US News and World Report Rankings 2025

[615dawg]

18. Vanderbilt
30. Texas
30. Florida
46. Georgia
51. Texas A&M
105. Auburn
109. Missouri
109. Tennessee
121. South Carolina
132. Oklahoma
152. Kentucky
171. Ole Miss
171. Alabama
179. LSU
189. Arkansas
214. Mississippi State

one P4 institution ranked lower:

220. West Virginia

on our football schedule:

58. UMass
121. Arizona State
290. Toledo
315. Eastern Kentucky

 

[eckie1]

18. Vanderbilt
30. Texas
30. Florida
46. Georgia
51. Texas A&M
105. Auburn
109. Missouri
109. Tennessee
121. South Carolina
132. Oklahoma
152. Kentucky
171. Ole Miss
171. Alabama
179. LSU
189. Arkansas
214. Mississippi State

one P4 institution ranked lower:

220. West Virginia

on our football schedule:

58. UMass
121. Arizona State
290. Toledo
315. Eastern Kentucky

This made me check out the UMass schedule and they lost to Toledo 23-38. Strange that they are so far ahead.

ETA: Not enough coffee…. My bad.

 

[57stratdawg]

Suck it Toledo

 

[GloryDawg]

What are they ranking. Sorry for being ignorant.

 

[615dawg]

What are they ranking. Sorry for being ignorant.

These are the overall academic rankings.

 

[GloryDawg]

These are the overall academic rankings.

so what are they basing that on?

 

[BirdPuppy]

52% is based on outcomes, i.e., retention of first-year students and graduation rates. 20% is based on a peer review survey. It’s a sh*t metric for measuring the value of a school, but it sucks we’re at the bottom regardless.

 

[615dawg]

52% is based on outcomes, i.e., retention of first-year students and graduation rates. 20% is based on a peer review survey. It’s a sh*t metric for measuring the value of a school, but it sucks we’re at the bottom regardless.

It's also faculty resources, alumni engagement, ACT/SAT scores, etc.

 

[She Mate Me]

Surprising to me that Auburn is so far above Bama. Doesn't seem like it would be common for the land grant institution to outpace the flagship academically.

 

[Darryl Steight]

18. Vanderbilt
30. Texas
30. Florida
46. Georgia
51. Texas A&M
105. Auburn
109. Missouri
109. Tennessee
121. South Carolina
132. Oklahoma
152. Kentucky
171. Ole Miss
171. Alabama
179. LSU
189. Arkansas
214. Mississippi State

one P4 institution ranked lower:

220. West Virginia

on our football schedule:

58. UMass
121. Arizona State
290. Toledo
315. Eastern Kentucky

Why are you so fixated on this topic, and especially why are you so committed to posting (and reposting) about it on this here sports board? It seems like you are miserable over academics and really really want everyone to be upset along with you. This may not be the audience for that. I'm not mad, I'm just curious.

 

[92Alum]

Surprising to me that Auburn is so far above Bama. Doesn't seem like it would be common for the land grant institution to outpace the flagship academically.

Auburn is much more selective with student selection these days than Bama. This is probably a reflection of that.

 

[dorndawg]

171. Ole Miss
171. Alabama
179. LSU

I for one think they nailed it with the first 2 digits of the rankings

 

[8dog]

We could move up 50 spots and it wouldn’t change anything at all for us.

 

[615dawg]

Why are you so fixated on this topic, and especially why are you so committed to posting (and reposting) about it on this here sports board? It seems like you are miserable over academics and really really want everyone to be upset along with you. This may not be the audience for that. I'm not mad, I'm just curious.

If you aren't interested, don't comment.

There are plenty of people on this board that are pissed about what has happened to MSU's academic reputation over the past 20 years. I post these rankings once per year the day they come out.

We were 107th in 2000. Middle of the pack SEC. We are dead last in the SEC now and only one Power 4 school is ranked below us. Letting in anyone with a pulse has been detrimental but there's not much we can do. Giving academic scholarships to students that have below average ACT scores? That's self-imposed.

 

[8dog]

If you aren't interested, don't comment.

There are plenty of people on this board that are pissed about what has happened to MSU's academic reputation over the past 20 years. I post these rankings once per year the day they come out.

We were 107th in 2000. Middle of the pack SEC. We are dead last in the SEC now and only one Power 4 school is ranked below us. Letting in anyone with a pulse has been detrimental but there's not much we can do. Giving academic scholarships to students that have below average ACT scores? That's self-imposed.

From what I see our grad rates and retention rates are slightly better or roughly the same under Keenum despite a growing university. Our acceptance rate is much lower than OMs. So I don’t know how you game this system other than a marketing approach.

