If you took location out of the equation, which schools would go up or down significantly on ranking lists? For example, would UT Austin get more applicantions than UCLA or Vanderbilt would get as many applicants as Columbia?
That’s a great question. It speaks to the differences between a great education (actual teaching) vs. overall experience (which includes teaching but also encompasses other important factors like culture). Also speaks to on campus recruiting and professional partnerships. Do the major companies have a meaningful presence in OCR? That makes a big difference and provides a much easier path to a good first job.
Before I did that, I’d have teaching quality and final outcomes be part of the rankings, which they are not. There are plenty of highly ranked schools, with giant lectures and abysmal histories when it comes to quality of instruction.
Now sticking with the original premise, Houston is an awful place to live. If you dropped Rice into California or the Upper East Coast, I believe it’s popularity would jump significantly.
I also believe the fear of LDS influence keeps Utah suppressed. The mountains are beautiful. The campus and dorms are nice. It offers lots of high quality majors with good facilities abound. The students are wild about their athletics. Put that aside, and Utah joins the ranks of some of the UCs, Colorado, Wisconsin, etc.
JMHO YMMV. 
Any maritime school not located on a coast or other significant body of water such as the Great Lakes would probably sink.
I’m sure NYU would go down in applications.
I suppose popular west coast and new england colleges like Stanford, Berkeley, Ivies, Boston College, NYU, Georgetown would see a huge drop in applications/rankings and Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt, Rice, Northwestern would jump ahead. Its not like academic standards are vastly different, its more about location and name brand.
U Chicago is probably one school which plays ranking, marketing, ED , yield games better than any other college. Elite schools in southren states seriously suck at marketing gimmicks and can move significantly ahead only with some online efforts to put their names out there. For example Texas schools can ride ahead on booming economy and abundance of opportunities not available or affordable in saturated states.
A hypothetical that has zero chance of ever happening. Thats’ why unhabitable shacks in Silicon Valley are worth millions. The best professors and students are drawn to location.
@sushiritto Exactly. This is the exact reason, employers and middle class are moving to affordable areas with untapped oppurtunities. Just look at Texas for last 5 years growth and it looks like a new world. Why buy an unhabitable shack for million when you can raise your family in a brand new fancy house for half of that in Texas. Its not like Huston, Austin, Dallas suburbs are what they used to be in stereotypes. These are very diverse and happening metro areas now. They aren’t NY or London but can offer great family living without debt or struggle.
Then the Texas universities will be charging hard up the USNews Rankings quickly.
But, I just did a quick google search and it shows that UT Austin, being the State’s flagship, has actually gone down from #44 (2008) to #53 (2015). And it’s #56 for 2018. But I know the rankings are problematic.
http://publicuniversityhonors.com/2015/06/13/u-s-news-national-university-rankings-2008-present/
Personally, I love my “slightly inhabitable” shack in Silicon Valley. And just by my own eye, the residential and commercial building activity continues unabated here.
I suspect many rural schools would go up in popularity. There’s a generational flight back to the cities, most of the younger people I speak to want urban conveniences.
UT caps OSS and mostly does auto admit according to class rank. Most Texas schools (private and public) give generous aid and merit including lots of free rides, it hurts flagship because they aren’t attractive for academic scholars. Ivies, Rice and other elites also take a big chunk from the top 1-2%.
If instead of college rankings, you can look at number of employers and employees moving to Texas due to financial incentives and affordable living, you’ll see a huge influx and changing environment. Its becoming too expensive for middle class to have a decent living in traditionally popular metroplexes like NY, SF, LA, Boston etc. I’m not contesting those places being better, just their affordability.