The most underrated colleges in every state

[regentrude]

Came across this on facebook:

http://www.businessinsider.com/map-the-most-underrated-college-in-every-state-2014-4

[Caroline]

Thank you for sharing that. Lots of decent tech schools on that list.

[Laura in CA]

Interesting! Yes, I tried to get my boys to apply to UC Santa Cruz. I LOVE the campus. But they would have none of it.

 

As an editor, I'm distracted by the disorganized alphabetization of the list. But it looks like it has some good info.

 

[Pawz4me]

UNC is consistently ranked among the top five public universities in the country.  I"m having a *really* hard time figuring out how that can be deemed to be underrated.  :001_huh: 

[EKS]

I went to UC Santa Cruz and it was AWESOME!

[8filltheheart]

Our oldest is an alumnus of one of those schools.   It is why I have posted so many times that name recognition amg the general public is not equivalent to the view of employers.   When employers recruit as heavily from the unknown school as the "name brand" school, that is definitely a statement on the quality of the ed.

[raptor_dad]

UNC is consistently ranked among the top five public universities in the country.  I"m having a *really* hard time figuring out how that can be deemed to be underrated.  :001_huh:

 

Yeah.... Most of the linked schools are either the state flagship or the state land grant/engineering school... This isn't a secret... this is just link bait... maybe alums will post this to Facebook etc etc... This entirely designed to draw ad traffic to the site. Nothing to see here... move along.

[8filltheheart]

Yeah.... Most of the linked schools are either the state flagship or the state land grant/engineering school... This isn't a secret... this is just link bait... maybe alums will post this to Facebook etc etc... This entirely designed to draw ad traffic to the site. Nothing to see here... move along.

I disagree. There are kids out there agonizing right now that they need to go OOS and pay a very high price tag to attend a top school while they have been accepted at their in-state school that is ranked low on USNWR or never heard of on sites like CC and they are terrified that if they attend their instate school, their careers are over before they even attend college.

[raptor_dad]

I disagree. There are kids out there agonizing right now that they need to go OOS and pay a very high price tag to attend a top school while they have been accepted at their in-state school that is ranked low on USNWR or never heard of on sites like CC and they are terrified that if they attend their instate school, their careers are over before they even attend college.

 

OK. Well if they are that ranking obsessed, lets look at some of these schools(all are national universities):

 

UNC                   #30

Clemson            #62

Illinois                #41

Pitt                     #62

Wisconsin          #41

Virginia Tech      #69

 

These aren't unknown schools. I think most reasonable people know you can go to your state flagship or state engineering school and do just fine. Calling these mostly top 50 and then top 100 schools underrated and implying they are secrets is slightly disingenuous. I think all of these schools are great options I just object to how this article is pitched.

[fdrinca]

I'm not sure why this is titled "underrated." It's measuring schools with good academics AND high acceptance rates. It should be titled: Good Safety Schools.

[TechWife]

UNC is consistently ranked among the top five public universities in the country.  I"m having a *really* hard time figuring out how that can be deemed to be underrated.  :001_huh:

 

I had the same thought - the 5th Best Public University (US News & World Report) is underrated - I don't think so. 

[8filltheheart]

. I think most reasonable people know you can go to your state flagship or state engineering school and do just fine.

I don't disagree at all that many of the names on the list are top nationally recognized schools, but I am thinking in terms of kids who live in states w/o well-known or top ranked schools. (We have lived in several of them!)

 

Unfortunately for many students, the conversations do not acknowledge that you can go to your state school and do just fine. The IRL conversation is should you affordably go to school X that is ranked low (reality is that not all states have highly ranked schools. Iowa State which is on that map, for example,is ranked 101) or spend $100,000+ to go to a better ranked OOS or private school. Real conversations encourage students and parents to take on the debt bc the rate of return on the investment is higher from the higher ranked school over the unknown name.

 

So, if you are a kid in Iowa, any of the schools you listed (plus numerous others) are going to be discussed in terms of superiority while carrying OOS tuition with no financial incentives. So, do you spend $45,000+ per yr to go to UNC or $17,000 to attend Iowa (with reality being If student got into UNC that Iowa will probably have offered lots of scholarship $$ so the differential is actually significantly higher)

 

Maybe the article will help a family that can't afford the debt to contemplate that perhaps their state university isn't going to ruin their child's future.

 

This really is an agonizing decision for a lot of families w/o top name schools in their state.

