Palm says: "When it comes to choosing a university, nothing is more important than the academic quality of a university. Previously, Niche released a ranking that is very worth referencing to students and parents when examining university academics .
Latest National Best Academic University Rankings 2022
Every year, Palm Jun interprets this ranking, but to be honest, this year's results are still very "embarrassing"!
Many universities on the same level are ranked very differently in this ranking, and some universities are ranked very high; some universities are beaten in the face by Nichhe and ranked in the position of "crane tail".
At the same time, the liberal arts college, which has been at the "bottom of the university contempt chain" for many years, is unexpectedly bright! Even showed the strength to compete with the top big U, which really subverted the "stereotype" of many circles of liberal arts colleges...
So, what are the highlights of this year's Nichhe Academic University Rankings? What can be said for prospective families?
Let's take a closer look!
Niche is the most academically strongest university in the United States
(Click on the image for a larger view)
The biggest difference between Niche and U.S. News, QS, Soft And other rankings is that it is a list that directly compares comprehensive universities and liberal arts colleges in the same table.
The advantage of this is that the information bias caused by the classification of universities is eliminated, and to a certain extent, a relatively fair "horizontal comparison" of all universities is achieved, and the "advantages and disadvantages" are immediately known.
On this basis, looking at this list, we can see that -
Top private universities continue to lead the way,
The "Treasure College of Arts and Sciences" can't be hidden!
No wonder many prospective study abroad families are "partial" to big U, people's academic strength is really strong!
Especially private universities. Among the universities on the list this time, there are 54 comprehensive universities, 41 of which are private universities, not only the number of schools on the list is large, but also as in previous years, except for a liberal arts college, the rest of the Top 20 seats are all covered by private universities, and the performance is very stable!
In addition to private universities, what surprised Palm Jun even more was the College of Arts and Sciences!
In this list, there are 43 liberal arts colleges with academic strength among the top 100 in the United States, including many schools with academic strength, surpassing Emory, NYU and other comprehensive universities that rank top 30 on U.S. News, such as:
- Pomona College (U.S. News No. 4)
- Bowdoin College (U.S. News No. 6)
- Swarthmore College (U.S. News No. 3)
- Barnard College (U.S. News No. 17)
- Clermont McKenna College (U.S. News No. 8)
- Matilda College (U.S. News No. 9)
- Haverford College (U.S. News No. 16)
In fact, liberal arts colleges often represent classic, small-scale, high-quality undergraduate education, and their academic atmosphere is stronger than that of the big U, which has long been known as "common sense" in the American university circle!
In the case of Pomona College, for example, there are only more than 1,600 undergraduate students in the whole school, the teacher-student ratio is only 1:8, there are more than 20 people in a class, and the number of students in many courses does not exceed 10.
Fewer students means that the professor will allocate more energy to a student, and students can get a very solid undergraduate education!
Thanks to this, the professors of the school also received a basket of praise in Nice, such as a student who commented that -
Pomona's academic atmosphere can only be described as incredible!
Almost all professors are very attentive to their students, not only trying to get to know each student, but even inviting students to their homes. What students need to do is to be "diligent and asking", and the professor will intimately deal with all your academic doubts for you until you fully understand!
So, did you find out? The College of Arts and Sciences does not lose any top U, regardless of classroom experience or professorial engagement, and is it still worried about academic quality?!
After talking about the rankings of some of the better universities, let's talk about some of the "miserable" schools...
Public universities are in a "dilemma",
The top net red UC department has fallen out of favor!
I believe that careful students and parents have found out! In this list, the ranking of public universities is really a bit unsure...
Even the two greatest public schools in the Nation— the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the University of California, Berkeley— once hailed by President Stanford as "two of the greatest public schools in the nation," were ranked 34th and one ranked 47th, and none of the public universities squeezed into the academic rankings.
And if you pull the rankings to the end, you'll see that these are already outside the 70th place—
- University of Florida (U.S. News No. 28)
- University of Texas at Austin (U.S. News No. 38)
- University of Georgia (U.S. News No. 48)
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (U.S. News No. 55)
- University of California, San Diego (U.S. News No. 34)
- ……
But you think that's already the worst?
No, there are many U.S. None of news's top 50 universities are on this top 100 list.
For example, the following are:
- University of California, Santa Barbara (U.S. News No. 28)
- University of California, Irvine (U.S. News No. 36)
- University of California, Davis (U.S. News No. 38)
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (U.S. News No. 47)
Once again, it can be seen how niche is not "welcoming" public universities, and the first to bear the brunt of the impact is the UC Department...
Moreover, in such a comparison, New York University, which has always been recognized as "criticized" academically, has appeared to be particularly "eyebrow clear", ranking 38th.
Ultimately, to sum up, according to this list, the overall ranking of academic strength among different types of universities in the United States is: private big U> liberal arts colleges> public big U.
So, what makes such a ranking?
This starts with the ranking indicators of this list.
The ranking mainly focuses on the teaching and research aspects of the school, and refers to the official data of multiple authoritative platforms, such as the U.S. Department of Education, the University Achievement Evaluation Center, the real evaluation of students on Niche, and other data; a comprehensive examination is carried out from the three dimensions of students, professors and schools.
Moreover, in order to be more in line with the current situation of "valuing" standardized tests when admission to American universities, this ranking weakens the weight of standardized scores and makes more reference to academically related indicators such as admission rates, professors, and student ratings.
Overall, this factor is comprehensive, but there are several indicators that are very unfriendly to public universities. For example —
Teacher-student ratio
As we all know, the student-faculty ratio of public universities is far from the level of private universities, if the teacher-student ratio of private universities and liberal arts colleges is 1:(5-15), then public universities are 1:(10-25).
