You do realize how ridiculously biased those rankings are? Because of what that rag values as their "data", there's a reason the vast majority of the top institutions are private (23 of the top 25) b/c they value things like wealth and exclusivity (e.g. low acceptance rates) - the places rich kids go with high SAT scores. There are some really old state universities with vaunted histories that rank highly too - UM, UT, UVA, UCLA, etc. These colleges have giant endowments, are popular, are often in really desirable places/large cities and get lots of highly-desirable applicants. So, are those the "best" colleges? And is it fair to bash a place like ECU that is state-funded AND has to satisfy a legislative mandate to increase diversity and educate North Carolinians, particularly those who are minorities or first-gen college students? And Hokie fans should not be criticizing ECU, we were where they are not that long ago - IIRC, our jump in the rankings is a relatively recent phenomenon, we certainly weren't that high back when I was there in the 90s.
[Post edited by DurhamHokie at 06/07/2019 9:50PM]