I love when people laugh at the fact that I went to Mississippi State, but ended up working for the largest IT solutions provider in the world at a tiny fraction of the cost of a Top 30 University.

This post was edited on 9/16/20 at 1:42 pm

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Posted by Wildcat1996

Lexington, KY

Member since Jul 2020

5902 posts

Posted on 9/16/20 at 1:46 pm to BobLeeDagger

Did you miss the memo? You aren't nearly as "intellectual" as the fine arts major at Georgia or the language arts major at Florida because a sampling of the faculty at those institutions, which may or may not know anyone at MSU, think the boys and girls up the road are in Oxford are better because they have a thriving community of writers that hang out in reading rooms. Bourdain even stopped-in for a visit.

All these rankings are bunk and every institution points to the metrics that favor them the most. But it makes for a good pissing contest, so carry-on.

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Posted by LarryCLE

Member since Apr 2017

1545 posts

Posted on 9/16/20 at 1:57 pm to ForeverGator

It’s nice to see your school ranked high, but in the end a persons major matters more. An engineering degree from Mississippi State is probably a lot more valuable than an English degree from Vanderbilt.

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Posted by ForeverGator

Elite 8 - 2020 Worst SECRant Poster

Member since Nov 2012

13005 posts

Posted on 9/16/20 at 2:12 pm to Wildcat1996

You sound mad cause your school is not ranked as high.

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Posted by skrayper

21-0 Asterisk Drive

Member since Nov 2012

30851 posts

Posted on 9/16/20 at 2:23 pm to ForeverGator

Only one university on that list is going to get preferential treatment with the name of it on your degree unless your employer went to the same school.

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Posted by TheSandman

AuburnUndercover

Member since Nov 2010

19409 posts

Posted on 9/16/20 at 4:22 pm to BobLeeDagger

quote:
I love when people laugh at the fact that I went to Mississippi State, but ended up working for the largest IT solutions provider in the world at a tiny fraction of the cost of a Top 30 University.

I've attended classes at I think five universities now on three different continents (one of which is top-50 globally), Auburn I think being the lowest ranked, and there's basically just no difference whatsoever as far as in-class lecture quality.

Research is obv a different story but completely irrelevant to these kind of undergraduate rankings

(Shoutout to the two #mad UGA folks who downvoted my earlier post on this)

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Posted by theliontamer

Baton Rouge

Member since Nov 2015

864 posts

Posted on 9/16/20 at 4:27 pm to ForeverGator

doesnt factor in CFP national championships

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Posted by Reservoir dawg

Member since Oct 2013

14094 posts

Posted on 9/16/20 at 5:36 pm to ForeverGator

quote:
ForeverGator

It's not an academic ranking there genius.

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Posted by Krampus

Member since Nov 2018

5207 posts

Posted on 9/16/20 at 10:07 pm to ForeverGator

Eh. The person matters a whole hell of a lot more than the degree.

Lots of losers out there with fancy names on their degrees. Lots of winners with "lesser" credentials, or none at all. If you have a degree that people have heard of, you'll get a little leg up in the hiring process early in your career, but that's about it. What you do with your opportunities is what matters.

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Posted by Mithridates6

Member since Oct 2019

8220 posts

Posted on 9/16/20 at 10:14 pm to ForeverGator

Otoh, doesn't Miss State actually have higher admissions standards than UM?

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Posted by Krampus

Member since Nov 2018

5207 posts

Posted on 9/16/20 at 10:17 pm to Mithridates6

quote:
Otoh, doesn't Miss State actually have higher admissions standards than UM?

Not sure. How heavily does MSU weigh your collections of boat shoes and popped collars?

