OT: US News and World Report 2025

[elimunelson]

Louisville has a much different academic mission. I hate that they academic snobs knock them.

Apparently we have a "If you have a pulse you can come to arts and sciences at Syracuse" mission. That admissions rate is higher than the rate to pass the driver's test.

 

[FreakTalksAboutSU]

I agree the rate is nuts but why? Why is Syracuse admitting all these students? is there yield rate abysmal?

Honestly? They are godawful at financial aid. We just did the application processes for my son and of the 11 schools he applied to, about half of which were private, they had by FAR the worst scholarship packages. So, you are basically having to accept a big cut of kids because most will look at that 90K a year pricetag and the piddling offer and say...no.

Now, BC is expensive as hell too, and their scholarships are not exactly robust. But being in Boston, I gotta think they have more applicants and as such are able to be more selective

 

[Scooch]

I agree the rate is nuts but why? Why is Syracuse admitting all these students? is there yield rate abysmal?

It must be, right?

I can only go by anecdotal evidence. From my daughter's college application experience I got the sense that SU was a safety school for a lot of top-tier HS students. Kids liked it -- like the party reputation and big time sports -- but their first choice was a more well-regarded academic school.

My hunch is that SU lets in those type of kids knowing very few will attend.

 

[elimunelson]

Honestly? They are godawful at financial aid. We just did the application processes for my son and of the 11 schools he applied to, about half of which were private, they had by FAR the worst scholarship packages. So, you are basically having to accept a big cut of kids because most will look at that 90K a year pricetag and the piddling offer and say...no.

Now, BC is expensive as hell too, and their scholarships are not exactly robust. But being in Boston, I gotta think they have more applicants and as such are able to be more selective

The irony is I went to Syracuse because they offered me financical aid. BC told me to go fly a kite. It was the worst scholarship offer (it was 0.00 dollars).

Hopefully the ACC doesn't kick us out for academic issues at some point. When NC State passes you in the rankings it's time to reassess things

 

[orange_in_VA]

In this day and age, do employers really look at the name of the school on the resume?

Outside hedge funds and financial institutions, it's pretty much do you have a degree and do you know enough to do the job

As a hiring manager I could not care less but we do have target schools for recruiting as do most large firms. Our "targets" aren't Ivy League though. It's mostly just the big regional colleges. I work in Tech

 

[Willy75]

Football was in a golden age from 1999-2003/4?

And as you pointed out - we went from 40s to 50s. The slide had begun and no one at SU has done anything to stop it.

Buzz started in 1991. In U.S. News SU bounced around but at the end the ranking was only about 5 spots off the median. Don't think time has been kind to Cantor's legacy.
I think it's fair to say football from 1991-2003 was pretty good; again acknowledge the debate on investment.

 

[FreakTalksAboutSU]

The irony is I went to Syracuse because they offered me financical aid. BC told me to go fly a kite. It was the worst scholarship offer (it was 0.00 dollars).

Hopefully the ACC doesn't kick us out for academic issues at some point. When NC State passes you in the rankings it's time to reassess things

We need to compare notes someday.

My final 2 options were Syracuse and BC. Syracuse let me into Newhouse and gave me real.money too. BC gave me a ham sandwich.

I took the Green Line, alone, at 17 and walked into financial aid with my two offers in hand. And I basically was like "here's what they gave me. You aren't even close. Can you please give me just a little more and I will accept."

They response to my initiative? "Sorry, our aid has been allocated"

I just put the BC admissions envelope on the guys desk and said "ok I won't be needing this then"

It was probably as close to a drop the mic moment as I have had lol

 

[Willy75]

We need to compare notes someday.

My final 2 options were Syracuse and BC. Syracuse let me into Newhouse and gave me real.money too. BC gave me a ham sandwich.

I took the Green Line, alone, at 17 and walked into financial aid with my two offers in hand. And I basically was like "here's what they gave me. You aren't even close. Can you please give me just a little more and I will accept."

