re: 2014 USNews & World Report College Rankings Out

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I know a few grads, but these polls always try to undervalue the school, and others try to lump st.Louis crime with Wash U as reasons for lowering their rank. It's located in the City, but it's also 2 blocks from the Border of St.Louis County.

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I believe Columbia "suffered" a bit from this as well, but from what I've been told, they started buying up the neighborhood by their campus so it wouldn't be so sketch (probably a urban legend, but whatever). Is that something Wash U can pull off, as in, are their purchasable areas near the campus or is the crime runoff from an area a bit far off?

These polls exist solely to sell magazines and nothing more. The criteria change about every year and a new champion arises each year because of it.

My grad school alma mater (USF) gets hammered every year because of its low 4 year graduation rate. It's a metropolitan school with 40,000+ students; many of which are local residents/commuters who are working and going to college full time. As you'd expect there is a pretty high washout rate.

It's rated as very high research by Carnegie (Top 100 in the country) and was granted more US Patents than any other University in the US for the past two years. Its research funding is among the highest in the country. The admission criteria are tougher than many schools rated more highly. And yet there they are at #161.

The point is there is a lot more to many of these schools than just a ranking.

On the bright side, US News indicates USF is considered a great value based on its tuition and fees!