USC falls in college rankings


USC was ranked 25th in the 2015 U.S. News & World Report’s list of “Best Colleges” released Tuesday, down two spots from the 23rd position last year.

The university’s tied with Carnegie Mellon University, while crosstown rival UCLA and the University of Virigina remained tied in the same position from the 2014 report at 23rd.

Katharine Harrington, the USC vice president of admission and planning, noted that the drop shouldn’t have any sort of impact on university admissions for next year.

“We see shifts in U.S. News rankings of one or two places not unusual at all,” she said. “It’s a small enough change that [admission decisions] are unlikely to be negatively impacted.”

The yearly report ranks schools based on an annual survey gathering data on up to seven indicators, including undergraduate academic reputation, student selectivity and faculty resources. U.S. News then weighs each of these factors subjectively in terms of importance and compiles a final weighted composite score to be compared alongside other schools.

Nearly 1,400 schools were ranked in this year’s edition, with 91.5 percent returning statistical information requested by U.S. News. In a change from past years, the report now contains campus crime statistics and a school’s three-year federal loan default rate, though the publication stated these additions are not factored into the ranking methodology.

“U.S. News has published these statistics to help parents and prospective students gather more information as they evaluate schools,” the U.S. News website stated.

Harrington also suggested there may have been some tinkering with the methodology this year as ties from the previous lists were broken up this year, such as the 2014 five-way tie at 23rd between Carnegie Mellon, USC, UCLA, the University of Virginia and Wake Forest University.

The magazine has stated on their website, however, that there has been no change to their methodology for the 2015 edition. Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News, told the Daily Trojan in an email that USC’s drop was attributed to three main factors.

“USC fell because its data relative to the other schools it [sic] was very slightly weaker in academic reputation, graduation and retention, and HS counselor ranking,” Morse wrote. “USC’s change in rank was very small since last year there was a big tie of 5 schools at rank # 23 and those schools became untied as a result of very small changes in their data.”

Students on campus have expressed some dismay with the ranking slip.

“I wouldn’t want us to drop any more,” said Amanda Fear, a senior majoring in accounting. “It’s nice to still be in the top 25, though — I hope we can move back up.”

Himmat Singh, a sophomore majoring in biology, mentioned that the rank shift could possibly have a negative impact on an incoming student’s decision.

“If a student gets into USC and [also] a school that’s ranked higher than USC — even if USC might be a better choice for that student — they might end up going to the other school just because it’s ranked higher,” Singh said.

Though it is a common fear that a lower ranking may have a negative effect on admissions, a survey from UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute indicated that only 17.6 percent of incoming fall 2013 freshman considered “rankings in national magazines” to be very important. On the other end of the spectrum, 64 percent considered “a very good academic reputation” to be very important.

U.S. News considers their ranking an “excellent starting point” for students exploring colleges, rather than the be-all and end-all. In line with this, Harrington stressed that rankings alone cannot serve as proper indicator of where a student will best fit.

“Honestly, there is no ranking that can really adequately capture what the undergraduate experience is at any college or university,” she said.

 

 

5 replies
  1. Michael Shopshire
    Michael Shopshire says:

    I always look at the rankings of USC for fun, and as an alumnus, I would like to see USC higher than UCLA or Cal. I have a Ph.D. from Cal and I attended UCLA for fun when I was at USC as an undergraduate. The U.S. News and World Report survey is a ranking for undergraduate education, and I find it bothersome as a university instructor that UCLA and Cal seem to always receive a higher rank than USC, yet the class sizes at UCLA and Cal are much larger than at USC. Although the professors at UCLA and Cal are more distinguished, fame and status does not translate directly into teaching quality. Classes taught by Graduate Student Instructors at UCLA and Cal cannot provide the same level of quality as a private university course taught by a professor. It is not fair to criticize undergraduate education based on the fact that USC professors are not at the same status as professors at a school like UCLA. Look at Notre Dame. Do you think Notre Dame professors have more status in their fields than UCLA or Cal professors? They do not, yet Notre Dame is ranked higher than UCLA and Cal. I would hope that USC would do a better job convincing the world that the undergraduate education at USC was better than it is perceived. Academic reputation is not important if it is based on Ph.D. programs, such as at UCLA and Cal. USC has been under-rated for many years.

