<p>I agree with Alexandre that the academic reputation index looks very reasonable.</p>
<p>u just made my day TSDAD 
well said bro…keep it up my Trojan bortha</p>
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<p>Good point, pizzagirl…</p>
<p>But where is USC trying to pull itself up departmentally? Engineering seems to be a big push. The arts…</p>
<p>I think wrt engineering, USC is seemingly tyring to mirror Stanford. But USC can’t be Stanford wrt engineering because of space constraints. If it’s just classrooms and teachers without labs, research, etc, it would seemingly be better for them. </p>
<p>And does Harvard even have an engineering school? If you said MIT, then I could buy into it.</p>
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<p>I’m aware of USC’s Health Sciences campus of med school, pharmacy, etc. Is dentistry at Univesity Park or at Health Sciences?</p>
<p>Yeah, UCLA’s the same with many affiliations also, health-wise. But I am speaking of the main campus itself. Yes, UCLA has Ronald Reagan on its 400+ acres, and it is congested.</p>
<p>Are you going to state that University Park is not congested? Are you going to say there’s plenty of room for research, etc?</p>
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Yes, absolutely. As far as GPA goes, I am not convinced that everyone reports UW like they are supposed to. I know many don’t on the common app, even though the instructions are clear. UCLA, Miami (FL), UVA, and a number of others are all offenders.</p>
<p>Freshman retention has gone up to 92%, but I guess that wasn’t reflected in this years USNWR? Don’t know, where can you see those stats that USNWR uses? Tulane will always have a bit lower score here. They have more students from >500 miles than any school in the country, it is expensive, and New Orleans isn’t for everyone. Most love it, a few just never quite adjust. It is what it is. They have made extraordinary efforts to increase the retention by acknowledging the distance problem (and the drinking, although it is no worse than nearly any other school) and putting in proactive and reactive programs. I think the 92% reflects some of that work. A minor factor, but still one that had some impact, is that Tulane did a study where they found their policy regarding violations that would get a student kicked out of the university was more strict than its peers such as Wash U, Vandy, and Emory (Tulane calls them peers, so don’t yell at me). They have instituted a more proactive intervention policy to help with that also.</p>
<p>The graduation rate is still Katrina affected, since it was only 5 years ago. Some students got off track for the 4 year pace, and certainly the 6 year is still affected. I do believe that stat is improving as well.</p>
<p>I have some other thoughts on why Tulane doesn’t do as well in the surveys as the quality of the school would seem to indicate it should, but it really doesn’t matter. I think we can all see that the ranking system of USNWR is pretty flawed, just not as flawed as many others. Still bad though.</p>
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<p>Thanks for telling that totally necessary piece of information. I really had to know that even though the object of the conversation had absolutely nothing to do with UMichigan. Totally doesn’t show your insecurity, especially since your precious UMich dropped in the counselor rankings, dropped in PA, and didn’t make top 25. </p>
<p>If it weren’t for Alexandre’s kindness and hospitality, I would be letting loose right now…</p>
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<p>Amazing how polling a group of people with limited knowledge makes the prior list better – or more reasonable. While it mitigates the negatives, the result are still far from what it should be. Just as it was at 25%, the 15% PA is still an incredibly poor and easily manipulated instrument. It was just made less poisonous. </p>
<p>With all the focus on the PA of public universities, little attention is given to the PA in the LAC universe. Do you think that the PA/ARI is fair in that … lesser area of education?</p>
<p>Size of campus isn’t that great of an indicator for engineering potential - Look at Caltech. Granted having your own NASA center helps</p>
<p>^^Well you wish you could say the same about Duke for those disciplines, but as you can see they are no where to be found…</p>
<p>Pitt dropped 8 spots. Ouch.</p>
<p>I thought we were going to do very well this year. We had CMUP rank us in the top cluster of public research universities again (we weren’t last year), and the Princeton Review put us on their “Best Quality of Life” and “Happiest Students” lists.</p>
<p>Oh well, I’m still proud of my school regardless.</p>
<p>“Totally doesn’t show your insecurity, especially since your precious UMich dropped in the counselor rankings, dropped in PA, and didn’t make top 25.”</p>
<p>Michigan dropped out of the top 25 last year, nothing new. However the counselor rankings are brand new this year, so there is nothing to drop from. As for the PA, if it is still at 4.4, it hasn’t dropped at all. Anything else intelligent to report?</p>
