# University of State... ranking **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 20, 2013, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480 "2013-03-20T19:25:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480/1 "2013-03-20T19:25:32Z")
I’m wondering at the rankings of the major University of (insert state name here)… If we just take the 50 states and put in the universities with those names, is there a place to see how they rank? Is the University of North Dakota better than the University of Mississippi or worse than the University of Vermont? ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480/2 "2013-03-20T19:36:03Z")
Since there is no University of Ohio, are you going for the bigger one (Ohio State University) or the older one (Ohio University) here? ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480/3 "2013-03-20T19:37:24Z")
Here ya go: [http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges](http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges) ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480/4 "2013-03-20T19:39:25Z")
There’s also no University of New York or University of Indiana. And the University of Pennsylvania is a private school. And Louisiana State University is clearly a higher echelon than either University of Louisiana. And what about the states where multiple campuses share the same institutional name? Do you go with the largest, oldest, or most well-known campus? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480/5 "2013-03-20T19:47:10Z")
The [Wikipedia list](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_state_universities_in_the_United_States) of state universities identifies the flagship campus for each. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480/6 "2013-03-20T19:49:57Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > There’s also no University of New York There are a shit ton of State Universities of New York. > **[State University of New York](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_University_of_New_York)** > > The State University of New York (SUNY, /ˈsuːni/, SOO-nee) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is one of the largest comprehensive systems of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. Led by chancellor John B. King, the SUNY system has 91,182 employees, including 32,496 faculty members, and some 7,660 degree and certificate programs overall and a $13.37 billion budget. Its flagship universities are SUNY Stony Brook on Lo SUNY's... ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480/7 "2013-03-20T19:51:05Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > There’s also no University of New York or University of Indiana. And the University of Pennsylvania is a private school. And Louisiana State University is clearly a higher echelon than either University of Louisiana. > > And what about the states where multiple campuses share the same institutional name? Do you go with the largest, oldest, or most well-known campus? While there’s no “University of New York,” there is a state university system with numerous campuses. Look for SUNY (State University of New York). By almost all accounts, SUNY-Binghamton is the most academically respected and prestigious branch. As you note, the NAME of a college doesn’t necessarily tell us if it’s state-run. There is no “University of New Jersey,” but Rutgers IS, in effect, the state university of New Jersey. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480/8 "2013-03-20T19:55:14Z")
Such overall rankings of institutions are highly subjective and mostly bullshit. At most one should be comparing individual departments and programs, not whole institutions, which can vary hugely internally (and even then, any rankings are still going to be subjective and infested with much bullshit). ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480/9 "2013-03-20T20:00:00Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > There’s also no University of New York or University of Indiana. And the University of Pennsylvania is a private school. But there IS an Indiana University. And there IS a Penn State University. Don’t get too hung up on names. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480/10 "2013-03-20T20:03:22Z")
I went to a SUNY and Indiana University, and I’m confident that they exist. Well, Indiana at least. Undergrad memories are a little fuzzy. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480/11 "2013-03-20T20:05:53Z")
No one ranking system should be taken as gospel- some schools offer a better education in some subjects than others. Still, if you want to know the public colleges that generally command the most respect? I’d say you start with Cal-Berkeley. After that, Michigan (Ann Arbor), Virginia (Charlottesville,) and North Carolina (Chapel Hill) are pretty close. But again, depending on what you want to study, you may do better elsewhere. And if you can pay in-state tuition rates, you MAY find that a state college is a bargain. A kid in Dallas who aspires to be a veterinarian should DEFINITELY go to Texas A & M- their veterinary program is as good as any in America, and in-state tuition should seal the deal. Harvard OVERALL is far more prestigious than Texas A & M, but that should make no difference at all for a future vet. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480/12 "2013-03-20T20:08:12Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Don’t get too hung up on names. There is a Washington State and a University of Washington. Which one is “the” state university? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480/13 "2013-03-20T20:10:02Z")
