Nt Makes The List

[stebo]

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/94/best-colleges-10_Americas-Best-Colleges_State_23.html

The best public and private colleges and universities, from the student's point of view.

Nice company to keep - this list was compiled based on student satisfaction, cost, pay after college, graduation rate, etc... Nice to see NT on this list.

[letsgiveacheer]

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/94/best-colleges-10_Americas-Best-Colleges_State_23.html

The best public and private colleges and universities, from the student's point of view.

Nice company to keep - this list was compiled based on student satisfaction, cost, pay after college, graduation rate, etc... Nice to see NT on this list.

The bad news is that the ranking is 566 out of 610. I was most shocked to see a 18% graduation rate after four years and somewhat better after six years. Little wonder that we receive limited alumni support. I would imagine there is not so much interest in supporting a school after you have dropped out.

[GreenStreet]

I would imagine there is not so much interest in supporting a school after you have dropped out.

Texas Tech seems to be doing ok.

[stebo]

The bad news is that the ranking is 566 out of 610. I was most shocked to see a 18% graduation rate after four years and somewhat better after six years. Little wonder that we receive limited alumni support. I would imagine there is not so much interest in supporting a school after you have dropped out.

I know it seems bad - but that grad rate is based off of students that start college with zero credits and finish in 4 years. If a student brings in even one class from another school, they are not counted. NT seems to get a lot of "kids coming home" - when they go off to some school, get homesick (or have bad grades) and come back to finish/start fresh at UNT. I work in Higher Ed and we like to look at the "completion" rate - which is the number of students that finish their degree after starting with the program (despite the transferred in credits). UNT is a victim of a great price - there is not as much "urgency" for students to finish in 4 years because they can drag it out and have fun. NT also has a lot of students that work while going to school. I was just happy to se us on the list, you know? There are thousands of colleges in this country - to be in the top 650 is a good thing.

[emmitt01]

Texas Tech seems to be doing ok.

How does the city of Lubbock handle them bringing up the high school dropout rate?

[MeanGreenTeeth]

Holy freaking crap.. this is horrible. You really think this is good news? We got beat out by such academic powerhouses as UTEP and Couger High. I guess at least we didn't get beat by Texas Sta.... what!??!?..they beat us.?!?. Nobody even bothers to attend class at Texas State. Everyone is always drunk and/or at the river. Well, I guess at least we beat out Sam Houston State....barely. Yay us! We made the list. Take that ITT Tech!!!

Edited August 12, 2010 by MeanGreenTeeth

[LoveMG]

top 566 does not seem too good. that is less than top 10 per state. are we in top 10 in texas?

[KingDL1]

top 566 does not seem too good. that is less than top 10 per state. are we in top 10 in texas?

No we were near the very bottom of Texas, 21st out of 23 on the list of Texas schools. Only Sam Houston State University and University of Texas, San Antonio scored worse. I can't believe that both UTA and UTD crushed us, I mean UTA really sucks.

[foutsrouts]

Ridiculous. I guess we can now set our target to someday pass the renowned Utah Valley University. That list is a joke.

[chomp]

I'm not sure that I would lose too much sleep over these rankings. First, if you look at some of the rankings, they are absurd on their face. Nebraska Wesleyan University is ranked ahead of Duke University, UCLA, and Michigan. Does anyone really believe that? Second, the methods for the rankings are pretty ridiculous. Half of the rankings come from student evaluations on RateMyProfessors.com and the number of alumni listed in Whos Who in America. I've taught thousands of students in my time at UNT and have 16 total ratings on RateMyProfessors.com, far too few to be a represented sample of views of my performance. I'm not sure that either of those are particularly valid indicators of the quality of a university. Heck, UNT's low ranking probably reflects the fact that UNT alumni are smart enough not to bother with something as stupid as a vanity press like Who's Who.

[stebo]

These rankings are probably the only rankings that I care about - as these are the STUDENT's results/opinions. Nothing has been bought with these rankings - these are the reality. Here is a two page article on the reason for establishing the rankings. Take 5 minutes and read it. We ARE doing a good job at NT, even if you do not like being ranked behind some of those smaller schools. Heck, UT was ranked behind other Texas schools. But these are the realities of the results. How many students are working in the profession of their degree? Please read the opener to these rankings here:

http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2010/0830/best-colleges-10-new-york-university-liberal-arts-higher-ed.html?partner=yahoomag

Also - keep in mind that any school with liberal art degrees will be lower on this list, period. How many music major REALLY go on to work in music? Not many. You can say the same thing about art, all of those Applied Arts Degrees, and even my degree - English. I do not work in the field that I graduated in - so my results would hurt our ranking. But that is where I disagree with the article, college is not 100% about what you learn in the classroom related to your career. If that was the case, we would all go to trade schools. College is about exploring new things, learning about multiple subjects, and most importantly - setting a goal and seeing it through to the end. In my position, I hire people every week. We require a Bachelors or higher but we do not specify what type of Bachelors. When I am looking through resumes, I will first look to see if they have a degree - then I will look to see if they worked while in school (that is a plus in my mind) - then I look to see how long it took for them to graduate... I don't even look at the major, I honestly don't. I might glance at it to talk with the potential employee about their major - but I am more interested in asking them about their work experience. If they have none, I want to know what they did while they were in college (pre-professional work experience). So hiring mamngers are more concerned about finding the right person rather than the right degree. Just a little perspective from my position - I am sure that we have other hiring managers on this board and since these rankings have a lot to do with jobs acquired post college - maybe you can share what you look for in a degree/major.

