US News Rankings

They’ll slowly find out. For some the past is comfortable, now is to complicated for them.

Another great achievement by Renu and the University.

What a tremendous accent for the administration, the professors, the students and all those who support the mission.

Great job, everyone … very proud of my Alma Mater, Houston University.

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TiTies U is about to get passed up by Texas State, and trying to talk mess about UH?

Political gif. Barack Obama gestures in disbelief, holding both hands up and looking around as if to ask, “are you serious?”

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My daughter is a senior in high school and is in the top 6% of her class. She is likely choosing between UT Austin (automatic admission with her ranking) and UH. That should tell you that you guys are doing things right. Along with improving academics, cost of living is playing a role in her decision. So, I guess we will see.

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Has she considered that Austin freaking sucks?

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She’ll probably pick UT because of football and it’s a big brand name. I don’t know your daughter but a lot of people do that.

Remember after our successful 2015 season, President Khator said our student applications went way up because of the success of the football program.

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Congrats with whatever choice she makes !

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No. She is looking at UT Austin because of academics and because she is not a typical East Texas conservative girl. She is compassionate, caring, open-minded and not judgmental. She grew up in a small town but she has been exposed through travel to other parts of the country and world. She prefers the other parts. She doesn’t give one s**t about college athletics. I wish she did…lol.

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Thank you!

This is great news. Congratulations to you and your daughter.

Someone like her will be fine no matter where she goes.

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Congrats to your daughter. Best case now is to support whatever decision she makes. Looks like a win-win to me. As much as I dislike ut for so many reasons, in the real world she can’t go wrong regardless of her decisions.

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I have a feeling we’d be viewed entirely differently had we taken the Texas State name when it was available.

We’d still be the third largest public school system in the state but would probably be faced with more acceptance if we choose to expand outside of our region.

The flagship institution would be the Houston campus but building a Texas State-San Antonio or a Texas State- Dallas would be more achievable.

They out rank us because of the 10 year rolling grad rates, As small private Unis they are able to have high 6 year grad rates. As our grad rates go up so will our ranking.

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Agree, that nails it. Our 4yr grad rate was at 39%. With large number of part time students,
that number will always look bad and be misunderstood as to what is being measured.

My god no. I would not go to a school called “Texas State University - Houston”.

Being named after a major city has not negatively impacted The University of Chicago, University of Miami, New York University, University of Pittsburgh, Boston University, Saint Louis University, University of Cincinnati, Syracuse University, University of Buffalo, University of Binghamton or the University of Richmond. I think you get the point. The University of Houston is just fine.

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The bad thing about a 10 year rolling 6 year graduation rate is that any changes that UH makes to improve graduation rates will take 16 years to be fully accounted for in the rankings. It makes it very difficult to rapidly climb the rankings.

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The one student body right now that has the best respect for UH is TAMU. A lot of people chose between UH and TAMU. Now it’s UH and UT, TAMU has had a few times where they took exodus to come here. While they are maintaining their rank, they don’t have that great of a rep in the news right now.

But a lot of times if a UH student makes a self deprecating joke, UT students will laugh and agree. TAMU students give them a weird look and be like “What the heck? UH is a good school…”

The big difference I try to give between UH and UT is UT has the brand name and high cost of living. The further away from you are from UH, the more desirable it is. It’s why there’s a huge out of state class, that’s actually their reasoning haha. I saw a UH grad in small town Yuma AZ.

Another case is, if your family is already in the city, it doesn’t mean you’re going to be held back from being a college student. It’s college. They know it and you know it. Don’t be dumb, and if you are, guess who will get you no questions asked? Imagine a home cooked meal when you need it and the money saved.

Finally, the city of Houston is a jackpot to go to school in. The city will take care of its grads miles before hiring a brand name. They want us, and companies in Austin are starting to want us lol.

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USNWR has a bias toward private schools, especially in the Northeast. Its why a school like Northeastern in Boston is ranked so high, even though no one in their right mind believes that it is a top 40 school. It is just an overpriced school for kids who can’t get into Harvard, BU or BC. MIT is on a different level because it is STEM heavy.

Honestly, 70 percent of the kids at Northeastern would be better served going to UMass, a great public university. Some parents and kids have an aversion to public universities, not sure why.

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I wouldn’t call it a bias to private schools. The metrics just highlight their characteristics better (i.e., graduation rates, retention, faculty salaries, % FT faculty, student/teacher ratios, and peer assessment, etc.). The last is the most fuzzy as it is perceptual - more subjective. But one cannot deny the level of scholarship and grant money many of these schools obtain comparatively which elevates their stature in the minds of academics. They have resources others do not and unfortunately that keeps them elevated like any system of economic inequality tends to perpetuate itself.

Folks in the NE have a private school bias because it’s the oldest region of the country and thus it has many more (number and proportion) private schools. There were no public schools until the mid-to-late 1800s (Morrill Act of 1862). The new public school systems were created when much of the country was being settled and they became the bedrock of the educational system for a new, never seen before middle class. Plus, the NE was where the bulk of the wealth was until the late industrial revolution. Fewer than 10% of Americans had a college degree even by 1950 and they were predominantly from the wealthiest families. The public school systems have undoubtedly helped change that dramatically.

I wouldn’t characterize U-Mass as a great public school (e.g. UVA, Mich, UNC, Wisconsin, Florida, UCLA, Cal-Berkley) - solid, but not great.

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I agree on your first point, but my point is that the criteria that USNWR focuses on favors small, private schools, especially in the NE, for all the reasons you stated.

Regarding UMass, however, I strongly disagree. UMass is ranked 62nd among all universities, meaning it is the 26th ranked public school in the U.S. Sorry, but that is excellent. Is it UVA, UNC, Michigan or Wisconsin? Not yet, but I bet dollars to donuts that within the next 10 to 15 years, it surpasses several of the schools currently ahead of it. Why? Mainly because many of the students I mentioned in my prior comment, who current attend expensive private schools, will begin attending cheaper public schools. Michigan and Wisconsin are losing population, and UNC and UF, well, lets just say that they have other issues that may result in reduced rankings.

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