about how schools like USC, GWU, and NYU have skyrocketed in prestige over the past twenty years. Are there any schools where the opposite occurred, and once prestigious institutions became far less impressive over time?</p>

<p>I’m not just referring to rankings. It would be ludicrous to suggest that since WUSL is higher ranked than Berkeley, it is therefore more prestigious. I’m referring to how the average student’s view of colleges has changed over time.</p>

2

<p>I’ve heard that Columbia used to be second only to Harvard (like 1960s and before), then it declined a bit, and is now steadily on the rise. I can’t think of any that have fallen in the last couple decades, but then again, I haven’t watched the rise and fall of schools for a couple decades. ;)</p>

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<p>Columbia has NEVER been as prestigious as HYP, the so called Big Three or Holy Trinity. It is, however, part of the lesser known Big Four (HYPC).</p>

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<p>I thought the Big Four were HYPS.</p>

5

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<p>So I’m guessing you’re about 100 years old, since you know this definitively, right?</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/1358378-best-universities-1910-1925-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/1358378-best-universities-1910-1925-a.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Indeed, in the early 1900s, Columbia had an even larger endowment than Harvard (I believe it was about $6 million vs. $5 million, which of course is a lot more today). I’ve seen other rankings from the 1950s that put Columbia up there as well.</p>

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<p>Today, of course, but not always. Stanford, for example, was considered a top-10 school for most of its existence, but not top 5 until the 1960s. It was after that time that it started to become one of the ‘big four’ (funnily enough, Stanford was founded by one of the real “Big Four” - of the transcontinental railroad).</p>

6

<p>U of Wisconsin, U of Michigan, and Cornell are the schools that come to mind first and foremost when I think of schools whose reputations have deteriorated over the past couple of decades. They are still very good schools of course but not top 10 like they were in the early and middle part of the last century.</p>

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<p>Dartmouth has been steadily falling off</p>

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<p>Nyu hasn’t been climbing in the ranks? They seem to be declining…</p>

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<p>From what I’ve read, in the early 1990s, NYU was thought of as a mid tier private school. Only recently has it become a relatively prestigious school.</p>

10

<p>Based on Historic USNWR Rankings: </p>

<p>Schools that have gone down 15 or more slots since 1983:
UC-Berkeley (as high as 5 in 1983,1988)
Michigan (as high as 7 in 1983)
UIUC (as high as 8 in 1983)
Wisconsin (as high as 13 in 1983)
Texas-Austin (as high as 25 in 1988)
UNC (as high as 9 in 1983)</p>

<p>Schools that have gone down by 10 or more slots since 1983:
Worcester Polytechnic (as high as 48 in 1997)
Carnegie Mellon (as high as 13 in 1983)
Texas A&M (as high as 48 in 1997)
Emory (rated as high as 9 in 1998…but it was rated in the high teens before and after)
William and Mary (rate as high as 22 in 1988)</p>

<p>No other school really had a significant downward jump. A few schools (ie U of Rochester,Brown,JHU,Northwestern) jumped down by 10 but eventually moved up to make up the difference)</p>

<p>Columbia was originally rate 18th in 1983 and didn’t break into the top 5 until after 2007
Dartmouth has gone down, but was originally ranked 10th in 1983 and hovered around the 8-10 spot predominantly, so its rank hasnt really decreased very much</p>

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<p>

This website has never before made me laugh hysterically. Thank you. Thank you.</p>

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<p>Where do you find the historic rankings?</p>

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USNWR has changed methodology over the years. It used to be based on 100% academic peer assessment back in 1983. That component still makes up a portion of the ranking today. If USNWR went back to 100% peer assessment, Berkeley would still be No. 5 or 6…no change from 1983. Michigan and others publics would also be higher.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/963108-us-news-through-years.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/963108-us-news-through-years.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

15

<p>Was there a methodology change between 1988 and 1989 in the US News rankings? Seems like a lot of schools made fairly large changes between those years (either up or down), while other year to year changes were fairly small.</p>

<p>Stanford 1->6
Berkeley 5->24
Michigan 8->25
MIT 11->5
Caltech 21->3
Columbia 18->8
UNC-CH 11->23
Virginia 15->20</p>

<p>Others crossing the 1988-1989 boundary, but with no data for one or both years:</p>

<p>CMU 13(1983)->22(1991)
UIUC 20(1988)->45(1996)
William and Mary 22(1988)->34(1996)
Wisconsin 23(1988)->32(1996)
Texas 25(1988)->44(2000)</p>

<p>Whatever happened in 1989 did seem unfavorable for the rankings of the public schools, which had large drops; private schools here were mixed, with MIT, Caltech, and Columbia rising, but Stanford and CMU dropping.</p>

16

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<p>[The</a> Birth of the College Rankings - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/news/national/articles/2008/05/16/the-birth-of-college-rankings]The”>http://www.usnews.com/news/national/articles/2008/05/16/the-birth-of-college-rankings)</p>

<p>The change in 1988 methodology would have shown up in the 1989 rankings.</p>

17

<p>I posted this elsewhere, but maybe this is a good place too. Does anyone know, or have a good guess, if/when they will consider SAT Writing in the ranking? Thanks.</p>

18

<p>^ I’m unaware of a ranking that considers SAT writing scores.</p>

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<p>The look at CR and M, but since W was added in 2005, they have considered it too new to have enough data. Still colleges require it and it is posted on collegeboard.com, so I figured sooner or later, USNWR would begin considering it. You are correct that they don’t do it now.</p>

<p>Just wondering if anyone had a guess as to when they would consider it, since having 7 years of data now.</p>

20

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<p>1983- The year I graduated. Guess it was downhill after that. This is perplexing, as I seem to recall that one needed not much more than a pulse to attend UIUC when I was admitted. Now my friends with honor’s students are sending their kids to Iowa because they couldn’t get in to UI’s engineering program.</p>