DrMantisToboggan

January 29th, 2018 at 12:51 PM ^

I know the difference between 6th and 7th isn't big, but I'm extremely skeptical that William & Mary is a better school than Michigan. I don't that any other publication would agree with that. Not a knock on William & Mary - I applied and was accepted there for both undergrad (w/ football) and law school, it's in a beautiful area - but I've never seen them ranked above Michigan before.

TrueBlue2003

January 29th, 2018 at 1:20 PM ^

they're two spots behind us in USN.

Forbes puts a lot of weight on post-graduate earnings in their formula which means smaller, more expensive schools will do better in that category (and that's not even taking into account cost of living adjustments for where grads end up, as I'm not sure they do that, but it'd be another hit to a school that puts a lot of grads in the midwest).

bronxblue

January 29th, 2018 at 1:25 PM ^

The service academy rankings with Forbes are always weird. I sort of ignore them whenever I see this list because they put so much emphasis on cost of attendance and post-college employment without recognising the unique nature of those schools.

Commie_High96

January 29th, 2018 at 3:07 PM ^

I thought that too. Also, the service achademies are not Public Colleges. In the same way that all the other schools on the list are public colleges. US news puts them in the rankings on their Liberal Arts list, and Navy sure as heck isn’t a Liberl Arts College. They are great achdemically, but they are really just very high end, federally subsidized and very good trade schools and not Colleges or Universities.

I don’t mean trade schools in a bad way, they are training people for a specific career as military leaders, not really the same as a frat boy at Bill and Mary, which this list overrates by a lot

XiX

January 29th, 2018 at 12:41 PM ^

Following are the 25 Top Public Colleges (2017):

 
  1. United States Naval Academy
  2. United States Military Academy
  3. University of California-Berkeley
  4. University of Michigan Ann Arbor
  5. University of Virginia
  6. United States Air Force Academy
  7. United States Coast Guard Academy
  8. University of California-Los Angeles
  9. United States Merchant Marine Academy
  10. College of William and Mary
  11. University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
  12. University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
  13. University of Maryland College Park
  14. University of Washington Seattle
  15. University of Florida
  16. Georgia Institute of Technology
  17. University of California-Santa Barbara
  18. University of Wisconsin Madison
  19. The University of Texas-Austin
  20. University of California-San Diego
  21. University of California-Davis
  22. University of California-Irvine
  23. Virginia Tech
  24. University of Georgia
  25. New College of Florida (mGoNote: Yes, this is an actual school)

chatster

January 29th, 2018 at 12:16 PM ^

The top three schools in order are the United States Military Academy at West Point, the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis and the United States Air Force Academy, The University of Virginia, the College of William & Mary and the University of California-Berkeley are next in order before Michigan. Placing seventh on that list is . . . 

leftrare

January 29th, 2018 at 12:19 PM ^

I just hate these goddamned click-bait lists -- in order to see a list of 25 things, I would have to spend about 5 minutes loading and reloading from one page to the next, having the pages bounce around while ads spool up... no thanks.

I could subscribe to the magazine, but Forbes has been a piece of shit for a long time.  Not displaying this list on one page is a great example.

oriental andrew

January 29th, 2018 at 12:21 PM ^

First, Slideshows suck. Hate them with a passion.

Second, here is my public service to you all:

  1. USMA
  2. USNA
  3. USAFA
  4. UVA
  5. William & Mary
  6. UC Berkeley
  7. Michigan
  8. UCLA
  9. UNC
  10. Wisconsin
  11. Illinois
  12. Washington
  13. Florida
  14. Maryland
  15. Georgia Tech
  16. Texas
  17. Georgia
  18. USCGA
  19. UC Santa Barbara
  20. Indiana
  21. UC San Diego
  22. Va Tech
  23. Minnesota
  24. Colorado
  25. UC Davis

southern_blue_fan93

January 29th, 2018 at 12:29 PM ^

This kind of list with no criteria, other than all the schools are public schools, has very little meaning.  It's nice to see the service academies listed, but no idea what makes them better than Michigan or other AAU members.

1VaBlue1

January 29th, 2018 at 12:36 PM ^

Blah...

No way the Naval Academy should ever be below an Army school on a list like this!  Even the AF Academy should be ranked above Army!  Forbes has no credibility...  Probably put them above because they won a football game...

Go NAVY!!!