<p>Hi just wondering between</p>
<p>UT- Austin, University of Miami or Penn State.</p>
<p>what would you rank them in order of academic reputation.</p>
<p>then what would you rank them in overall college experience.</p>
<p>Where would you go.</p>
<p>(Im international and going in undecided)</p>
<p>There is no significant difference in academic reputation.<br>
Miami has a slightly higher US News ranking, so its academic reputation might be marginally better. Its average class sizes are smaller. However, they are all so close that differences among individual programs would be more significant for most students. None is worth paying a big price premium over the others unless (perhaps) you have a specific program in mind that is clearly better.</p>
<p>As for overall experience, Miami is private and the other two public. Miami draws more undergraduates from out of state (a little more than half, compared to about a third at PSU and less than 10% at Texas). Miami and Texas have much warmer winters than Pennsylvania (which gets sub-freezing temperatures and occasionally significant snowfall for several months each year).</p>
<p>Again, unless you have a specific program in mind, I’d choose based on cost.</p>
<p>tk, the US News ranking is not a good indicator of academic reputation. Cal is ranked #21 on the USNWR and its academic reputation is definitely in the top 10.</p>
<p>Of the three universities on the OP’s list, UT clearly has the best reputation…by far. PSU is second and Miami is third. With very few exceptions, academic reputation is determined by strength of academic departments. Texas has top 10 undergraduate programs in Engineering and Business and one of the strongest faculties across all traditional disciplines, ranging from the humanities to the hard sciences. Miami does not come close to Texas.</p>
<p>In terms of overall experience, it depends on personal preference. All three have their strengths and weakness.</p>
<p>As far as I’m concerned, the US News rankings are about as good (and as bad) a source as any for overall undergraduate reputation (or more importantly, quality). Whatever their shortcomings, they have the advantage of familiarity to the general public and a clearly described methodology oriented to the interests of typical undergraduates. </p>
<p>Cal’s undergraduate academic reputation is not “definitely” in the top 10. You can make a reasonable argument that it is, if you emphasize research productivity or other factors often associated with graduate department strength. If you emphasize factors such as average undergraduate class size, selectivity, national drawing power, financial aid, or placement into graduate & professional programs, I’d say it’s about rightly ranked by USNWR in the low 20s (not including LACs) for overall undergraduate quality.</p>
<p>“Academic reputation”, like “prestige”, is a fairly meaningless concept to me unless you carefully define what you mean and back up your definition with objective measurements. That’s what the USNWR rankings attempt to do. Look at a different ranking and you might get different answers. stateuniversity.com has these 3 school very closely ranked: PSU at 93, Texas at 99 and Miami at 100. That’s this year. Last year it was PSU at 103, Miami at 121, and Texas at 125.</p>
<p>We’re not talking about Harvard v. a random community college here. They’re all close enough that you can safely choose based on cost or personal preferences (weather, whatever) unless you have a specific program in mind that is clearly stronger. My personal preference would indeed be Texas (one of the country’s best state flagships, with good weather and a lively college town).</p>
<p>I guess we will have to disagree tk. No need to debate this issue.</p>
<p>Berkeley is definitely top 10 for academic reputation may that be for undergrad or postgrad. With the exception of HYPSM, no school is more reputable than Berkeley. </p>
<p>On topic: Texas-Austin is more prestigious than the three. Having said that, I would personally go for Miami if the cost would be the same for all three schools. Miami has better campus environment, better weather, people, etc.</p>
<p>UT Austin, then Penn State, then Miami.</p>
<p>All great schools!</p>
<p>^^^ Yes, we’ll just have to disagree on that. </p>
<p>The OP might do well to visit the individual forums for each of these schools and ask specific questions about the “overall college experience” at each of them.</p>
<p>UT has a great overall experience.</p>