Clemson University climbed six spots in this year’s annual U.S. News and World Report college rankings – finishing in a six-way tie for No. 62 on the prestigious list. Meanwhile the University of South Carolina climbed three spots into a five-way tie for No. 112 – almost erasing last year’s four-spot decline.
Good news, right? Eh … sort of.
Clemson has now almost climbed back to where it was in 2009 – when the school was busted artificially inflating its standing on this survey. Still, Clemson has failed to achieve president James Barker’s goal of becoming a national Top 20 public university. South Carolina? The state’s “flagship” institutioin remains four spots below its 2009 ranking.
Clemson’s fixation with the U.S. News survey – reported first on FITS – quickly morphed into outright duplicity and embarrassing childishness on the part of its president, James Barker, who sought to boost his school’s status by ranking it ahead of Harvard, Stanford and other top-tier institutions of higher learning.
Funny, huh?
This year’s increases come with a price, though. Tuition at South Carolina’s two largest government-run schools has skyrocketed in recent years – especially at Clemson.
For the 2013-14 school year, in-state students at Clemson will pay $13,054 while out-of-state students will shell out $30,488 (not counting fees). Those are massive increases over the last decade-and-a-half even after adjusting for inflation … 173 percent for in-state students and 134 percent for out-of-state students.
Meanwhile South Carolina – which saw its tuition increase by 13 percent annually from 2001 to 2005 – is currently the seventh-most expensive public university in America (despite ranking 55th on U.S. News list of public colleges). In-state students currently pay $10,816 a year while out-of-state students pay $28,528 (not counting fees).
Speaking of that latter figure … recent reports have revealed that tuition breaks provided to out-of-state students are doing a whole lot of nothing for South Carolina’s economy.
9 comments
If you can vote for your school (and ahead of Harvard), then this ranking is absolute bullshit. What if USC’s President votes Clemson 323rd or so? Does that carry equal weight?
Barker is an idiot and a charlatan.
Jealous idiot!
Sic Willie well knows that one vote matters not. But then that would not fit his agenda. Spurrier used to vote Duke number 1 in the first coaches poll of the season. Did that make Duke number 1? Of course not.
Why are you people so jealous of CU? It’s such a joke to read how you all try to discount an excellent school. Colleges from all over the nation submit data and vote. Get over it and move on. Like it or not CU is the U of SC and others across the nation agree.
Would the USC defenders be so upset if USC were ranked in the top 10? Or would they go around bragging where they ranked? USC graduates are as bad as their football fans.
Say what you will, but my beloved Clemson By God Tigers have the best football team in the nation. Football is more important than anything else.
Dad? Is that you dad? I have been looking for you all my life! We look just alike!
Hey Fits! Read and study the ranking methodology before running off at the mouth like always. How interesting that you ignore that peer review is a component.
Must be very upsetting that the “taters” or Pickens Tech as some have labeled us is so much better than that other school. While that other school tries to put down CU and others, CU has moved on to better things and you all just cant stand it.
One more thing, the vast majority of CU grads and supporters could care less what you and others think of us. That other school is flagship in name only. Get used to it.
Roll Tide !