Eric McKnight - FGCU transfer

[60Shock]

Whoa! We are listed at #570 out of 650 universities and colleges.

[Play Angry]

Forbes' ranking system, along with US News and most other publications, is pretty suspect for a lot of reasons.

We do have low admissions standards, though. Mississippi State is the "dumbest" school in the SEC with an average ACT quartile range of 20 (25th percentile) to 27 (75th percentile). WSU's is 20 to 25, and that has actually improved substantially in recent years. Alabama's (for comparison sake) is 23 to 28.

There are a lot of reasons to talk down on the SEC but we aren't in a position to do so regarding academics.

[Shocker1976]

Forbes' ranking system, along with US News and most other publications, is pretty suspect for a lot of reasons.

We do have low admissions standards, though. Mississippi State is the "dumbest" school in the SEC with an average ACT quartile range of 20 (25th percentile) to 27 (75th percentile). WSU's is 20 to 25, and that has actually improved substantially in recent years. Alabama's (for comparison sake) is 23 to 28.

There are a lot of reasons to talk down on the SEC but we aren't in a position to do so regarding academics.

While I agree with your statement that ranking colleges is "suspect for a lot of reasons" I prefer Forbes as it is focused on what the student "gets out of college" rather than arbitrary entry criteria. Key in my opinion is their regard for post graduation success (more than just salaries earned) and academic success (scholarships and fellowships earned).

[wufan]

While I agree with your statement that ranking colleges is "suspect for a lot of reasons" I prefer Forbes as it is focused on what the student "gets out of college" rather than arbitrary entry criteria. Key in my opinion is their regard for post graduation success (more than just salaries earned) and academic success (scholarships and fellowships earned).

One reason that WSU, overall, won't ever get an exceedingly high ranking is that engineering doesn't have a huge post-grad demand. schools that rank higher are heavy in the sciences.

[shocka khan]

A couple of items to note:

Don't see TAMU or LSU in the rankings. I already pretty well knew that Alabama's admission policies were a little liberal. I don't think LSU is much better (if any) and I would be surprised if TAMU was better than UTx.

The only thing I've seen here so far that surprises me is that UTn was ranked so low. They fund higher education well in Tennessee and encourage their children to attend state schools. I believe they are free if the students have good grades.

[Shocker1976]

A couple of items to note:

Don't see TAMU or LSU in the rankings. I already pretty well knew that Alabama's admission policies were a little liberal. I don't think LSU is much better (if any) and I would be surprised if TAMU was better than UTx.

The only thing I've seen here so far that surprises me is that UTn was ranked so low. They fund higher education well in Tennessee and encourage their children to attend state schools. I believe they are free if the students have good grades.

Rank	University
54	Vanderbilt
76	Texas
87	Florida
94	Georgia
137	Texas A & M
186	South Carolina
190	Louisiana State
195	Baylor
202	Oklahoma
204	Auburn
216	TCU
230	Missouri
261	Iowa State
292	Tennessee
293	Arkansas
297	Kansas
335	Alabama
336	Kentucky
359	Mississippi
365	Mississippi State
367	Kansas State
369	Oklahoma State
402	Texas Tech
443	West Virginia

[shocka khan]

Shocker1976, thanks for the info, but I'm not sure that Forbes rankings equate to academic standards. Forbes is more a overall framework to evaluate schools for their potential, and less a yardstick that measures academic excellence of students.
"The Forbes rankings use the list of alumni published in Who's Who in America, student evaluations from RateMyProfessors.com, self-reported salaries of alumni from PayScale, four-year graduation rates, numbers of students and faculty receiving "nationally competitive awards," and four-year accumulated student debt to calculate the rankings.[116] It disregards subjective measures such as public reputation, which causes some Ivy League and other highly reputable colleges to score lower than in other lists. Most recent ranking puts Stanford at the top, followed by Pomona, Princeton, Yale, and Columbia."

I think student evaluations of professors is subjective, four-year accumulated student debt is subjective, lists of alumni is also subjective.

IMO, I think the ACT/SAT scores of incoming students would be a more accurate measure here, especially as regards to Mr. McKnight and other student atheletes. I bet if you look at actual test scores of incoming students, the SEC ratings are not quite so high. And I'm betting if Long Beach State would let him in, he would have/should have been able to be admitted in good standing at least some of the SEC schools.

I don't have the cycles to do this research right now, but I'm thinking that the SEC is not quite as stellar at they look. Note I agree with some of the other posters regarding the academics at Georgia and Florida. I'm wondering about Mississippi/Mississippi State; Alabama and maybe LSU among others.