    • b juardo
      b juardo says:

      Unfortunately, it’s human nature to take things at face value i.e. rankings, who’s got more distinguished faculty, etc. Nobody really slows down to delve past the images i.e. the fact that UC schools got 400+ students in their lectures with TAs, that shouldn’t even be teaching at a jr. college, leading the lectures.
      SC will always be the “football” school, and the UCs…”public Ivies.”

  2. Josephine LeBlanc
    Josephine LeBlanc says:

    So true that Marshall is a bad joke. If you get the right accounting professors in the first accounting classes and do well in those classes and major in accounting and graduate with at least a 3.5, you will definitely find work as an accountant. Otherwise, forget it. The business world has no respect for USC Marshall, the Trojan network is a myth, and after graduation from Marshall you will be lucky to get a $10 an hour job as an office clerk. Of course no one at Marshall prepares students for the nightmare they will face when they graduate and try to find work. They ought to close all of Marshall except the accounting part and tell the non-accounting students to go major in engineering, computer science, a non-English language, or economics so that they might actually find work in their fields someday.

    • b juardo
      b juardo says:

      I agree with you. But, let me give you a little more insight into what I’ve learned from speaking with an alumna from a different b-school. A couple years ago I came across this girl, who went to UC Berkeley Haas as an undergrad. She also told me things didn’t look promising although she diligently exhausted her efforts via interns, rounds of interviews, submitting resumes, networking, etc. After working a few years in inauspicious jobs as accounting-temps, clerical work, and so forth…she gave up and pursued a post-bac med-school thing. It seems that med-school is the only promising academic area. But we all know it’s very difficult and competitive, making business or other non-STEM academic areas look like a joke. Anyways, the gist was, Haas is ranked much higher than Marshall…but Haas alumni don’t really fare better than Marshall’s. The Bay areas is not the Northeast *hint Ivy League b-schools got more prestige*
      My second point is that Marshall needs to drastically reduce the capacity for Marshall. Haas is about 700 students (undergrad) whereas Marshall (including Leventhal) is like 3,600. No need for the over saturation of this. Haas’ much smaller number also contributes to its more exclusive admissions; people don’t know this, at least not outsiders. So yeah, USC needs to stop cranking out Marshall or accounting majors. It’s ridiculous! It’s a degree mill. And yes, you’re right…It gets no respect in the b-school rankings. SC Marshall needs to emulate Haas wrt student-capacity and U-Penn Wharton. U-Penn is located in the Northeast i.e. Wall Street. An SC alumnus ain’t gonna beat out a Wharton grad, no way! Banking, analysts, options trading, etc. are all old-boy connected with the strings being pulled by Ivy alumni; ditto with white-shoe law firms.

  3. b juardo
    b juardo says:

    Pssst, let me give you some hints as to why Ucla or Cal will most of the time, if not always, beat USC in these academic rankings. First of all, I am a Trojan. But I do look at things with objectivity. Second, my girlfriend, who attended Ucla as an undergrad, went here for grad school. What she criticized USC for, was that she felt SC didn’t have distinguished faculty. She wasn’t too impressed with her instructors’ alma maters, background, research, et al. and thought they weren’t as impressive as Ucla’s faculty. Sooooo, the “peer review” criterion in these rankings I think has to do with what was just mentioned. Lastly, SC needs to cut down on the academic departments that are over saturated e.g. the business school…and other stuff in which you generate myriad grads who become disgruntled and disillusioned after discovering that that area isn’t too auspicious in the job market. As a Marshall grad, I still keep in touch with a few alumni. But they too, aren’t too happy with what they’ve experienced five years out. So yeah, I think it’d behoove USC to cull a more distinguished faculty; cut down on the over saturated academic areas; do better wrt security (the recent murders over the past 2 years); and so forth. Then, maaaaaybe, USC can indelibly plant a spot in the teens of these academic rankings, rather than tenuously teetering back and forth, losing to Ucla here and there.
    But let’s keep our focus on other important things: Let’s kick ass in football. I’m very pleased with what I’m seeing so far.
    Fight on!

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