 

Not saying the article is great, simply that your premise that people accept what you state as obvious is also flawed and there are real people getting ready to take on huge financial burdens bc they don't agree with or have been persuaded to not accept the premise that attending the state flagship is fine educationally.

[Lolly]

I only know a few people who actually think you have to attend some sort of Ivy school to get a great college education. Pretty much everyone I know, across the income brackets know that state schools can easily fill that bill. Honestly, more of the lower income families I know tend to push the expensive schools than the upper crust. Granted, I'm not a yankee who lives up in the ivy coated north. Maybe that makes a difference? The realization that community colleges offer an extremely economic solution to getting a fantastic education start is just now beginning to take hold. The attitude that it is just a glorified high school still holds somewhat, but is quickly losing ground as more excellent students from better families are starting to send their kids there for the first two years. But, the excellent state schools? no secret at all.

[8filltheheart]

Even a large homeschool email loop that focuses on college acceptances recently had this conversation......is $100,000 debt worth it. The argument put forth is yes bc they will earn higher pay and can pay back the amt quickly. Based on that email conversation, you would be left with the impression that many believe if you want a career in CS, you better go to only name brand schools. (There were people discussing the opposite, but the conversations are very much occurring.)

[Jane in NC]

I'm not sure why this is titled "underrated." It's measuring schools with good academics AND high acceptance rates. It should be titled: Good Safety Schools.

UNC-CH is not a safety for most applicants!

[Pawz4me]

UNC-CH is not a safety for most applicants!

 

Agreed.  With an overall acceptance rate of 33 percent (and that will likely be lower when this year's stats are compiled), even in state students with very good GPA and test scores don't consider it a safety.  I know kids who've gotten turned down by UNC and accepted at Duke.  It's not common, but it happens.

[creekland]

UNC-CH is not a safety for most applicants!

 

The guidance office where I work was astounded that middle son was using Pitt (Main Campus) as a safety.  He could only do that because he had super high stats and they are rolling admission.  Pitt ended up being his second choice as well (due to their neuroscience program), so they weren't just a safety in reality.

 

I also live in an area where state schools are considered of equal value to private schools academically.  Many will list Penn St as the top school to attend.  An Ivy League (undergrad) degree around here is more likely to be a negative than a positive on a work application.

[Susan in TN]

A couple years ago TN Tech was ranked #12 in the country for best value school - low cost of attending with high job placement/income. I think MIT was #1 at the time. I'm assuming they used in-state tuition.

[Pawz4me]

A couple years ago TN Tech was ranked #12 in the country for best value school - low cost of attending with high job placement/income. I think MIT was #1 at the time. I'm assuming they used in-state tuition.

I'm pretty sure UNC is the only public school that's ever been ranked number one by Kiplinger's as the best value. It has held the top spot every year since the rankings began. I'm on my phone now, but I'll confirm that when I get home.

[chiguirre]

A couple years ago TN Tech was ranked #12 in the country for best value school - low cost of attending with high job placement/income. I think MIT was #1 at the time. I'm assuming they used in-state tuition.

MIT is a private school, so there's no break for Mass. residents. They must have huge starting salaries to offset the hefty price tag.

 

I agree with everyone else, Texas A&M is not an "underrated school" by any stretch of the imagination. Their freshman class is larger than UT Austin, but it's not that much easier to get into. The trick is that both of these schools admit by school (UT) or major (TAMU) so there are some that are easy and some that are hard. They also automatically admit the top 7 or 8% of public high school students.

 

The really tough choice for excellent students is taking a free ride at U of Houston (for example) or going to UT Austin for $25 K a year. That's a choice that could work either way depending on your major and future plans.

 

Another "trick" is that Texas community colleges offer all the core classes you need for UT or TAMU, so you can do the first 19 or so credits for $200 for a 3 cr. class. You can also do these classes as DE in high school since most of them are very generic: Am History, Am/Tx Govt, Calc 1 & 2, Comp 1 & 2, a basic science sequence, art appreciation. We have to pay for the credit, but that's still so much cheaper than using PA Homeschoolers for AP courses, that most academically inclined hsers in my area use the CC.

[Crimson Wife]

Based on that email conversation, you would be left with the impression that many believe if you want a career in CS, you better go to only name brand schools. (There were people discussing the opposite, but the conversations are very much occurring.)

It depends on the tech company. There are certain companies that have the reputation for being extremely snobby (cough*Google*cough) but most ones in Silicon Valley will look more at certifications held and experience than alma mater.

