The Big 12 is dead last.

2016 rankings from U.S. News & World Report.

And the SEC is next to last. This is hardly smack material...

On the other side of the coin - the SEC is next to last, with only Vanderbilt and Florida in the top 50.

A&M used to be the second highest ranked school in the SEC behind Vandy. Now it's fourth behind Florida and Georgia.

15) Vanderbilt
47) Florida
61) Georgia
70) Texas A&M
96) Alabama
102) Auburn
103) Missouri
103) Tennessee
108) South Carolina
129) Arkansas
129) Kentucky
129) LSU
140) Mississippi
161) Mississippi State

A&M is clearly not paying enough to be ranked well by USN&WR.

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A&M used to be the second highest ranked school in the SEC behind Vandy. Now it's fourth behind Florida and Georgia.

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That sucks.

Oh yay. Another one of these threads.

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On the other side of the coin - the SEC is next to last, with only Vanderbilt and Florida in the top 50.

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The Big 12 has zero schools in the top 50. We upgraded...although the Pac 12, ACC or Big 10 would have been a better fit academically.

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A&M used to be the second highest ranked school in the SEC behind Vandy. Now it's fourth behind Florida and Georgia.

15) Vanderbilt
47) Florida
61) Georgia
70) Texas A&M
96) Alabama
102) Auburn
103) Missouri
103) Tennessee
108) South Carolina
129) Arkansas
129) Kentucky
129) LSU
140) Mississippi
161) Mississippi State

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You can thank John Sharp for the decline.

We were never academically ahead of Vanderbilt or Florida in the us news rankings.

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On the other side of the coin - the SEC is next to last, with only Vanderbilt and Florida in the top 50.

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The Big 12 has zero schools in the top 50. We upgraded...although the Pac 12, ACC or Big 10 would have been a better fit academically.

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I'm not sure how we'd be a better fit with those conferences seeing where things have fallen

Yeah, at least on an academic basis not sure those other conferences would want us...

How we stand in Texas:

18) Rice
52) UT-Austin
61) SMU
70) Texas A&M
72) Baylor
82) TCU
140) UT-Dallas
168) Texas Tech
187) Houston

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Yeah, at least on an academic basis not sure those other conferences would want us...

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eh we still rank better than the average Pac 12 team. Outside of the California schools the PAC is nothing to write home about.

20% of ranking is for "faculty resources" which is a total bias to support smaller urban schools. Geez. Just look a little. And BTW....admin should publicly call them out on it

I only care where the engineering and business school is ranked (the only ones that matter). I'd rather my kid get a degree in engineering from a Tech like school than some BS liberal arts degree from a highly ranked private school.

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How we stand in Texas:

18) Rice
52) UT-Austin
61) SMU
70) Texas A&M
72) Baylor
82) TCU
140) UT-Dallas
168) Texas Tech
187) Houston

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UH is such a garbage institution. A&M and UT are long overdue in opening campuses in Houston.

Academic rankings are about as accurate as "ESPN's Way Too Early Top 25".

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I only care where the engineering and business school is ranked (the only ones that matter). I'd rather my kid get a degree in engineering from a Tech like school than some BS liberal arts degree from a highly ranked private school.

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I disagree very much. And that's not to devalue an Engineering degree (I have B.S. and M.Eng. in NUEN from A&M) but as I've gotten older, I've learned that this sort of hubris/arrogance from engineers is ignorant.

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I only care where the engineering and business school is ranked (the only ones that matter). I'd rather my kid get a degree in engineering from a Tech like school than some BS liberal arts degree from a highly ranked private school.

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Depends what you are looking for. Believe it or not, I've heard employers say they like liberal arts degrees, because students with them are often very articulate and are good at writing and expressing ideas. Of course, this is for very select fields, but a good degree from a highly ranked liberal arts school can be valuable. Point is people strongly exaggerate the idea that a lib arts degree is a career death sentence.

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I only care where the engineering and business school is ranked (the only ones that matter). I'd rather my kid get a degree in engineering from a Tech like school than some BS liberal arts degree from a highly ranked private school.

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Statements like that prove how little you learned while earning your engineering degree.

Sumlin has lost control of academic ratings.

It's not engineering, but straight up a 3.0 in liberal arts from Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Dartmouth will be hired before an Aggie 4.0 in Finance by Wall Street.

(Edited for clarification)

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It's not engineering, but straight up a 3.0 in liberal arts from Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Dartmouth will be hired before a 4.0 in Finance by Wall Street.

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Yep..spend some time in any Wall Street firm...they're all Lib Arts grads from Ivy League colleges. You see it at the investment banks in Houston as well.

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It's not engineering, but straight up a 3.0 in liberal arts from Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Dartmouth will be hired before a 4.0 in Finance by Wall Street.

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This has no basis...

People with 4.0s who interview well from any well known school that has even a semblance of excelling in academics can get a job for pretty much anyone.

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This has no basis...

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Other than in fact?

Not saying it's the way is should be. But it's the way it is.

Perception is reality. You can nitpick any set of rankings, but you can't dismiss the importance they play in shaping people's impressions of a school. For whatever reason, we keep dropping at a time when applications keep going up, and it doesn't seem like anyone at the school seems to care. But Sharp got him a big ol football field and a lot of back slapping from the good ol boys so what else matters!

I just heard Katherine Banks speak and she listed a half dozen academic rankings other than USN&WR where the engineering department excelled. In academic circles the USN&WR is looked at like the National Enquirer.

Why do people care about the academic rankings of athletic conferences?
People do care a great deal. A&M is an AAU school because Texas and Kansas pushed it as a means of elevating the BDF. The B1G only accepts AAU schools, and has openly said they would not have accepted Nebraska if they knew they would lose their AAU status. UConn was beating Louisville for a position in the ACC because of UConn's superior scholastic's, despite being a vastly inferior athletic organization. It was only concerns for the continued viability of the ACC and Louisville being so much stronger financially which allowed the Cardinals to win. I realize these are schools and schools care about scholastic achievement but these schools are not competing academically, and in the era of massive athletic budgets how is the academic quality of your athletic opponents even an issue?

This is 100% right. As many folks have said the USN&WR rankings are garbage, but garbage many consumers (businesses, philanthropists, ect...) care a great deal about. Which unfortunately means it is something we should try to improve.

John Sharp is ruining our institution.

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A&M used to be the second highest ranked school in the SEC behind Vandy. Now it's fourth behind Florida and Georgia.

15) Vanderbilt
47) Florida
61) Georgia
70) Texas A&M
96) Alabama
102) Auburn
103) Missouri
103) Tennessee
108) South Carolina
129) Arkansas
129) Kentucky
129) LSU
140) Mississippi
161) Mississippi State

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All part of the vision 20/20 to get to 80K enrollment and water down the value of our degree and our rings.

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I only care where the engineering and business school is ranked (the only ones that matter). I'd rather my kid get a degree in engineering from a Tech like school than some BS liberal arts degree from a highly ranked private school.

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Depends what you are looking for. Believe it or not, I've heard employers say they like liberal arts degrees, because students with them are often very articulate and are good at writing and expressing ideas. Of course, this is for very select fields, but a good degree from a highly ranked liberal arts school can be valuable. Point is people strongly exaggerate the idea that a lib arts degree is a career death sentence.

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I guess it's a not a death sentence if you aspire to be a barista. Perhaps a liberal arts degree from a prestigious small private school can get you straight into the big leagues at a stand alone Starbucks rather than the kiosk ones at Kroger.

I swear to god I have seen this thread at least three times in the last year.