http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/94/colleges-09_Americas-Best-Colleges_Rank_17.html

State in the 400's while UNC makes top 70 and Duke top 110.

Guilford is better than State? really? pleaseeeee

8/7/2009 10:55:32 PM

Guilford is better than State. A lot of schools are better than State.

8/7/2009 10:58:24 PM

Salem outranks Wake Forest?

Michigan at 200?

This list is a joke.

8/7/2009 11:00:06 PM

lol, we are better than Georgia Tech according to this

8/7/2009 11:44:50 PM

lol Duke's always in the top 15 at worst

110? :-/

8/8/2009 12:03:44 AM

does it even say what criteria were used?

8/8/2009 12:24:37 AM

I'm guessing the rankings are based on where the kids of Forbes employees went.

Makes no sense at all. A lot of fucked up little women's and religious schools are ranked WAY too high on that list, when they don't even have a single program that grants a useful degree.

8/8/2009 12:33:12 AM

and when they take like an 900 (old school) SAT to get in

8/8/2009 12:34:58 AM

elon made a list on yahoo the other day. a list of like 10

8/8/2009 12:40:10 AM

Yeah, a lot of the top 100 on that list select students more by ability to pay than academic potential.

8/8/2009 12:41:23 AM

yeah this happened last year too. shake it off, kids.

8/8/2009 12:45:33 AM

Quote :

"does it even say what criteria were used?"

probably the physical quality of the campus

state is a shithole unfortunately (main campus, not centennial), when i visited a friend at UNCC, it was so nice looking.

8/8/2009 12:47:15 AM

Where is UCLA then? One of the nicest campuses in America.

I think they have a better Global ranking than US ranking according to this...

8/8/2009 1:08:21 AM

I think a lot of these so called "studies" use overrated factors. Like class size. Ok, so your hick college only averages 9 students per course...but your teachers are terrible, have no real world experience, and aren't actually teaching anything. Whoopty frickin doo.

I'd rather be in a class with a good professor with industry experience teaching in a class of 200 students than a crappy one in a class of 10 students.

8/8/2009 1:29:03 AM

Having had my share of craptastic 10 to 15 student courses, I 100% agree.

8/8/2009 1:40:25 AM

"Forbes’ rankings are calculated from seven categories. The number of alumni listed on Who’s Who in America accounts for 12.5 percent of the rating, while 12.5 percent is based on salaries of alumni from PayScale.com. Another 25 percent is from student evaluations on RateMyProfessor.com; 16.6 is percent based on the four-year graduation rates; 8.33 percent is based on students receiving nationally competitive awards; 5 percent comes from the amount of faculty members receiving awards for scholarship and creative pursuits and 20 percent comes from the four-year debt load for typical student borrowers."



http://www.uwire.com/Article.aspx?id=4171976&FORM=ZZNR



WTF

"...25 percent is from student evaluations on RateMyProfessor.com...."

[Edited on August 8, 2009 at 1:42 AM. Reason : ...]

8/8/2009 1:40:48 AM

Who's Who? Seriously?

8/8/2009 1:48:46 AM

This is list is ridiculous. Fourth tier universities in front of first tier research schools. Bob Jones up there with Cornell. Give me a freaking break. The person who did this should be embarrassed at the methodology they used.

[Edited on August 8, 2009 at 2:02 AM. Reason : .]

8/8/2009 1:57:11 AM

hahahahaha, I get the Who's Who in America emails every week, I thought they were scams though....

8/8/2009 1:57:38 AM

Quote :

"Guilford is better than State. A lot of schools are better than State."

[Edited on August 8, 2009 at 2:21 AM. Reason : &c]

8/8/2009 2:19:53 AM

state is like a giant hs

8/8/2009 3:03:45 AM

I didn't realize anyone gave a shit about Who's Who after high school

8/8/2009 4:10:23 AM

VMI #79


woot!

8/8/2009 8:27:11 AM

Quote :

"The number of alumni listed on Who’s Who in America accounts for 12.5 percent of the rating, while 12.5 percent is based on salaries of alumni from PayScale.com. Another 25 percent is from student evaluations on RateMyProfessor.com; 16.6 is percent based on the four-year graduation rates; 8.33 percent is based on students receiving nationally competitive awards; 5 percent comes from the amount of faculty members receiving awards for scholarship and creative pursuits and 20 percent comes from the four-year debt load for typical student borrowers." "

They ranked University of Virginia at #64 and Virginia Tech at #256.
They ranked University of Georgia at #211 and Georgia Tech at #420.

- 12.5% Who's Who --> FAIL. Publicity != Success != Best College.
- 12.5% Payscale.com --> FAIL. Salary != Success != Best College.
- 25.0% RatemyProfessor.com --> FAIL. This is hardly an accurate source of information.
- 16.6% Four Year Rate --> FAIL. An OK metric, too many divergent paths (coop, double major, change major) to make this truly meaningful
- 8.33% National Awards --> OK. Goldwater / Rhodes / etc. are competitively awarded.
- 5.00% Faculty Awards --> ???. Faculty receive awards all the time, what the heck does for "scholarship and creative pursuits" mean?
- 20.00% Four-Year Debt --> FAIL. I'm not going to start on this one, suffice it to say, Debt != Success != Best College

I see MAYBE 13.33% valid criteria. I give them credit for trying, but ultimately FAIL. Thanks, please play again and try using hard data for your rankings, not this subjective crap. (U.S. News and World report is also biased, and don't disclose their weightings directly, but a lot of the weighting is based on hard data).