 

[horshack.sixpack]

18. Vanderbilt
30. Texas
30. Florida
46. Georgia
51. Texas A&M
105. Auburn
109. Missouri
109. Tennessee
121. South Carolina
132. Oklahoma
152. Kentucky
171. Ole Miss
171. Alabama
179. LSU
189. Arkansas
214. Mississippi State

one P4 institution ranked lower:

220. West Virginia

on our football schedule:

58. UMass
121. Arizona State
290. Toledo
315. Eastern Kentucky

Interesting fact about how this ranking has influenced university behavior. Because a key factor in being an "elite" school is exclusivity, this ranking includes points for % of applicants rejected. Therefore, Ivy League schools keep their admissions levels intentionally suppressed to ensure that they remain perceived as "elite". Take Harvard, for example, they have such a huge foundation that they are not in need of any tuition to remain a going entity. So they intentionally educate fewer people to stay highly ranked. Quite the irony there. They could literally provide a solid, free education to many, but they do not.

 

[Darryl Steight]

If you aren't interested, don't comment.

There are plenty of people on this board that are pissed about what has happened to MSU's academic reputation over the past 20 years. I post these rankings once per year the day they come out.

Point taken. I usually do ignore it, but this time I guess it struck a nerve. It came across as piling on to bring that up in the middle of football Armageddon... but maybe I misinterpreted. I can easily go back to ignoring academics - I have enough to bittch about in the sports world to fill my day. Carry on.

It does seem like more than once a year though.

 

[SchrodingersDawg]

I mean it's a land grant university in one of the poorest and least educated states in the country. What would be a reasonable expectation of ranking?

I'm not throwing shade at the state of Miss. I grew up there. I was one of those poor and poorly educated young persons. Miss Gulf Coast Comm College and Miss State were my path to a better life. By that measure I think both did and still do a damn good job.

 

[Curby]

If they did a ranking on AG and Engineering only, we'd be top 50 at least, maybe top 25.

 

[dorndawg]

If they did a ranking on AG and Engineering only, we'd be top 50 at least, maybe top 25.

Everybody would be top 25-50 at the things they are most widely-regarded for.

 

[615dawg]

If they did a ranking on AG and Engineering only, we'd be top 50 at least, maybe top 25.

Engineering School Rankings

8. Texas
12. Texas A&M
41. Vanderbilt
48. Wertheim (Florida
53. Tickle (Tennessee)
57. Ginn (Auburn)
80. Bagley (Mississippi State)
93. Kentucky
93. Alabama
93. South Carolina
102. Missouri
102. Georgia
106. Gallogly (Oklahoma)
106. Arkansas
124. LSU
170. Ole Miss


Agriculture

4. Florida
14. Texas A&M
21. Georgia
27. Missouri
30. Auburn
31. Kentucky
32. LSU
33. Tennessee
36. Arkansas
43. Mississippi State

Only 45 Schools of Agriculture in US - we are ahead of Utah State and Oklahoma State.

 

[woozman]

It's also faculty resources, alumni engagement, ACT/SAT scores, etc.

Full breakdown:

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/ranking-criteria-and-weights

 

[The Cooterpoot]

Now I understand why we can't even design a viable traffic plan for football

 

[RopeDawg]

Surprising to me that Auburn is so far above Bama. Doesn't seem like it would be common for the land grant institution to outpace the flagship academically.

I grew up in Alabama. Auburn was harder to get into, at least back then, and if you were gifted academically and wanted to go to school in-state you went to Auburn. If you were an alcoholic narcissist who came from money you went to Alabama.

 

[MSUDC11-2.0]

Someone sell me on Keenum in 2024. Please. I personally am not seeing it on the academic or athletic side.

 

[aTotal360]

 

[She Mate Me]

Full breakdown:
View attachment 656966

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/ranking-criteria-and-weights

So it appears that graduation/student retention related stats and peer assessment is about 60% of the score.

 

[DerHntr]

Full breakdown:
View attachment 656966

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/ranking-criteria-and-weights

Peer assessment being the highest weighted indicator is ridiculous. In my opinion, it’s probably the least valid measure, has the highest potential to be skewed, and it has the most weight.

Increasing the weight for faculty student ratio, financial resources per student, and college grads earning more than a high school grad would likely give a better picture of the value of the degree.

 

[mstateglfr]

109. Missouri
189. Arkansas

My oldest kid is considering these two schools, alongside a few others.
I have been to each campus multiple times as an adult and I have toured both of them twice.

I have read nothing and seen nothing that would lead me to say one should be 8 spots different from the other, much less 80 spots.




^ Thats the goofy thing about really investing a ton of analysis into these rankings. Drop someone into a random lecure hall or whatever at either university and besides there being a bunch of red or black n gold, itd be damn near impossible to know which school the person is at.
...and if anyone wants to claim the 'Missouri Method' is fundamentally different, they apparently havent heard that hands-on learning is widespread.

 

[615dawg]

Maybe it's time to ask why our peer assessment is so low? Kansas State and Washington State don't have that problem. Auburn certainly doesn't.

Our peer assessment is low because we pay our faculty terribly, allow anyone with a pulse in (you can get in with a single digit ACT if your GPA is high enough), and we can't recruit decent young faculty because of Starkville school system.

Ultimately, if it wasn't for our respectable Engineering program, we'd be the worst major college in America. Even with it, we are second worst.

