College Rankings by Athletic Conference

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Having attended both UT and A&M and getting degrees from both, I would say in the nuclear engineering, A&M is superior. Overall engineering....call. Civil to UT, but they don't have an ocean eng. program at all, so A&M. In anything Agriculture...A&M again. You want liberal arts...UT. Business....UT. Law...UT. Vet school...A&M. Journalism...UT. Location...UT (but be careful....the temptations for party activity make it the downfall for many an incoming student). Academic honesty...A&M. UT has a bigger problem with grade inflation, A&M a bigger problem with bonfires. If you are a lib...UT...a conservative A&M. Frat life...UT (though every few years this kills someone at UT it seems). Church life...A&M. Prettier campus...UT. Cleaner campus...A&M. Better looking women.....you can't go wrong at either. As far as which school to attend...pick what you want to do, then see what the school has to offer. But to say one is actually 'far superior' than the other...that's a reach. The two are so close its splitting hairs in most cases.

Disciplina praesidium football of TX 12:56AM May 16, 2012

"Because our conference lists match up some schools that normally fall into separate categories in our America's Best Colleges rankings, Villanova and Providence are able to edge out Notre Dame and Pitt in this context."

What a terrible idea, and an even worse excuse.

Here's why putting Providence and Villanova at the top of the Big East rankings is idiotic and absurd:

1. all the other rankings are undergrad. Somehow for those two you used Regional Masters ranking. Not even the same thing.

2. the National rankings presumably reflect a higher level of prestige and academic prowess than the Regional rankings. Ranking these schools on the basis of their Regional ranking would be like ranking English soccer teams by their position in the standings, and putting the lower division runner-up ahead of a mid-level Premier League team because their rank in that lower competition was higher. Ridiculous.

3. the acceptance rates of Nova and PC are 45% and 67% respectively. There is no way they should be ahead of ND or Georgetown, two highly selective institutions with sub-25% acceptance rates.

In short, this bizarre mixing of Regional Masters and National undergraduate rankings, while still retaining the absolute numbers, is a complete farce which illustrates the general incompetence of US News.

PS- Texas A&M is only ranked highly in Aggies' minds. For everyone else, Texas is a far superior academic institution.

Lumen Veritatis of MA 12:45AM April 29, 2012

Standford rocks!!!!!!!!! It is the best school ever. I like it. I am a 5 year old that's why my super long story sounds bad. Thank You !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wasabi of CA 7:48PM February 25, 2011

Lea,

You probably weren't in the business school. I would defy you to find any ranking where A&M is consistently above UT.

Kenneth of TX 3:09PM June 16, 2010

I can't believe Texas is ranked higher than A&M in the Big 12 Conference. I went to both schools and it's not even close. A&M is far superior in every aspect. Anyone who thinks otherwise is, well, a, ummmm, moron. Tools!!

Lea of NY 5:11PM April 24, 2009

There are plenty of Mid Major conferences listed. You have to go into the article to get to those drop down lists. For those of you complaining about the lack of small NE schools, DIV III??? You completely missed the point of the article.

GM of NY 3:08PM March 29, 2009

For everyone complaining about NESCAC not being part of this, it is because NESCAC is not a Division 1 Conference and sends no teams to the NCAA Tournament. This list is aimed at power conferences that will be playing in the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

jim of NH 12:48AM March 17, 2009

Not only was the NESCAC omitted, so were most of the other non-BCS conferences. Where's the MWC? The WAC? etc....

jdk of UT 12:09PM March 11, 2009

What about the NESCAC - the New England Small College Athletic Conference? These are schools for athletes with brains - who value education more than the field and who play their sport for the love of the game, rather than for the bucks they may make off the game later on. In other words, athletics at these schools (Amherst, Hamilton, Williams, Bates, Middlebury, Bowdoin, etc.)are an adjunct to academics, rather than the other way around. To many of us, this is as it should be.....

How about it, US News???

Gary of VA 1:27PM March 09, 2009

I know US News, etc. sells magazine on these "rankings", however there are many unreported factors which affect the rankings. Many Universities didn't take the requested information seriously. The fact is most students will not use these "ranking" as the basis of choice of schools. The fact is it is less important where you went to college, than how well you perform in your job/s after college.

RER of MT 12:15AM March 06, 2009

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