They response to my initiative? "Sorry, our aid has been allocated"

I just put the BC admissions envelope on the guys desk and said "ok I won't be needing this then"

It was probably as close to a drop the mic moment as I have had lol

I had very serious money from SU and was waiting on Holy Cross. They came in at $150.
Btw I've heard stories BC had serious financial woes back in the late 1960s.

 

[Cheriehoop]

BC in many ways did what Northeastern did.

When I graduated from Boston Latin school in Boston, Northeastern was the safety school for most kids there. All you needed was a C average and you got in.

Now, Northeastern is regarded as ON PAR with BC and BU and in some ways is more selective.

But Pitt and UConn etc have greater acceptance rates in the 50 percentile than SU at 42%. The article posted from US news and World says SU’s acceptance rate is 42% not 51% as some have stated.

 

[Scooch]

We need to compare notes someday.

My final 2 options were Syracuse and BC. Syracuse let me into Newhouse and gave me real.money too. BC gave me a ham sandwich.

I took the Green Line, alone, at 17 and walked into financial aid with my two offers in hand. And I basically was like "here's what they gave me. You aren't even close. Can you please give me just a little more and I will accept."

They response to my initiative? "Sorry, our aid has been allocated"

I just put the BC admissions envelope on the guys desk and said "ok I won't be needing this then"

It was probably as close to a drop the mic moment as I have had lol

We should all get drinks sometime.

I got into SU, BC, Miami and UMass. I didn't want to go to BC because I spent TONS of time on that campus as a kid. My next door neighbor was the VP of Student Affairs there (Dr. Kevin Duffy) and I was best friends with his son.

I visited Miami and hated almost everyone I met there.

Came down to SU and UMass. SU was $8K more than UMass, so my folks said they'd cover the UMass portion and if I wanted to go to SU that was on me. So $32K+ in student loans later I was at SU.

 

[HyattsCuse]

But Syracuse has a national brand and if I wanted to do work in NYC or outside of NYS I feel liked you'd have a better chance of getting your resume looked with Syracuse vs. Binghamton or Buffalo. That means something.

Don't think this is the case anymore. A few months back, Forbes came out with an article listing Binghamton as a "public ivy". I'm not debating the merits of that label, but it is indicative that Binghamton is recognized nationally for a place to recruit smart kids from a "cheaper" but well regarded school (#73 nationally).

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[Newhouser]

I agree the rate is nuts but why? Why is Syracuse admitting all these students? is there yield rate abysmal?

and out of that 51% how many actually choose SU? If you are going to admit over half of the applicants why bother with a process at all.

 

[JKinPhilly]

In this day and age, do employers really look at the name of the school on the resume?

Outside hedge funds and financial institutions, it's pretty much do you have a degree and do you know enough to do the job

Personally, I would never hire a Georgetown grad just because...so yes, I look at the school on the resume

 

[Cusefan95]

Buzz started in 1991. In U.S. News SU bounced around but at the end the ranking was only about 5 spots off the median. Don't think time has been kind to Cantor's legacy.
I think it's fair to say football from 1991-2003 was pretty good; again acknowledge the debate on investment.

It’s not all that uncommon for leaders to leave when they realize the long term consequences of their decisions are about to hit - and they want to make sure someone else is left holding the bag. Jack Welsh is arguably an example.

I don’t know if things were fine when Cantor took over, or if it was on the verge of disaster and she leaned into it. I do know a cursory, high-level look at how things were when Shaw left is meaningless.

 

[NineOneSeven]

It must be, right?

I can only go by anecdotal evidence. From my daughter's college application experience I got the sense that SU was a safety school for a lot of top-tier HS students. Kids liked it -- like the party reputation and big time sports -- but their first choice was a more well-regarded academic school.

My hunch is that SU lets in those type of kids knowing very few will attend.

It was like 16 years ago, but I applied to 2 schools-- SU and Clarkson (because it was free). It was never a question where I wanted to go. In hindsight I do wish I applied to some higher academic schools (I did quite well in high school) just to see if I could get in. But for me, my entire existence was Syracuse University. There was no application or decision making process for me.