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Posted by Ted2010

Member since Oct 2010

38958 posts

Posted on 9/16/20 at 10:30 pm to ForeverGator

quote:
#153 - LSU

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Posted by FishFearMe

United States

Member since Jul 2015

7196 posts

Posted on 9/16/20 at 10:36 pm to ForeverGator

OP you lost us at USNWR

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Posted by dstone12

Texan

Member since Jan 2007

30055 posts

Posted on 9/17/20 at 12:17 am to ForeverGator

quote:
#124 - Missouri

Wannabe high brow ranters always talking about 'slack-jawed' sec schools, yet Mizz can't escape the middle.

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Posted by iglass

North Alabama

Member since Apr 2012

2917 posts

Posted on 9/17/20 at 1:57 am to ForeverGator

quote:
Since U.S. News came out with their most recent rankings, let's see how the SEC schools are doing...

As someone else stated, this report is based on incredibly flawed methodology.

A few points to consider:

1. It's the person, not the school. For some employers, the school matters. But for most of the world, personal work and study habits, gaining work experience while in school, and perseverance is much more valuable.

2. The majors matter. I'll use my university as an example - the Univ of Alabama. The top three majors in terms of graduating numbers are business (Finance, Business, Marketing, etc.) at 29%, Engineering at 12%, Communication/Journalism at 10%, Health and related professions at 8%, and family/consumer sciences at 7%. Teaching is also a huge major. Basically, my school has been downgraded in rankings of this sort because A)50% of the very top majors do not involve heavy research dollars, and B) those same 50% are typically not the highest paying jobs in terms of starting salary. Auburn's graduates are 18% engineering. Texas A&M is at 16% for engineering. And so forth. does this mean that other schools turn out better graduates? Maybe, maybe not. It just seems like we are being penalized for meeting the mandates of the U of A system (medical research is counted under UAB, UAH is a space grant university and is heavy on research, etc.).

3. Speaking of UAB and UAH... not all states have multiple LARGE branches with 10K students or more. This dilutes the star power of the school. Auburn really doesn't have this problem - nor Georgia, Vanderbilt, Miss St, etc. And arguably not even Louisiana even though they have recently renamed some colleges there, the setup is still not the same as in Alabama. All SEC schools, however, have been ranked by Carnegie as R1 high level research institutions (only 3% of all colleges achieve this).

4. Some rankings are not reflective of reality. Example - the last ranked program noted here, Miss St., has a REALLY GOOD reputation in engineering. I can absolutely assure you that where I work (NASA) highly values a Miss St. engineering degree. Moreso than some other schools on this list. And so forth.

5. This particular ranking set shows me some odd numbers. Again, for Alabama... we seem to have dropped nearly 50 spots or so in the last few years. That's despite massive capital improvements, a huge jump in total endowment, solid growth in number of students that include high quality students from other states, etc. Not too long ago, Texas A&M was a top 15 public university. Now they are ranked at 66th? I'm just not buying it.

The bottom line is that you can attend ANY of the SEC schools and do very well, given some hard work, and a choice of a quality major. SEC schools offer tremendous networking opportunities in our footprint of states. Almost all of the SEC schools have incredibly strong and nationally recognized programs.

The bottom line is that you can get a great education at an SEC school.

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Posted by iglass

North Alabama

Member since Apr 2012

2917 posts

Posted on 9/17/20 at 2:16 am to iglass

I was finishing up some research on college rankings and stumbled across a good engineering site that listed national rankings. This ranking set is from 2018, from LINK . Their methodology is linked at the very bottom of their web page.

I can't vouch for validity or accuracy, but it's an interesting list in any case. There are some head-scratchers to me. Example - Petroleum engineering at LSU? They should be in the top 5 of the USA. Maybe it's not a category they considered. Similarly, I'd probably put Auburn ahead of Alabama for aeronautical programs, but Alabama should be listed for metallurgical and mining. In short, there are some gaping holes here. But still interesting. Vandy, Florida, and Texas A&M have REALLY good engineering schools.

