The US News and World Report, considered by many as the authoritative source of analysis on academic excellence in the United States, recently issued its “Best Colleges 2010” report. The editors consider a number of factors when computing the rankings, and many readers may take exception to the variables and weights involved. Many may also take exception to the “broad brush” methodology of these rankings which don’t delve into program by program comparisons at this level. These are indeed fair points, but I challenge you to find a more comprehensive and balanced approach to the national university ranking process. And for the record, I don’t consider Princeton Review’s list of schools with the “best access to hallucinogens” as part of the conversation. Interesting to some, but not relevant to the masses.
Those closest to me might roll their eyes (or maybe even gag) that I write about this, largely because my interest in all things University of Illinois (academics and athletics) is borderline lunatic. But I’m extremely proud of graduating from a school with such an outstanding academic reputation as Illinois, and I am thrilled the school cracked the top 40 universities in the country (public or private). Harvard or Northwestern they are not, but ranking as the 9th best public school in the nation is quite an achievement.
Click the link above to see the full (free version) list. Summarized below are the Big 10 (11) schools, listed in order, where the letter “t” indicates a tie:
- #12 - Northwestern
- #27 - Michigan
- #39t - Illinois
- #39t - Wisconsin
- #47 - Penn State
- #53 - Ohio State
- #61t - Minnesota
- #61t - Purdue
- #71t - Indiana
- #71t - Iowa
- #71t - Michigan State