 

[PooPopsBaldHead]

Engineering School Rankings

8. Texas
12. Texas A&M
41. Vanderbilt
48. Wertheim (Florida
53. Tickle (Tennessee)
57. Ginn (Auburn)
80. Bagley (Mississippi State)
93. Kentucky
93. Alabama
93. South Carolina
102. Missouri
102. Georgia
106. Gallogly (Oklahoma)
106. Arkansas
124. LSU
170. Ole Miss


Agriculture

4. Florida
14. Texas A&M
21. Georgia
27. Missouri
30. Auburn
31. Kentucky
32. LSU
33. Tennessee
36. Arkansas
43. Mississippi State

Only 45 Schools of Agriculture in US - we are ahead of Utah State and Oklahoma State.

Tennessee's engineering school is the "Tickle College?"

BWAAAAHHHAAAAAAA

That T takes on a whole other meaning now.

 

[CoastTrash]

"worst places to take a dump in the SEC"

 

[DerHntr]

Maybe it's time to ask why our peer assessment is so low? Kansas State and Washington State don't have that problem. Auburn certainly doesn't.

Our peer assessment is low because we pay our faculty terribly, allow anyone with a pulse in (you can get in with a single digit ACT if your GPA is high enough), and we can't recruit decent young faculty because of Starkville school system.

Ultimately, if it wasn't for our respectable Engineering program, we'd be the worst major college in America. Even with it, we are second worst.

Based on what you said, peer assessment would triple count the issue of hiring high quality faculty (once explicitly in the objective measure of faculty salary, and twice subjectively based on who answers the peer assessment survey by allowing their opinion on faculty salary and quality of local schools to affect their responses). Why not reduce the opinion of peer assessment respondents and increase the objective measure of faculty salary and faculty/student ratio? These measures can’t be influenced by opinion.

Do you know what questions peers are asked about each university? How do they select the peer institutions? How many respondents per institution rate their peers? There are so many things that could skew the responses.

 

[615dawg]

Everyone in the national universities category is asked to rate everyone else 1-5. Our peer assessment ranking is higher than our overall ranking, so it's everything else bringing us down.

 

[StateCollege]

Regardless of how these rankings are made, these are the rankings. US News & World Report is the most commonly cited and used site for academic rankings. Many prospective students look at these and they will likely factor into their decision making in some way. I'm sure we could find us ranked higher on BESTEngineeringSchools dot net, or whatever but that doesn't really matter. Need to figure out a way to move up the US News list.

 

[8dog]

Maybe it's time to ask why our peer assessment is so low? Kansas State and Washington State don't have that problem. Auburn certainly doesn't.

Our peer assessment is low because we pay our faculty terribly, allow anyone with a pulse in (you can get in with a single digit ACT if your GPA is high enough), and we can't recruit decent young faculty because of Starkville school system.

Ultimately, if it wasn't for our respectable Engineering program, we'd be the worst major college in America. Even with it, we are second worst.

I really doubt anyone is doing a bunch of research when filling out the peer assessment. They have to evaluate hundreds of schools. No one has time for that.

Again our retention rates and grad rates don’t appear to have fallen under Keenum despite growing the school. Our acceptance rate is almost 33% less than OMs. This is a marketing game.

 

[maroonfriday]

Maybe it's time to ask why our peer assessment is so low? Kansas State and Washington State don't have that problem. Auburn certainly doesn't.

Our peer assessment is low because we pay our faculty terribly, allow anyone with a pulse in (you can get in with a single digit ACT if your GPA is high enough), and we can't recruit decent young faculty because of Starkville school system.

Ultimately, if it wasn't for our respectable Engineering program, we'd be the worst major college in America. Even with it, we are second worst.

The peer assessment is a big killer, along with our poor retention and graduation rate. But there are no students on campus with single digit ACT scores. We have the highest average ACT scores of incoming freshmen out of all Mississippi schools, which makes the retention and grad rate numbers more concerning.
There are obviously other factors that lead to a lower peer rating, but it could start with better marketing outside of our regional footprint. The reviews come from all across the country and I'm not sure how much time/effort we spend letting everyone know about the good things we're doing in order to have a better reputation with anyone who might be submitting these reviews.

 

[85Bears]

Before you take Keenum to task for these academic rankings, you have to consider what hes done for the football program.

 

[ckDOG]

18. Vanderbilt
30. Texas
30. Florida
46. Georgia
51. Texas A&M
105. Auburn
109. Missouri
109. Tennessee
121. South Carolina
132. Oklahoma
152. Kentucky
171. Ole Miss
171. Alabama
179. LSU
189. Arkansas
214. Mississippi State

one P4 institution ranked lower:

220. West Virginia

on our football schedule:

58. UMass
121. Arizona State
290. Toledo
315. Eastern Kentucky

Have anything trended over the Keenum admin? Want to know if I should be pissed at him or if he's simply maintained our position at the bottom of the crapper.

 

[8dog]

Have anything trended over the Keenum admin? Want to know if I should be pissed at him or if he's simply maintained our position at the bottom of the crapper.

First-Time Students | Office of Institutional Research & Effectiveness