<p>USC is expanding its campus. They have the Master Plan which will take years to complete but they are going build more buildings and housing in the surrounding area. </p>
<p>[University</a> Park Master Plan - Draft Master Plan](<a href=“http://www.usc.edu/community/upcmasterplan/draft_master_plan/]University”>http://www.usc.edu/community/upcmasterplan/draft_master_plan/) </p>
<p>So there goes that arguement …</p>
<p>USC has spread out of the confines of its gated campus into the nearby neighborhoods and continues to grow. However, it will never be as large as UCLA.</p>
<p>BTW I am a long-time veteran of the USC-UCLA wars on CC. My son entered USC in 2003. I thought then (you should see my discussions with The Dad an otherwise estimable man and major contributor to CC who had a blind spot at the time when it came to USC) and continue to believe that these type of discussions are stupid and a waste of time. Both schools are outstanding, although USC’s rise is more recent, and both contribute mightily to Los Angeles, the State of California and the nation’s weal. Graduates of either school should be proud of their college and in doing so should not find it necessary to run down the other institution. Angelenos are lucky to have two world class institutions within the confines of their city.</p>
<p>p-girl:</p>
<p>Are you serious?</p>
<p>In the latest, albeit old, NRC rankings, Cal placed 35 programs in the top 10, easily beating Harvard & Yale (30 each), Princeton (29)…</p>
<p>and for the mid-tier UC bashers… UC San Diego had 29 top 10 programs (tied with Princeton), UC Davis had 25, Irvine 23, (tied with MIT & Tulane)… </p>
<p>US News & Worlds Report Rankings of Graduate Programs, 2006
Ph.D Institution: UC Berkeley Stanford MIT Harvard Princeton
Biological Sciences 2 1 2 2 9
Chemistry 1 5 2 2 14
Computer Science 1 1 1 20 9
Economics 3 3 1 3 3
Education 4 1 2<br>
Engineering 3 2 1 20 11
English 1 4 1 4
History 2 4 4 2
Geology 3 3 2 7 11
Mathematics 2 2 1 2 2
Applied Math 5 4 1 21 5
Physics 3 3 1 3 3
Political Science 5 2 10 1 4
Psychology 2 1 11 5 5
Sociology 2 6 8 6
Percent of programs in top 5 100% 93% 82% 67% 57%</p>
<p>[Graduate</a> Program Rankings | College of Letters & Science](<a href=“http://ls.berkeley.edu/?q=graduates/graduate-program-rankings]Graduate”>http://ls.berkeley.edu/?q=graduates/graduate-program-rankings)</p>
<p>^^^Where are all of the other top 20 schools? Most of them can’t hold a candle to Berkeley overall academically. And once again, great graduate programs do trickle down to undergrads. If they can in the case of H,Y,P,S,M then that should certainly apply to Cal as well.</p>
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<p>I have no dog in either USC or UCLA either way, but I’ve always found their rivalry to be quite annoying and not reflecting very well on either institution. I get friendly sports or academic rivalries, but the whole you-have-to-hate-the-other-school-to-fit-here nonsense is quite tiring and for me, would be a decided negative if my children were interested in either school. Who wants that fake boosterism that comes only at the expense of tearing someone else down? Blech. Any fool can look at their rankings and figure out they are both equally excellent institutions.</p>
<p>“If they can in the case of H,Y,P,S,M then that should certainly apply to Cal as well.”</p>
<p>One needs to do more than rank at the top of one’s class at a joke school to get into HYPSM.</p>
<p>Who doubts that Berkeley has top programs?</p>
<p>"Pitt dropped 8 spots. Ouch.</p>
<p>I thought we were going to do very well this year. We had CMUP rank us in the top cluster of public research universities again (we weren’t last year), and the Princeton Review put us on their “Best Quality of Life” and “Happiest Students” lists.</p>
<p>Oh well, I’m still proud of my school regardless." +1</p>
<p>Just visited the school since my cousin goes to CMU nearby, UPMC is a top-notch medical center imho. :)</p>
<p>re harvards room to expand</p>
<p>[Allston</a> fear: Harvard is creating a ‘ghost town’ - Boston Business Journal](<a href=“http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2006/11/06/story1.html?b=1162789200^1370489]Allston”>http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2006/11/06/story1.html?b=1162789200^1370489)</p>
<p>finding room to expand has been a big issue for harvard for decades, and they are mainly buying real estate in neighboring Allston, creating town-gown issues.</p>
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Pitt was there last year. One of the universities misreported their data (likely UF), and they are issuing a correction. That said, Pitt did crack the top 25 of all universities in CMUP and increased their academic and admissions ratings scores in The Princeton Review. In this year’s US News, Pitt was certainly hurt by their bewildering decision to include high school guidance councilor opinion surveys as 7.5% of the methodology, but, with all the ties, it only slipped two slots. Slight changes make a big difference with all the bunching between numbers 50-70.</p>