Univ of Alabama:
Ranked #12 Architectural Engineering School
Ranked #19 Construction Engineering School
Ranked #48 Aeronautical Engineering School
Ranked #56 Industrial Engineering School
Ranked #63 Materials Engineering School
Ranked #77 Environmental Engineering School
Ranked #78 Chemical Engineering School
Ranked #85 Civil Engineering School
Ranked #97 Mechanical Engineering School

Univ of Arkansas:
Ranked #32 Biological Engineering School
Ranked #39 Engineering Management School
Ranked #62 Industrial Engineering School
Ranked #88 General Engineering School
Ranked #90 Environmental Engineering School
Ranked #96 Biomedical Engineering School
Ranked #100 Computer Engineering School

Auburn Univ:
Ranked #13 Architectural Engineering School
Ranked #30 Biological Engineering School
Ranked #53 Aeronautical Engineering School
Ranked #59 Industrial Engineering School
Ranked #68 Materials Engineering School
Ranked #93 Computer Engineering School
Ranked #95 General Engineering School
Ranked #97 Chemical Engineering School

Univ of Georgia:
Ranked #8 Biological Engineering School
Ranked #33 Environmental Engineering School
Ranked #38 Computer Engineering School
Ranked #40 General Engineering School
Ranked #46 Chemical Engineering School
Ranked #47 Civil Engineering School

Univ of Florida:
Ranked #4 Biological Engineering School
Ranked #4 Construction Engineering School
Ranked #8 Engineering Technology School
Ranked #11 Systems Engineering School
Ranked #14 Aeronautical Engineering School
Ranked #16 Materials Engineering School
Ranked #19 Engineering Physics School
Ranked #20 Environmental Engineering School
Ranked #20 Computer Engineering School
Ranked #28 Chemical Engineering School
Ranked #28 Civil Engineering School
Ranked #29 Mechanical Engineering School
Ranked #30 Electrical Engineering School
Ranked #33 Biomedical Engineering School

Univ of Kentucky:
Ranked #26 Biological Engineering School
Ranked #57 Industrial Engineering School
Ranked #60 Materials Engineering School
Ranked #68 Environmental Engineering School
Ranked #79 Chemical Engineering School
Ranked #85 Biomedical Engineering School
Ranked #85 Computer Engineering School
Ranked #89 Civil Engineering School
Ranked #99 Mechanical Engineering School
Ranked #100 Electrical Engineering School

LSU:
Ranked #37 Biological Engineering School
Ranked #68 Industrial Engineering School
Ranked #71 Materials Engineering School
Ranked #78 Environmental Engineering School
Ranked #96 Chemical Engineering School
Ranked #97 Biomedical Engineering School
Ranked #98 General Engineering School

Miss St. Univ:
Ranked #55 Aeronautical Engineering School
Ranked #66 Industrial Engineering School
Ranked #90 General Engineering School
Ranked #94 Biomedical Engineering School

Univ of Mississippi:
Ranked #70 Materials Engineering School
Ranked #89 General Engineering School

Univ of Missouri:
Ranked #29 Biological Engineering School
Ranked #54 Engineering Physics School
Ranked #65 Industrial Engineering School
Ranked #93 General Engineering School
Ranked #97 Computer Engineering School
Ranked #98 Chemical Engineering School

Univ. of South Carolina:
Ranked #30 Engineering Management School
Ranked #38 Systems Engineering School
Ranked #40 Aeronautical Engineering School
Ranked #41 Engineering Physics School
Ranked #62 Computer Engineering School
Ranked #69 Biomedical Engineering School
Ranked #71 Chemical Engineering School
Ranked #74 Civil Engineering School
Ranked #80 Mechanical Engineering School
Ranked #81 Electrical Engineering School

Univ of Tennessee:
Ranked #27 Biological Engineering School
Ranked #38 Engineering Management School
Ranked #46 Engineering Physics School
Ranked #49 Aeronautical Engineering School
Ranked #51 Industrial Engineering School
Ranked #55 Materials Engineering School
Ranked #76 Environmental Engineering School
Ranked #79 General Engineering School
Ranked #82 Biomedical Engineering School
Ranked #83 Chemical Engineering School
Ranked #87 Computer Engineering School
Ranked #90 Civil Engineering School
Ranked #100 Mechanical Engineering School