[Edited on August 8, 2009 at 8:38 AM. Reason : .]

8/8/2009 8:31:40 AM

I think Forbes was trying to be creative and different from US news

So they came up with this formula

8/8/2009 11:52:32 AM

Quote :

"5 percent comes from the amount of faculty members receiving awards for scholarship and creative pursuits"

The single most important thing that reflects the quality of the educators an institution has is the lowest percentage. FAIL

8/8/2009 11:56:47 AM

lol wut? what a bullshit list. you can't even compare most of these schools to a top tier international research university

8/14/2009 11:29:11 PM

Forbes rankings are bogus. Its been known.

Also, I love the two or three brainiacs in this thread knocking their own school.

Awesome.

If State is some "giant hs"... then transfer somewhere else. Or maybe you're failing at taking advantage of the opportunities up there in Raleigh.

I had a great educational experience at NC State. I don't put much credence in rankings that often come from pretension. I am disappointed that State slipped several spots in the USNWR rankings that came out today- which I think reveals more about the lapse in leadership lately and marketing by the University. But I still think NC State is more respected than many schools that appear to supercede us, especially among those in science and technology.

I'm finishing a doctoral program filled with folks from Ivy League schools and "elite" undergrad institutions- and much of my training at NC State has attributed my success... including a large variety of coursework and technical "hands on" training that few of these "elite" schools actually offer. There are major advantages to going to school at a research land grant university like State.


[Edited on August 20, 2009 at 1:43 AM. Reason : sspp]

8/20/2009 1:41:15 AM

NC STATE BABY!

8/20/2009 1:41:57 AM

There were signs up at Centennial yesterday about a commercial shoot, anyone have insider knowledge of what we can expect?

8/20/2009 10:25:48 AM

A commercial

8/20/2009 10:48:37 AM

hahaha

Quote :

"Another 25 percent is from student evaluations on RateMyProfessor.com; 16.6 is percent based on the four-year graduation rates;"

So, over a third of a the ranking comes from how easy the school is.

8/20/2009 10:59:55 AM

actually, top-tier schools usually have higher 6 year graduation rates than their middling counterparts

e.g. MIT: 94%, NCSU: 70%

[Edited on August 20, 2009 at 9:24 PM. Reason : eg]

8/20/2009 9:23:44 PM

Interestingly, GT's 4-year graduation rate is 33%.

8/20/2009 9:32:04 PM

Quote :

"I'm finishing a doctoral program filled with folks from Ivy League schools and "elite" undergrad institutions"

yet you still can't spell supersede...

8/20/2009 10:10:38 PM

College rankings don't mean shit unless you're going to Harvard or Yale or something.

8/20/2009 10:14:14 PM

^^

if you're going to act like a know-it-all douchebag, you might consider admitting that supercede is an accepted spelling variant of supersede.

It's like bitching at someone for using colour vs. color.

8/20/2009 10:22:27 PM

the origin of supersede is from the latin verb sedere, as opposed to recede, for example, which is from the verb cedere. the correct spelling is with an ess.

if you're going to act like a whiny bitch, you should know what you're talking about...

8/20/2009 10:34:35 PM

uh oh, spelling slapfight about to go down. which fag is going to break out a dictionary, first (my bet is hooksaw)?

8/21/2009 12:07:34 AM

What did Sophomore Eric Dobbins write?

8/21/2009 7:07:05 AM

Quote :

"If State is some "giant hs"... then transfer somewhere else. Or maybe you're failing at taking advantage of the opportunities up there in Raleigh"

NCSU definitely has its flaws being a bloated (30,000 students) publicly run university. The university definitely gets caught up in issues where political interests trump what is best for the students. The university enjoys screwing over students living on campus with shit like the oppressive water restrictors. Greek life is shit upon and other traditions like the football tailgate or UNC camp out heavily regulated and restricted.

Nonetheless not until I started dating a girl at UNCW did I realize how well NCSU is run compared to this school. Some of the shit here completely blows my mind.

1.) All on-campus resident mail and packages are dumped off at the student union. (Not counting the brand new apartment complex which can receive mail). Given that parking is expensive and many students that live on-campus do not have cars; I find this incredibly stupid. I guess if you are a freshman you have to lug that 40lb package all the way back to the dorm.

From what I remember each dorm and apartment complex has its own mail services at NCSU.

2.) No “After Hours Parking.” Unless you pay the meter or pay for a “off-hours” visitor spot students who maybe want to come study at the library on a Sunday or weekday after 7pm still can not park on campus without a permit. If u are a junior in the university apartments your visitors even on the weekend are SOL to.

NCSU Employee spots are open after 5pm. Commuter spots after 7pm. Open parking on weekends.

3.) RA’s patrol the upper classman apartments. My g/f a Junior lives in an upper classmen apt; yet they still have an RA that patrols the grounds. I can see if there is a complaint but these do-gooder RA’s go around looking for trouble. My g/f’s roommate got busted b.c the RA heard the sound of ping pong ball which was reasonable cause to use the master key to break in the room.

NCSU do not think RA’s exist out of the dorms.

4.) The school changes its academic calendar on the fly. Students whose families made vacation plans over winter break already may be SOL. As the university announced yesterday they are moving the calendar back a week to start early.

5.) One Dining Hall for all of campus. Also there is a place similar to our student union within their student union. I have also heard the food there is nasty espicially on the weekends when they just offer basic shit (supposedly they use the same business model as they did 40 years ago when most students were commuter)

8/21/2009 12:21:58 PM