Graduate quality vs. undergraduate quality

simba9
Fri, 31 Jan 2014 07:50:22 +0000

Another accepted explanation is that U.S. News overrates private universities and underrates publics. All USC being in the top 25 means that it does well enough according to U.S. News’ criteria to be placed there.



The fail-safe response of those who don’t like the results of any particular university ranking is to criticize the methodology and criteria involved. It’s so overused that it’s meaningless. The US News ranking is as legitimate or illegitimate as any other serious ranking. That it focuses on undergraduate programs offers a useful alternative to the typical school rankings that focus on research, graduate and professional programs.



On the other hand I don’t think you’re justified in concluding that USC’s ignoring its graduate programs while embracing its undergraduate ones. For USC to be the elite national university that it seeks to be, it has to improve it’s graduate programs.



Isn’t that what I said - that USC need to improve its graduate programs?