Wisconsin universities suck according to Forbes

[bork]

Forbes.com has come up with a ranking of 569 colleges and universities according to some goofy rating system. Wisconsin universities didn't fare too well.

 

UW ranked 335

MU 405

UWM 527

MSOE 569 (dead last among those that made the list)

 

The smaller liberal arts colleges did better.

 

Admittedly, there is an inherent absurdity in ranking colleges and universities with mock precision from first to 569th....Nonetheless, we believe that these rankings reflect, in a very real way, the quality and cost of an undergraduate education at a wide range of American colleges and universities.

What a joke. I'd expect more from a magazine like Forbes.

 

http://www.forbes.com/200..._mn_de_0813best_land.html

[homer]

I knew I should have gone to the United States Coast Guard Academy!

[SeriesFinale]

Interesting methodology, although I'd question how much of "What are the chances I will graduate in four years?" is the school's responsibility. Ultimately, I think it's a bit of a farce to try and rank schools like this, for a variety of reasons, but mostly since what's good for the goose isn't always good for the gander. Where you go to secondary school is a really personal decision and these aren't one size fits all.

 

(Beloit College #196 woo hoooo!)

[RobertR]

These rankings are always silly. Especially for bigger universities which have different colleges with different strengths and weaknesses within. One global ranking doesn't tell you if UW is the best place for you if you want to go into Education as opposed to Law as opposed to Journalism as opposed to Engineering.

 

I've always thought the class size ratios were sort of a bogus measure as well. There's nothing wrong with a big lecture if it's done well.

 

Robert

[Chio151]

This is one of the worst ranking systems I've ever seen. Did you check out there methodology? One of the items is how people rate their professors on a website?

 

I don't give a crap if you hate your professor, as long as you learn something. Some of the very best professors are total SOBs.

 

 

This was just bad reporting, they should be embarrassed. Just look at this:

 

They based 25% of the rankings on 7 million student evaluations of courses and instructors, as recorded on the Web site RateMyProfessors.com. Another 25% depends on how many of the school's alumni, adjusted for enrollment, are listed among the notable people in Who's Who in America.

The other half of the ranking is based equally on three factors: the average amount of student debt at graduation held by those who borrowed; the percentage of students graduating in four years; and the number of students or faculty, adjusted for enrollment, who have won nationally competitive awards like Rhodes Scholarships or Nobel Prizes.

That would be like ranking pitchers on 25% on innings pitched, 25% on strikeouts, and 50% on complete game shutouts

[chuckiehacks]

(Beloit College #196 woo hoooo!)

SF- Did you go to Beloit?

[SeriesFinale]

(Beloit College #196 woo hoooo!)

SF- Did you go to Beloit?

Yeah, class of '99. I believe Brewers19 did, too.

 

If only we'd rated our professors higher on an unscientific online website, we might be considered a better school than "Wisconsin Lutheran," right?

[chuckiehacks]

Yeah, class of '99. I believe Brewers19 did, too.

Well, I guess we can't be friends.

 

Ripon College '98 (87 spots above Beloit)

[bbrauch2000]

Carroll College representing, suck Midwest conference failure Beloit and Ripon. CC at #96

[ccbrew]

"4 year graduation" is such an old fashioned way of thinking. It's implied by some degree programs that the undergrad requirements will take more than four years to complete. Taking 4+ years is not necessarily a sign of laziness or lack of dedication. Individual circumstances dictate how long it takes to complete the degree.

 

I happened to complete my UW degree in less than four years, but I don't think that makes me any more qualified as someone who did in 4, 5, or 8 years.

[fondybrewfan]

Well, I guess we can't be friends.

 

Ripon College '98 (87 spots above Beloit)

I am also a Red Hawk grad. I was always amazed by the academic rivalry between all the Midwest Conference Schools. We all thought we were the Harvard of the Midwest. I graduated in 06' and the hatred for Beloit really isn't there anymore, Lawrence University has taken that role. I think Ripon was a very ood academic school but it is almost impossible to compare a liberal arts college and a state college simple because the curriculum and teaching styles are so different. And I still laugh at the "Private College is to expensive crowd" I have less student loans after 4 years than my wife did from going to a state school for 4 years. Sure I got some academic scholarships but their grants, scholarships, and student loans are all very generous.

[bork]

"4 year graduation" is such an old fashioned way of thinking. It's implied by some degree programs that the undergrad requirements will take more than four years to complete. Taking 4+ years is not necessarily a sign of laziness or lack of dedication. Individual circumstances dictate how long it takes to complete the degree.

Agreed. I graduated in 5 years, but I was in the Engineering coop program at Marquette. It may have taken me 5 years to graduate, but I ended up with 15 months of work experience and a full-time job.

[edod]

The way I'm reading this is "Rich kids do well" which seems to be a bit obvious. But this perspective isn't surprising coming from Forbes.

[SheetsCyYoung04]

MSOE 569 (dead last among those that made the list)

Its a good thing I can buy a ton of tissues with the money Im making now.