> [@Darth\_Panda](#): > > Here ya go: > > [http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges](http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges) Lots of people think that US News rankings are, if not technically a scam, a rank delusion designed more to sell magazines than be usable. (pun deliberate) Look at the question itself. What could it possibly mean to rank the state universities? What is a state university? Both California and New York have university-level schools and college-level schools. Does one count or both? And what about all the variations and technical schools and special subject schools? Once you make some arbitrary decisions there you’re faced with finding a way to do the ranking. The only “objective” metrics are those that have numbers attached, like average SAT scores, but those says more about the level of incoming high school graduates than about the university. What else can you look at that is quantifiable? Starting salaries of graduates? Low percentage of dropouts? High percentage of those going on to graduate school? And are we even talking about undergraduate education or do we include graduate schools and all the other variations that big schools have? Everything is subjective. And even then, you’re comparing apples to orangutans. No two schools have the same courses, or the same set of majors, or the same requirements for a degree or anything else. If you want a degree in biomedical nanotechnology and a school doesn’t give one, does that make it worse than one that does? What if it offers two majors that the other doesn’t? It’s true that just about everybody agrees that some schools are great and others not so great, but we’ve had numerous threads in which people try to pin down what that means and always wind up saying some variation of “because.” And it makes as much sense to say which school is 25th and which is 26th as it does to say which rock album is 25th best of all time and which is 26th. IMHO, the question is unanswerable and would do better in, say, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480/14 "2013-03-20T20:13:15Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > But there IS an Indiana University. > > And there IS a Penn State University. > > Don’t get too hung up on names. Then there is Indiana University of Pennsylvania located in Indiana, Pennsylvania of course. We aren’t too big on standardizing the names of these things so the only way to get the real picture is to research each institution. You can look up overall rankings but they don’t always mean that much and might be useless for a given student. Some state universities that are well respected are the University of Virginia, University of California Berkeley, University of Michigan, or the University of Wisconsin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (just a sample list, not an exhaustive one). However, if you are interested in say, Aviation science, the University of North Dakota would be a top pick for that. Almost all state universities are large and well-funded at least on their flagship campus and most have some standout programs that are among the top nationally. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480/15 "2013-03-20T20:14:37Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Lots of people think that US News rankings are, if not technically a scam, a rank delusion designed more to sell magazines than be usable. (pun deliberate) The rankings matter because a lot of people think they matter. Your college’s ranking does impact your job prospects. eta: the point being that a person should take the rankings into account when choosing a school (as well as a lot of other things) - it’s just not a great time to make a point and take a principled stand when you’re talking about spending a whole lot of money on what is essentially an investment in yourself ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480/16 "2013-03-20T20:27:58Z")
You can look at the members of the [Association of American Universities](http://www.aau.edu/), which supposedly are universities who are really serious about being universities, but that doesn’t guarantee that all of them are strong in every department, or what kind of experience a student will have. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480/17 "2013-03-20T20:58:54Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > But there IS an Indiana University. > > And there IS a Penn State University. > > Don’t get too hung up on names. The terms of the OP seemed to call for getting hung up on names. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480/18 "2013-03-20T21:44:06Z")
> [@Darth\_Panda](#): > > The rankings matter because a lot of people think they matter. A lot of people think creationism should be taught in schools. They’re wrong, too, and we take note of them just to tell them that they’re wrong. But while the rankings may influence some [insert pejorative adjective of your choice] people in their choice of colleges, they don’t actually matter in any other way. And everybody who understands anything about college knows that it’s true so it doesn’t help you in the slightest to try to make that case. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480/19 "2013-03-20T22:04:00Z")
Even IF the U.S. News rankings were valid, do you really think there’s a huge difference between, say, the 40th ranked school and the 50th? Or the 50th and 60th? Not enough to justify making your decision (and possibly paying a LOT more in tuition) based o nthose rankings. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480/20 "2013-03-20T22:25:58Z")
For Florida, would you use Florida State University (the state’s oldest public university), the University of Florida (the most prestigious), or the University of Central Florida (the largest)? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/university-of-state-ranking/653480.md?page=2)