 

Now the financial services industry, in contrast, is all about prestige. My DH got a call from a recruiter once for a position that wasn't a good fit for DH but would've been perfect for his friend. The friend had a Harvard MBA and excellent work experience, but his undergrad degree was from UT-Austin (which has a strong engineering program FTR). The recruiter said that the company only wanted a candidate whose undergrad degree was from Stanford, MIT, or CalTech. No other schools were acceptable.

[Pawz4me]

My memory was correct -- UNC has been ranked as the top value public university ever since Kiplinger began ranking them.

 

 

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill tops the list for the 12th time. The school has earned a first-place trophy every time Kiplinger's has ranked public colleges. SUNY Geneseo claims the number-one title for out-of-state value.

Why is the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill a perennial favorite? Credit its stellar academics, reasonable sticker price and generous financial aid.

 

The Princeton Review also ranks them as the best value public university for 2014.

 

Pretty good for an "under-rated" school. :laugh:

[Susan in TN]

I'm pretty sure UNC is the only public school that's ever been ranked number one by Kiplinger's as the best value. It has held the top spot every year since the rankings began. I'm on my phone now, but I'll confirm that when I get home.

I'm thinking this was not a Kiplinger ranking - cant remember the organization that did the numbers off hand.

[Pawz4me]

I'm thinking this was not a Kiplinger ranking - cant remember the organization that did the numbers off hand.

 

Oh, sorry.  I should have been more clear. My intent wasn't to contradict you.  Your post just spurred my memory about best value rankings.

[Susan in TN]

Oh, sorry. I should have been more clear. My intent wasn't to contradict you. Your post just spurred my memory about best value rankings.

Oh, that's OK - I was really surprised to see UNC as an underrated school because I remember it being highly ranked even when I was in high school (in MN) all those oodles of years ago. Texas A&M too.

[Jane in NC]

Agreed.  With an overall acceptance rate of 33 percent (and that will likely be lower when this year's stats are compiled), even in state students with very good GPA and test scores don't consider it a safety.  I know kids who've gotten turned down by UNC and accepted at Duke.  It's not common, but it happens.

Take two students, each with good stats.  The student from Wake County (Raleigh) is going to have a harder time getting into UNC-CH than a student from Bertie County (one of the poorest in the state).  UNC schools don't accept students on test scores and GPA alone.  There is a mandate that allows for a geographic distribution across the state.

 

That is why Zipcode enters the conversation whether we are discussing our state unis or the Ivy League!

[creekland]

Take two students, each with good stats.  The student from Wake County (Raleigh) is going to have a harder time getting into UNC-CH than a student from Bertie County (one of the poorest in the state).  UNC schools don't accept students on test scores and GPA alone.  There is a mandate that allows for a geographic distribution across the state.

 

That is why Zipcode enters the conversation whether we are discussing our state unis or the Ivy League!

 

And why, if one can handle the weather, moving to North Dakota could be a nice hook for many schools...

 

[Seasider]

Two of my kids have eyes on listed schools. Best academically, financially and socially for these two students. Nice to see some validation.

[Luckymama]

Our kids (and our money :lol:) attend one of those underrated schools. Ds just received an honest-to-gosh, full-time job offer from a major networking corporation headquarter in SV--------as a junior computer science major.

[FaithManor]

For Michigan, because of the two state flagships being in the top 100 with U of MI in the top 1\3, Michigan Tech is underrated with students, teachers, and parents. It doesn't appear selective due to acceptance rates, but it is self-selecting due to it's uniqueness and location. But, whe it comes to engineering, biology, chemistry, etc. companies just about stand in line and clamor for their graduates. There are over 285 companies active on campus, and 96% of all grads are employed in their field within 6 months of graduation and this year's graduating class had a near 100% rate of job offers the first semester of their senior years.

In an engineering challenge set forth by NASA to create a specific sattelite that would be controlled by a team at the college, MTU last year and despite not specifically having an aerospace engineering department (mechanical, robotic, chemical, automotive, computer, and civil), beat U of MI,  MIT, Georgia Tech, CalTech, U of Alabama, Purdue, Virginia Tech....you get the idea, and a mini mission control is under construction on campus. General Motors now gets more of it's engineers from MTU than it does from Kettering! And well, that is just amazing since up until a couple of years ago, Kettering was THE name in automotive engineering having once been General Motors Tech.

