2016 Big Ten Conference : Big 10 Academic Rankings

University Benchmarks

Ranking the Top 100 Academic Universities

UniversityBenchmarks.com ranks the universities that attract and produce the best academic students.

There are many 'University Rankings' on the internet. Most rankings rely heavily on subjective metrics like 'reputation' and 'selectivity'. UniversityBenchmarks is purely an academic ranking model. The rankings are based on the reported academic and financial metrics of the colleges. There are no subjective factors like 'reputation' that are used. The calculations are performed using normal statistical models. All universities are considered equal and there is no weighting of the ranking categories.

The university 2014-2015 dataset is comprised of over 2400 US Universities & Colleges and comes from multiple sources using the most favorable reported metrics for a university.

The universities are ranked against each other in each filtered set. It is an iterative process whereby lower ranking universities are removed and the set is re-ranked until the final set of 100 is reached.

Selecting 'Rank Top 10 Only' will show the Top 10 for each filter category ranked against each other.

The academic rankings of the universities within the major conferences (ACC, Big12, Big10, Pac12, SEC) are available.

The 2017 rankings will be available in August.

Notes:

It is possible for universities to be ranked higher/lower than one another depending on the filter set.
Conference averages are based on the top 8 schools in the conference.
Public Schools are highlighted
Clicking on the university's seal icon will take you to the university's website.

Ranking Fields

Rank - Overall rank based on the average of the ranking fields (Scores, Difficulty, Smartest, Brainpower, Faculty and Research).

Scores - SAT & ACT scores. The university's test scores are corrected for dropout rate when score level is Good, Excellent or Elite. This will slightly boost scores for highly competitive schools.

Difficulty - Academic rigor is estimated based on how difficult it is to get an "A" at the university. An estimated GPA at the university is calculated for the average US Student. University grade inflation, average GPA, and STEM density are factors.

Smartest - University that can field the highest scoring students based on the average US University size. Higher Smartest Rank = "Smartest for the Average University"

Brainpower - The average "smartest" rank using 5 reference populations (CalTech, MIT, Stanford, GaTech and Berkeley). Higher Brainpower Rank = "Higher Density of Smart Students". The university ranked higher can mathematically field 'X' number of smarter students than universities ranked below them.

Faculty - Ranking based on number of % of faculty with awards and academy membership.

Research - Ranking is achieved by iteratively ranking the average of 3 research metrics (r-pop, r-stem, r-other ). The lowest ranked college is then removed and the new set is re-ranked. The result is the schools with potentially the strongest research environments per student bubble up to the top regardless of size or research budget.

r-pop - Average research spending for student population
r-stem - STEM research spending
r-other - Other/Medical/Health research spending

Salary ROI - "Salary Return on Investment" is not used in the overall ranking but is provided for additional information. Using the undergraduate average starting and mid-career salaries, the rank is based on a 20yr salary accumulation (with raises) minus the cost of a 4 year education at the university. Salaries are normalized across the country using the average COLA for the university's geo-economic region (7 regions total). The COLA effect is diminished by the level of the university. Elite, Excellent and Good universities have a greater distribution of graduates across the country and a diminishing COLA effect. The resultant value would be the graduate's spending potential over the 20yr period.

Overall ROI - "Overall Return on Investment" is not used in the overall ranking but is provided for additional information. The average of Overall Rank and Salary ROI. This would be the "Best academic bang for the buck". Colleges that produce the best education, at the best price, with the best return will be ranked higher.

Color Key - ranks are colorized as follows 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 50 100

Big Ten Conference Academic Rankings

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examples: Yale "Wake Forest" "Big Ten" TX NC