For example, the University of Florida, UCSD, Boston University and Brandeis University are similarly arranged.
The student-to-faculty ratio at the University of Florida is 1:17
The student-to-faculty ratio at UCSD is 1:19
Boston University's student-to-faculty ratio is 1:10
Brandeis University's student-to-faculty ratio is 1:10
The difference between the teacher-student ratio between the first two public schools and the last two private schools is still very large.
Such differences have their own advantages and disadvantages, mainly depending on the choice of students themselves, but if they are used as an indicator of examination, it is natural that public universities have a disadvantage.
Acceptance rate
The size of public universities is generally larger than that of private universities, with more enrollment, coupled with the state enrollment indicators formulated by the state government, so relatively speaking, the admission rate of public universities will be much higher than that of private universities at the same level.
In the case of the University of Virginia, for example, the acceptance rate for the 2020-2021 application season was 23 percent, and the admission rates of New York University and Tufts University, which ranked below it, were both lower than it, at 21 percent and 16 percent, respectively.
Not to mention, the University of California, Davis has an acceptance rate of 49 percent, the University of Georgia has a 40 percent acceptance rate, and Villanova University, which ranks even lower than them, has an acceptance rate of only 31 percent.
In addition, there are many schools that rank low, in fact, because of the lack of -
The power associated with "money"
The money invested in each student, the expenditure on research, the quality of professors, etc., are all places where public universities are relatively "difficult" compared to private universities.
Private universities, which are relatively independent and well-funded, can offer a wide range of generalist courses, allowing students to fully dabble in various fields of arts, sciences, business and history. For example, all undergraduate students at Columbia University must go to the "core curriculum group" to enhance their inner personal cultivation and help students lay a good foundation in various fields.
At the same time, the "not bad money" underpinnings that private universities often gather "big cattle" teachers. If students need it, many professors offer undergraduates the opportunity to go to labs and internships to engage students in actual research and work.
This is something that even most of the top liberal arts colleges do!
Colleges like Pomona offer students a wealth of research and internship programs. Students can do research with professors in the summer and get exclusive research funds; they also have the opportunity to intern in cooperative companies, and the school will also "post money" to pay students' salaries...
Therefore, it is the above reasons that cause public universities to rank much lower in academics.
Note that this does not mean that public universities are bad, and the well-known public schools such as the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor, UCB, UCLA, etc., are all excellent and excellent schools.
Taken together, U.S. News' Top 30 comprehensive universities and Top 20 liberal arts colleges, whether public or private, have no doubt about their academic prowess.
After analyzing the rankings, we are not whole - the next 4 Tips that know better the better to improve the acceptance rate tell you!
4 Major Tips to improve acceptance rates
1, academic preparation should be sufficient
Universities with strong academic strength are all universities in the top ranking, and these schools generally do not admit students with too weak academic strength.
So if we want to get into top schools, we have to work harder on GPA, the number and score of relevant APPs, the depth and breadth of knowledge. For example, more difficult courses, summer schools with high gold content, scientific research, and academic practice of an exploratory nature.
The following scores are for everyone to use as a reference when applying:
Apply for the Top 10 University Recommended Grades
( School rankings refer to U.S. News, hereinafter the same)
GPA：3.95+
A-G courses: 28+
AP: 8 Gate+
TOEFL: 115+
SAT：1560+
(Universities that do not have SAT requirements, ignore this item)
Apply for Top 11-20 University Recommended Grades
GPA：3.9+
A-G courses: 26+
TOEFL: 110+
SAT：1520+
Apply for Top 21-30 University Recommended Grades
GPA：3.85+
AP: 6 gates +
TOEFL: 105+
SAT：1480+
2, it is best to determine the professional direction in advance
When you are admitted to an American university, whether it is a school admission, a college admission under the school, or a professional admission, you are required to have at least one direction of interest.
For example, Cornell University and Penn University are both college admissions, so you need to know which field you like. MIT and Stanford are admitted to schools, but they also need to have your own interests.
Hopefully, you've determined what you like, what you want, and have explored it in depth in advance. Of course, it is better to have results.
3, "T" shape activity design dimension
The general principle is to be thematic, continuous, in the shape of a "T", that is, to have both a comprehensive approach, and to have 1-2 long-term hobbies or talents, and 1-2 very unique personal projects that invest more time.
The best activity to do is to have a good title, increase the impact of the event, increase the number of participants, and try to be from the regional to the international type of activity.
4, apply for different fields, it is best to design activities in this way
Science and engineering should preferably have a humanistic line to jump out of the stereotypical Asian science and engineering students; it is best to have their own scientific research projects, various science and engineering competitions to win awards, and so on.
Engineering also needs to add an extra line, that is, to show your hands-on ability and design ability, such as designing a part, making some small inventions, and so on.
In terms of business, it is mainly to participate in some business competitions, such as the Wharton Business Competition and FBLA; in addition, there are various internships, business practices, and entrepreneurial activities.
In the liberal arts, it is necessary to reflect your leadership and communication skills; the school will value your sense of social responsibility and mission.
The art class is not much to say, take the portfolio to speak.
In short, Palm Jun's analysis of Niche's ranking of the best universities in the United States today and some suggestions for everyone's planning will be written here.
You can also take a private look at this ranking, although it is often ridiculed by students and parents as the "public comment" of the ranking session, but it is still very interesting, you can see a lot of us in the U.S. The invisible side of News.
Finally, in the selection of schools or that sentence, how the reputation of the school outside is not the most important, the most important thing is to find a suitable school for yourself, and read happily for 4 years!