Texas A&M:
Ranked #7 Construction Engineering School
Ranked #11 Biological Engineering School
Ranked #14 Engineering Technology School
Ranked #24 Industrial Engineering School
Ranked #27 Aeronautical Engineering School
Ranked #34 Engineering Physics School
Ranked #37 Environmental Engineering School
Ranked #39 Materials Engineering School
Ranked #44 Computer Engineering School
Ranked #49 Civil Engineering School
Ranked #50 Chemical Engineering School
Ranked #53 Biomedical Engineering School
Ranked #55 General Engineering School
Ranked #55 Mechanical Engineering School
Ranked #56 Electrical Engineering School

Vanderbilt Univ:
Ranked #7 Computer Engineering School
Ranked #7 Environmental Engineering School
Ranked #10 Civil Engineering School
Ranked #11 Chemical Engineering School
Ranked #11 General Engineering School
Ranked #12 Mechanical Engineering School
Ranked #13 Electrical Engineering School
Ranked #13 Biomedical Engineering School

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Posted by dstone12

Texan

Member since Jan 2007

30055 posts

Posted on 9/17/20 at 8:58 am to iglass

quote:
Univ of Missouri: Ranked #29 Biological Engineering School Ranked #54 Engineering Physics School Ranked #65 Industrial Engineering School Ranked #93 General Engineering School Ranked #97 Computer Engineering School Ranked #98 Chemical Engineering School

I’d like to revisit some mizzRanters for a moment.

When addressing the joke that a couple schools shouldve never been allowed in the sec, the mizzRanters would try to tactfully say that they’d rather be in a more high brow big10 but they will take the sec lotto money anyway.

They Would say That the dumb, relative-lovers of the sec don’t hold a candle to the academic and intelligent prowess of their state and school.

I’d like to open the forum up to these Missouri men of the rant (if you didn’t, this is not for you) Exactly which schools/fanbases have this slack jawed approach to life that you spoke of?

What do you define as holding a candle? Ranked 124 and middle of the sec pack? You’da thought Vandy was competing with Missouri for top Academic honors.

Expound all you want.

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Posted by Windy City

Member since Jun 2019

1708 posts

Posted on 9/17/20 at 9:35 am to ForeverGator

quote:
Not sure how you would apply this universally. I find it funny you bring this up since Texas A&M does spend a fair amount of money on, you guessed it, agriculture. With that and oil & gas being hot, no shite it's going to look better, but reality is that only applies to very little of your graduates.

Not totally true . . . .A&M's research budget is fairly diverse. Life Sciences is a fancy euphemism for Ag research and it does account for a decent chunk of overall spending but the Engineering research outlays go well beyond oil and gas and there are a lot of other pursuits as well.

A&M and Cal-Berkely just jointly won the management contract for Los Alamos National Labs, for instance which is definitely no oil and gas.

Now certain colleges are structured differently and that may unduly influence the rankings. That I agree.

A&M Research By The Numbers

FY19 Expenditures

This post was edited on 9/17/20 at 9:37 am

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Posted by Che Boludo

Member since May 2009

18162 posts

Posted on 9/17/20 at 9:46 am to ForeverGator

If you are looking at school's with the top intellectuals (apparent Ole Miss bias for naming their host city Oxford noted)

SEC Rhodes Scholar Ranking
Ole Miss: 27 (T1)
Vanderbilt: 27 (T1)
Georgia: 24
Missouri: 18
Alabama: 15
LSU: 14
Florida: 12
Arkansas: 10
Kentucky: 10
S Carolina: 9
Tennessee: 9
Auburn: 5
Texas A&M: 5
Miss. State: 2

This post was edited on 9/17/20 at 9:50 am

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Posted by Sun God

Member since Jul 2009

44874 posts

Posted on 9/17/20 at 9:47 am to Che Boludo

I’m one of LSUs 14