2016 Big Ten Conference : Big 10 Academic Rankings

2016 Big Ten Conference : Big 10 Academic Rankings
rank	value	public	university	state	conference	scores	difficulty	smartest	brainpower	faculty	research	r pop	r stem	r other	salary ROI	overall ROI	scores value	difficulty value	smartest value	brainpower value	faculty value	research value	salary ROI value	overall ROI value	scores	level	stem	drop	gpa avg	research	undergrads	grads	salary	price	scores valid
1	2.00	Private	Northwestern University	Illinois	Big Ten Conference	1	1	1	1	2	6	2	9	6	4	1	2207\|92	1.16\|71	2243\|93	2187\|91	20\|93	4.67\|95	1606191\|80	2.50\|98	2207/1471/33	Elite	26	6	3.41	618	9048	12506	56300	65519	True
2	2.17	Public	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	Michigan	Big Ten Conference	2	2	2	2	4	1	1	1	1	3	1	2078\|87	1.74\|56	2206\|92	2177\|91	31\|90	1.00\|99	1623972\|81	2.50\|98	2078/1385/31	Excellent	33	10	3.27	1262	28395	15230	58000	55404	True
-	2.50	-Conf-	Ivy League (Average)	-	Ivy League	1	2	2	2	2	6	2	9	7	5	4	2209\|92	1.20\|70	2241\|93	2183\|91	18\|94	5.00\|95	1491251\|75	4.00\|96	2209/1473/33	Elite	28	4	3.43	580	8246	9100	59575	63427	True
3	3.83	Public	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	Illinois	Big Ten Conference	3	4	3	3	1	9	10	8	7	2	1	2012\|84	2.05\|49	2176\|91	2143\|89	14\|96	7.67\|92	1641922\|82	2.50\|98	2012/1341/30	Excellent	31	16	3.25	548	32959	12181	56400	44194	True
4	4.67	Public	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities	Minnesota	Big Ten Conference	5	5	4	4	6	4	7	3	4	5	4	1977\|82	2.10\|48	2158\|90	2123\|88	47\|84	3.33\|97	1463954\|73	4.50\|96	1977/1318/30	Excellent	38	28	3.25	820	34351	16796	50000	32924	True
5	5.00	Public	University of Wisconsin-Madison	Wisconsin	Big Ten Conference	6	7	6	6	3	2	2	2	2	6	5	1945\|81	2.28\|43	2131\|89	2092\|87	29\|91	1.67\|98	1463214\|73	5.50\|95	1945/1296/29	Excellent	33	17	3.25	1104	30694	11904	49600	40644	True
-	5.00	-Conf-	Big Ten Conference (Average)	-	Big Ten Conference	4	5	4	5	6	6	2	6	4	7	7	1997\|83	2.05\|49	2158\|90	2122\|88	41\|86	4.67\|95	1462638\|73	6.00\|94	1997/1332/30	Excellent	31	18	3.22	758	28699	12546	52313	45725	True
-	6.00	-Conf-	Ivy League (Low)	-	Ivy League	2	3	4	8	6	13	13	13	15	5	5	2127\|89	1.96\|51	2172\|91	2090\|87	35\|88	13.33\|87	1491251\|75	5.00\|95	2127/1418/32	Elite	28	4	3.43	217	8246	9100	59575	63427	True
5	6.17	Public	University of Maryland-College Park	Maryland	Big Ten Conference	4	3	5	5	10	10	9	6	12	12	8	1982\|83	2.00\|50	2146\|89	2106\|88	61\|80	8.33\|92	1286437\|64	8.50\|92	1982/1321/30	Excellent	45	17	3.25	483	27056	10554	53900	44645	True
7	7.17	Public	Ohio State University	Ohio	Big Ten Conference	7	6	7	7	11	5	8	7	3	8	7	1893\|79	2.26\|44	2129\|89	2092\|87	69\|77	4.00\|96	1388982\|69	7.50\|93	1893/1262/28	Good	26	19	3.00	785	44741	13581	49300	42285	True
8	7.83	Public	Pennsylvania State University	Pennsylvania	Big Ten Conference	10	9	8	8	9	3	2	4	5	13	11	1785\|74	2.49\|38	2063\|86	2016\|84	59\|80	2.33\|98	1265338\|63	10.50\|90	1785/1190/27	AboveAverage	37	12	2.95	788	40541	6499	52500	47548	True
9	9.00	Public	University of Iowa	Iowa	Big Ten Conference	8	11	10	10	8	7	2	12	8	11	9	1845\|77	2.60\|35	2045\|85	1987\|83	58\|81	5.67\|94	1333839\|67	10.00\|90	1845/1230/28	Good	17	28	3.10	445	22354	7616	45000	40191	True
9	9.00	Public	Rutgers University-New Brunswick	New Jersey	Big Ten Conference	9	8	9	9	7	12	13	10	11	14	12	1805\|75	2.48\|38	2060\|86	2011\|84	51\|83	11.00\|89	1169199\|58	11.50\|89	1805/1203/27	AboveAverage	27	21	2.95	432	34544	13834	50800	44711	True
9	9.00	Public	Purdue University	Indiana	Big Ten Conference	11	10	11	11	4	7	2	5	10	1	5	1775\|74	2.50\|38	2030\|85	1976\|82	31\|90	5.67\|94	1666579\|83	5.00\|95	1775/1183/27	AboveAverage	41	30	2.95	577	30237	9515	55500	41804	True
-	11.00	-Conf-	Big Ten Conference (Low)	-	Big Ten Conference	9	15	9	10	11	12	13	10	12	7	9	1834\|76	2.73\|32	2061\|86	2010\|84	69\|77	11.33\|89	1462638\|73	9.50\|91	1834/1223/28	Good	31	18	3.22	445	28699	12546	52313	45725	True
12	12.50	Public	Michigan State University	Michigan	Big Ten Conference	14	13	13	13	11	11	12	11	9	7	9	1640\|68	2.67\|33	1979\|82	1919\|80	77\|75	10.00\|90	1436740\|72	9.50\|91	1640/1093/25	Average	24	21	2.80	464	38786	11295	48800	47115	True
13	13.00	Public	Indiana University-Bloomington	Indiana	Big Ten Conference	13	14	12	12	13	14	14	14	14	10	12	1740\|73	2.69\|33	2028\|84	1975\|82	80\|73	14.00\|86	1367915\|68	11.50\|89	1740/1160/26	AboveAverage	10	25	2.95	182	36419	9997	45400	47270	True
14	13.17	Public	University of Nebraska-Lincoln	Nebraska	Big Ten Conference	12	12	14	14	14	13	11	13	13	9	12	1745\|73	2.63\|34	1969\|82	1894\|79	123\|59	12.33\|88	1388633\|69	11.50\|89	1745/1163/26	AboveAverage	23	30	2.95	227	19979	5027	44500	36706	True

