Welcome to South Florida! You're now living in a state where the babes are beautiful but the students are lost.
U.S. News & World Report recently released its Best Colleges 2011 list, which rates the top 75 percent of all American universities. On that list, you can find the South Florida schools Barry University, Florida Atlantic University, Nova Southeastern University, and Florida International University, and University of Miami.
While Ivy League schools topped the list (unsurprisingly), most of the South Florida schools ranked last.
Actually, they weren't last. They were after last, or "tier 2," as the report so nicely called it.
The University of Miami was the one exception, ranked at #47.
All the schools were judged on nine parts: graduation rates, opinions of high school counselors, undergraduate academic reputation, graduation and freshman retention, faculty resources, student selectivity (required SAT or ACT scores), financial resources, graduation rate performance (whether actual graduation rate is where it should be), and alumni giving rate.
Turns out our colleges deserve their ranking. Here are their problems, thanks to fancy data from collegeresults.org.
1. Florida Atlantic University (Public)
Graduation Rates:
Four-year - 16.2%
Median Test Scores:
SAT - 1,020 (Out of the 1,600 point system)
ACT - 21 (Best score is 36)
Transfer out rate: 12.2%
2. Florida International University (Public)
Graduation Rates:
Four-year - 20.2%
Median Test Scores:
SAT - 1,100
ACT - 23
Transfer out rate: 5.8%
3. Barry University (Private)
Graduation Rates:
Four-year - 24.7%
Median Test Scores:
SAT - 950
ACT - 20
Transfer out rate: N/A
4. Nova Southeastern (Private)
Graduation Rates:
Four-year - 22.6%
Median Test Scores:
SAT - 1,000
ACT - 21
Transfer out rate: N/A
5. University of Miami (Private)
Graduation Rates:
Four-year - 64.1%
Median Test Scores:
SAT - 1,275
ACT - 29
Transfer out rate: N/A