Again - please read the article that establishes the reasoning for the rankings. I like that there is no fancy donation that can be made to make it on this list... lobbying for a new tier will not do you any good with thee rankings. These are just the facts and as long as we have a large amount of liberal art graduates, we will probably have these job acquisition rates. Perhaps we can launch a program like SMU's that places people into a job after graduation. So that would be SMU, Devry, and I think the Fashion Institute offers job placement (as long as you don't mind working the register at the Gap!)....

http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2010/0830/best-colleges-10-new-york-university-liberal-arts-higher-ed.html?partner=yahoomag

Edited August 12, 2010 by stebo

[KingDL1]

Steve I am not sure what your hiring skills have to do with us being ranked 21^st in the state, but to most anyone that reads this list it simply means there are 20 better schools to go to in Texas. Not to mention we are in the bottom 7% of this list of 610. The only 4 year state school that popped out as not on the list at a quick glance was Texas A&M Commerce.

I am not sure about the liberal arts statement, when Williams College, a 217-year-old private liberal arts school came in 1^st.

Edited August 12, 2010 by KingDL1

[letsgiveacheer]

Other than the "Who's Who in America" inclusion, it is pretty difficult to argue with their methodology. At least it is measurable. There are plenty of liberal arts universities that are ranked very highly and one can hardly classify North Texas as a liberal arts university, rather it is a comprehensive university.

There is much to be proud of at North Texas. As someone who has graduated over 35 years ago, I marvel at the beauty of the campus as compared to those dark ages. But what has really changed other than our nickname and shades of green? I would encourage our leadership to use "the power of ideas" to determine how we can affect real change at North Texas and raise us out of mediocrity.

[BeanCounterGrad'03]

Guess who's number 1 in Alabama beating the pants off of Alabama and Auburn.

Also, I noticed that La Monroe is not on the list...but they are in good company with La Tech, which also didn't make the list.

A few other Texas Universities that did not make the list: Tarlton State, SFA, Midwestern State, TAMCC...I could go on, but I'm kinda in the boat with Stebo...not a bad list to be on even if it is near the bottom.

EDIT: Ouch...Ark State also didn't make the list.

Edited August 12, 2010 by BeanCounterGrad'03

[ColoradoEagle]

Well, at least we weren't beat by UT-Pan American. Wait...nevermind.

I can't believe that both UTA and UTD crushed us, I mean UTA really sucks.

Don't be modest. UTD is more of a glorified community college than UTA will ever be.

Edited August 12, 2010 by ColoradoEagle

[All About UNT]

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/94/best-colleges-10_Americas-Best-Colleges_State_23.html

The best public and private colleges and universities, from the student's point of view.

Nice company to keep - this list was compiled based on student satisfaction, cost, pay after college, graduation rate, etc... Nice to see NT on this list.

This list is a joke...our acceptance rate, our programs offered, our research developed, our campus, our Greek programs, our cost, our Sports Teams, our graduation rate.....all of these things rank in the top 5 public schools in Texas on any other site. I have often seen sites that compare our ranking with that of Tech in both graduation rates, Average SAT/ACT, and apparently we have a lower acceptance rate than Tech. Again...this list is garbage. Jackson probably failed to write a check to Forbes for the endorsement.

[HoustonEagle]

we're 566!, we're 566!, we're 566!, we're 566!, we're 566! woooohoooo!

[ColoradoEagle]

we're 566!, we're 566!, we're 566!, we're 566!, we're 566! woooohoooo!

Whoopie!

[HoustonEagle]

[stebo]

Steve I am not sure what your hiring skills have to do with us being ranked 21^st in the state, but to most anyone that reads this list it simply means there are 20 better schools to go to in Texas. Not to mention we are in the bottom 7% of this list of 610. The only 4 year state school that popped out as not on the list at a quick glance was Texas A&M Commerce.

I am not sure about the liberal arts statement, when Williams College, a 217-year-old private liberal arts school came in 1^st.

Lol, ok good points - I am just trying to see this as a positive thing. In the past we would have been left off these lists (but maybe being left off is better than being at the bottom) - I tried to justify it though!!

[KingDL1]

Lol, ok good points - I am just trying to see this as a positive thing. In the past we would have been left off these lists (but maybe being left off is better than being at the bottom) - I tried to justify it though!!

Steve you are in the college world, this article states there are 6600 accredited post secondary schools. I was curious how many are 4+ year schools vs. 2 year schools.

[GrandGreen]

Troy was number 1 rated out of the Belt, that tell me everything I want to know about the merits of the Forbes ranking.

[SteaminWillieBeamin]

Troy was number 1 rated out of the Belt, that tell me everything I want to know about the merits of the Forbes ranking.

No joke.