2016 Top 10 Big Ten Conference : Big 10 Academic Rankings

rank

value

public

name

state

conference

scores

difficulty

smartest

brainpower

faculty

research

salary ROI

overall ROI

scores

level

stem

drop

gpa avg

research

undergrads

grads

salary

price

2.00

Private

Northwestern University

Illinois

Big Ten Conference

2207/1471/33

Elite

3.41

618

9048

12506

56300

65519

2.17

Public

University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

Michigan

Big Ten Conference

2078/1385/31

Excellent

3.27

1262

28395

15230

58000

55404

2.50

-Conf-

Ivy League (Average)

Ivy League

2209/1473/33

Elite

3.43

580

8246

9100

59575

63427

3.83

Public

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Illinois

Big Ten Conference

2012/1341/30

Excellent

3.25

548

32959

12181

56400

44194

4.50

Public

University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Minnesota

Big Ten Conference

1977/1318/30

Excellent

3.25

820

34351

16796

50000

32924

4.83

-Conf-

Big Ten Conference (Average)

Big Ten Conference

1997/1332/30

Excellent

3.22

758

28699

12546

52313

45725

5.00

Public

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Wisconsin

Big Ten Conference

1945/1296/29

Excellent

3.25

1104

30694

11904

49600

40644

5.33

-Conf-

Ivy League (Low)

Ivy League

2127/1418/32

Elite

3.43

217

8246

9100

59575

63427

5.67

Public

University of Maryland-College Park

Maryland

Big Ten Conference

1982/1321/30

Excellent

3.25

483

27056

10554

53900

44645

7.00

Public

Ohio State University

Ohio

Big Ten Conference

1893/1262/28

Good

3.00

785

44741

13581

49300

42285

7.67

Public

Pennsylvania State University

Pennsylvania

Big Ten Conference

1785/1190/27

AboveAverage

2.95

788

40541

6499

52500

47548

8.50

Public

Rutgers University-New Brunswick

New Jersey

Big Ten Conference

1805/1203/27

AboveAverage

2.95

432

34544

13834

50800

44711

8.67

Public

University of Iowa

Iowa

Big Ten Conference

1845/1230/28

Good

3.10

445

22354

7616

45000

40191

University Benchmarks

Ranking the Top 100 Academic Universities

Notes:

Ranking Fields

The 2016 University Academic Rankings

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2016 Big Ten Conference : Big 10 Academic Rankings

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2016 Top 10 Big Ten Conference : Big 10 Academic Rankings

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