[endaround]

Its a joke, like the US News and World Report one is. But US News makes huge moeny and colleges have to respond to their joke rankings.

 

The funny thing is, I've taught Intro Econ at different places and by far the hardest course for it is at WCTC.

[chuckiehacks]

I am also a Red Hawk grad. I was always amazed by the academic rivalry between all the Midwest Conference Schools. We all thought we were the Harvard of the Midwest. I graduated in 06' and the hatred for Beloit really isn't there anymore, Lawrence University has taken that role. I think Ripon was a very ood academic school but it is almost impossible to compare a liberal arts college and a state college simple because the curriculum and teaching styles are so different. And I still laugh at the "Private College is to expensive crowd" I have less student loans after 4 years than my wife did from going to a state school for 4 years. Sure I got some academic scholarships but their grants, scholarships, and student loans are all very generous.

 

Even when I was there, the rivalry was mostly basketball and baseball-related. Totally agree on the whole "Private College is expensive" idea.

[SeriesFinale]

Go ahead, get your licks in, fellas: poor Ripon and Carroll don't even make the standard US World News and Report top list

[pitchleague]

The way I'm reading this is "Rich kids do well" which seems to be a bit obvious. But this perspective isn't surprising coming from Forbes.

The problem with this thinking is not all students at private schools are "rich kids". I went to Luther College ('95) which is #188 on the list. Tuition now is almost double what I paid in the early nineties. But there is no way you could even come close to calling me a rich kid. I went there because that's where I wanted to go, not what I could afford, and the financial aid came to my rescue, thanks in part to myself obtaining grants and scholarships up the ying-yang. It REALLY helped that I was a good student.

 

Sure there were a lot of rich kids there. But not all of the students are rich. Some scratch and claw their way through and pay for it with loans. Mine are paid off because I worked hard and was successful doing so. My parents didn't pay a dime. They're not rich--FAR from it (my inheritance is going to taking on their credit debt). Just because I went to a private school people assume that I'm "rich."

 

Did I feel really out of place at times? Sure did. Many times I couldn't do much in terms of "entertainment" besides stuff that was pre-paid/free. Any spending money that I happened to have on hand was from bartending the summer before (once it ran out, I was out of money. Period.) Some people thought I got money from "work-study" programs in the field house. But I never saw a penny of it. Every pay check was automatically put into my financial aid account to pay off my tuition.

 

Sorry for the blather, but it's the one thing about college that bugs me. Well, that and all the brown-nosers who slip into cushy jobs because they were VERY chummy with the professors and/or personally know the CEO of some company and get the job (ala "Tommy Boy").

 

Ugh, sometimes I wish our country just had a "national" university system so everyone pays the same and gets the same education out of it.

 

Oh, and edod, I don't have any problem with you, personally, about your post. Your comment is fine. I just wanted to put my 2 cents into it. Don't think that I think anything "bad" about you.

[RU Rah Rah]

I will go out on a limb here and say that, unless you wanted to become a seaman or a priest, Rutgers (#469) probably is better than California Maritime Academy (#399) or Wheeling Jesuit University (#437).

[blatzlight]

I will go out on a limb here and say that, unless you wanted to become a seaman or a priest, Rutgers (#469) probably is better than California Maritime Academy (#399) or Wheeling Jesuit University (#437).

Wheeling Jesuit is not a seminary but a Jesuit University of higher education like Marquette, Georgetown, Boston College, Gonzaga, Santa Clara, St. Louis, ect.

[burniebrewer]

Whatever happened to just ranking colleges based on party schools?http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/tongue.gif

 

Isn't that usually the real determining factor?

[hawing]

And I still laugh at the "Private College is too expensive crowd"

 

It doesn't specifically make me want to laugh, but I will point out that for my freshman year at Beloit College, my out of pocket cost each semester was like $225. This was 24 years of increases above the rate of inflation ago, but Beloit already had a five figure annual cost by then.

The year I was there (in the mid-1980s), the overall cost of attending was a few hundred dollars less than my family's income for the same period.

 

(For those Beloiters wondering, I transferred to UW-Madison after that year, so I don't know how much differently I would have fared there in subsequent years.)

[RU Rah Rah]

I will go out on a limb here and say that, unless you wanted to become a seaman or a priest, Rutgers (#469) probably is better than California Maritime Academy (#399) or Wheeling Jesuit University (#437).

Wheeling Jesuit is not a seminary but a Jesuit University of higher education like Marquette, Georgetown, Boston College, Gonzaga, Santa Clara, St. Louis, ect.

Yeah, I know that -- I should have put it in blue.

[fondybrewfan]

I went to private school and I am also far from what you would consider "rich". My parents were farmers. We had our fair share of snooty stuck up kids but the large majority of my friends were in the same boat as me.

[T B0NE 10]

US News & World Report thinks differently of Wisconsin colleges

 

UW Madison #35 Overall Tier 1 Score 62

 

Marquette University #77 Overall Tier 1 Score 44

 

 

 

UW-Eau Claire 26th Midwest Score 52

UW-La Crosse 17th Midwest Score 58

UW-Milwaukee Tier 4 National