The student to teacher ratio is small, freshman research opportunities can begin as early as the second semester of the freshman year, and internships by the end of the sophomore year. The honors program allows students to earn their undergraduate and master's degrees in five years all at the undergraduate per credit hour rate and with extension of undergraduate merit aid through the advanced degree to help with financing. 40 in state and 10 out of state full rides are offered each year and while it helps to have reasonably decent stats, the school wants innovators and critical thinkers, not hoop jumpers so preference is actually given to students with extra curricular accomplishments that are unique. While they love ther hockey up there, preference is not given to athletes nor are the typical sports and music lessons, no matter how accomplished. But, if you have the science kid who entered science fairs, or was involved in leadership projects pertaining to science and math or community volunteerism, independent research, etc. then the scholarship may be within reach. It's not a matter of chance. 100 students identified by a combination of input from admissions and department heads are invited to compete in Dec. of their senior year of high school. All 100 automatically have a half ride just for being invited and can stack any of the smaller scholarships as well as outside merit aid on top of that. Students are grouped together to work on projects and interract with professors and grad students on a variety of tasks and at the end of the weekend, the department heads comes together with admissions to vie for the students they identified as the ones they really want. It is an "audition" based process despite not being a musical or theater competition.

They do have several smaller scholarships that can be stacked, so for many families this school is an excellent bang for the buck IF it is a good fit for the student. 200-300 inches of snow per year, snow festival instead of mid winter-break, small, geeky school with the arts definitely represented but not as highly developed as the state flagships, isolated from major cities, high male to female ratio, low Greek life participation, HIGH degree of community service from the student body, no frills dorms with the traditional breakdown of females over here, males over there, high beer consumption though no significant party school reputation, and some limitations in the number of minors available to students but with some unusual oportunities in archaeology, Finnish history (Finns settled the area and there are still a number of residents who speak some Finnish haded down from their grandparents and the area includes Finlandia College where one can still study the language and history). Oh and their undergrad sciences, particularly all things related to biology, is so strong that their acceptance rates to med schoo and MCAT scores are startlingly high.

The school has an excellent reputation in Michigan for working very well with Asperger students. It's socially a unique place for certain! Definitely not everyone's cup of tea.

MTU is definitely underrated.

 

ETA: I cannot type on my tablet! Had to wait to edit when I could get to my pc.

[Shelly in VA]

Came across this on facebook:

http://www.businessinsider.com/map-the-most-underrated-college-in-every-state-2014-4

 

The school dh and I graduated from (Missouri) is on the list! That made me happy tonight.  :hurray:

[fdrinca]

UNC-CH is not a safety for most applicants!

 

Carolina has a state-centric acceptance policy, so it really matters if you're in state or out of state. When looking at the acceptance data Carolina is an outlier among the colleges included. I'm assuming it's because Carolina the college that best met the algorithm used, some metric looking at acceptance rates and academic reputation. I don't know how other UNC-system schools would fare on this system. State has a ranking around 100, with a higher acceptance rate (around 46 percent). That other "great" school, Duke, clearly, would not have made the cut. (As a Carolina grad, I have to grudgingly admit some good characteristics about Duke.)

 

If I were a great high school student in a mountain or coastal county, though, I'd feel optimistic about getting into Carolina.

 

The article itself says: To make the most out of this strategy, we've partnered with Niche to bring you the top schools in the country with great academics and high acceptance rates. To compile this list, Niche used its data for highest academics rankings, acceptance rates, and in-state population.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/underrated-college-in-every-state-2014-4#ixzz2yj4F0pNa

 

edited for clarity

[Lanny]

I am with raptor_dad and others here. To me, that list and article are rather astonishing. Many excellent universities are on that list. One of my childhood friends is a graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno, which is on the list. And Texas A&M is on that list. 

 

IMHO, knowing how many recruiters visit the campus and what  percentage of the graduates receive employment in their field, is one good measure of how successful the graduates of the school may or may not be in a particular career field.

 

However, there is certainly something to say for the fact that many employers are focused on certain universities, when they look for employees. I worked under contract, as a Consulting Engineer, to a very large aerospace corporation, based in the Pacific NW, twice. The first time I was there, I was told that they had a list of approximately 50 schools, and if someone wasn't a graduate of one of those schools, he/she did not have "Engineer" on their badge. 

[Mom22ns]

UNC is consistently ranked among the top five public universities in the country.  I"m having a *really* hard time figuring out how that can be deemed to be underrated.  :001_huh:

 

Yep, same for Missouri SNT. The only college that might be better rated in Missouri, is Wash U which is more selective and a lot more expensive.