 

[DPCuse]

I agree the rate is nuts but why? Why is Syracuse admitting all these students? is there yield rate abysmal?

The short answer is...to fill their class.

Your acceptance rate is a reflection of how in demand you are. If you don't yield well, you have to accept more kids knowing that only (for example) 1 out of 10 will attend. If you are BC, you might have 6 out of 10 attend so you don't have to offer as many kids.

 

[Cheriehoop]

According to US World and News Report they say they ranked graduation and retention rates with the greatest weight. I don’t see in the article those rates but I would think depending on the reason for leaving or not graduating, could be a double edged sword. Is graduating all your students necessarily a reflection of the ease or difficulty of grading or just being a “fit” economically, socially, changing home situations or academically etc affecting graduation/retention numbers?

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/how-us-news-calculated-the-rankings

 

[Cusefan95]

As a hiring manager I could not care less but we do have target schools for recruiting as do most large firms. Our "targets" aren't Ivy League though. It's mostly just the big regional colleges. I work in Tech

30 years ago, about six schools dominated the industry I work in. You could pretty much guarantee when you were getting introduced to new co-workers, they went to one of those schools. That has completely broken down, individual sites are more likely to recruit from local schools. While there’s still target schools - there is a whole lot more of them - and it’s easier to get your foot in the door from another school as well.

Additionally there are some weird outliers - UAlbany business school has spent decades building relationships with financial firms in NYC. I don’t think its a highly rated business school - but your likelihood of getting a solid job on a good career path with a UAlbany MBA is good, probably better than many highly rated business schools…in that one extremely specialized way.

 

[Cheriehoop]

The short answer is...to fill their class.

Your acceptance rate is a reflection of how in demand you are. If you don't yield well, you have to accept more kids knowing that only (for example) 1 out of 10 will attend. If you are BC, you might have 6 out of 10 attend so you don't have to offer as many kids.

SU’s overall acceptance rate was 42%. If you’re rejecting almost 6 out of 10 applications, it doesn’t seem that bad to me.

 

[rrlbees]

Yeah, Maxwell and Newhouse are pretty prestigious, but the business school, engineering school, and performing arts school are meh, and you're way better off majoring in a traditional "education path" subject (history, English, language, math) at a SUNY or Le Moyne than you are with the price tag that comes with SU - the programs are nothing special and there are no big names in academia to bolster anything. The music school is also far inferior to Potsdam, Fredonia, and Ithaca, let alone Eastman at U of R.

The University brings flash by having "professors-in-practice" at places like Newhouse, but that's not really reflective of academic leadership - that's career training.

Academically, Syracuse banks on its reputation from a few schools and really leans into big name alums to prove it. A lot of its recent prestige comes from sports, especially basketball.

Isn’t the iSchool also highly rated?

 

[IDOC]

We're 73, We're 73. The days of being 44 are long over. Does the Board of Trustees care about this rating or is it irrelevant? To see schools like UMass and Michigan State rated higher is preposterous to me but I guess things are always changing.

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities

Quite a few years ago I remember looking at this and if memory serves we were in the 50's and my goal was in the top 50 and 50 is just fine.
Then a new chancelor decided that we should be more enclusive and down we went. Good choice-bad choice ?????
For what it costs to go to SU today I think they need to improve their standing a bit!!

 

[CuseCactus]

Absent a full ride - my boy won’t be going to SU.

Sad to say. He can go to ASU or U of Arizona for free - given his tribal background.

Betcha ASU in 10 years will be higher ranked than SU.

Love my Alma Mater. But it ain’t worth it. Not at 73.

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

Isn’t the iSchool also highly rated?

Could be, not sure.

 

[FreakTalksAboutSU]

Absent a full ride - my boy won’t be going to SU.

Sad to say. He can go to ASU or U of Arizona for free - given his tribal background.

Betcha ASU in 10 years will be higher ranked than SU.

Love my Alma Mater. But it ain’t worth it. Not at 73.

But UA may be above both
Bear down.