Ranking the Pac-12 schools by more than football
The start of the college-football season puts Arizona, Arizona State and the other Pac-12 universities in the spotlight. Several schools — including Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, Southern California, ASU and Washington — are given legitimate shots at winning the conference title. Most of the other teams are viewed as at least respectable.
How do these 12 distinct universities, representing six different states, compare off the playing field? Here are eight financial, academic and reputational ways that the schools measure up.
Fundraising. If universities were ranked by the amount of charitable donations they collect from alumni and others, Stanford would win a national championship. One example: Nike co-founder and chairman Phil Knight, who earned a degree in 1962 from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, donated $105 million to the school. Stanford reaped a national-best $932 million in 2013, helped by all of those Silicon Valley stock-market gains, reports the Council for Aid to Education. USC was next and third nationally at $675 million.
Among Pac-12 schools, UCLA placed third at $420 million, followed by California at $341 million. Arizona was further down the list, raising $151 million to rank eighth among Pac-12 universities. ASU was in 10th place with $108 million. Two Pac-12 schools failed to reap at least $100 million in donations — Oregon State at $81 million and Washington State at $50 million.
All told, the Pac-12 schools raked in $3.6 billion. The Southeastern Conference, generally regarded as the premier football league, took in $1.6 billion despite having four more universities.
Tuition. Tuition isn't a clear apples-to-apples comparison because it depends on factors such as whether you're looking at rates for in-state residents or nonresidents. Either way, USC charges the most, $46,298, according to the 2013-2014 report by US News & World Report. That included fees and exceeded Stanford's $43,245, which didn't include fees.
In-state tuition drops off sharply after that. Cal is next at $12,864, followed by UCLA ($12,696), Washington State ($12,545) and Washington ($12,383). Arizona, Colorado, ASU and Oregon all are around $10,000, followed by Oregon State and Utah — the latter a relative bargain at $7,534. For non-residents, the state universities all charge at least $23,000 a year, topped by Cal at $35,724.
Athletic revenue. Big schools depend on sports to bring in money. In the Pac-12, Oregon generates the highest reported athletic revenue at $115 million, according to USA Today. That's ninth nationally. (Texas is first at $166 million, followed by Wisconsin, Alabama, Michigan and Ohio State.) Cal is second in the Pac-12, and 20th nationally, at $95 million. Next come Washington ($85 million) and UCLA ($84 million). Arizona ($69 million) and ASU ($66 million) are highest among the rest.
Yet the USA Today study excludes many private schools. USC's latest budget reports $74 million in intercollegiate-sports revenue, which would place fifth in the Pac-12. Stanford's athletic receipts remain a mystery.
Unemployment rates. Pac-12 university locations range from big cities to small college towns. Jobless rates provide an indication of a local area's economic health and give clues on how hard students must search to find work — and whether they will have nearby opportunities once they graduate.
Salt Lake City, home to the University of Utah, has the lowest jobless rate for a Pac-12 metro area at 3.7 percent, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Boulder (University of Colorado) is next at 4.3 percent, then Seattle (University of Washington) and the San Francisco Bay area (Cal and Stanford). Metro Phoenix (ASU), Eugene (University of Oregon) and Tucson (University of Arizona) have rates between 6.5 percent and 6.9 percent. Los Angeles has the top Pac-12 unemployment rate at 7.4 percent, though students at UCLA and USC can search in the league's biggest job market.
Nobel Prizes. This is a measure of research excellence that reflects more on university reputations than anything else. It's also a realm where the haves are sharply separated from the have-nots. While Pac-12 universities have won a very respectable 56 Nobel Prizes over the years, Cal and Stanford dominate.
Stanford has 20 Nobel Prizes, including three for the medical school, against 18 for Cal. UCLA and Colorado are tied in distant third place with five each. The University of Washington has three, with ASU and USC tied with two each. (Both of ASU's prizes came in economics and were awarded within the past decade.) Utah has one, and the other four schools have none, reports NobelPrize.org.
Enrollment. There are different ways to measure enrollment, especially as to whether you include all students or undergraduates. No matter how you slice it, ASU comes out on top with the highest totals.
ASU counts roughly 76,700 undergraduates and graduates at its metro-Phoenix campuses, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That easily beats Colorado (54,200), Washington (43,800), USC (41,400), UCLA (40,800) and the University of Arizona (40,600). Counting just undergraduates, ASU ranks first with 62,100, followed by Colorado (39,100) and Arizona (31,700). Stanford has the smallest student bodies — 18,300 with graduate students or 7,300 without. These are prior-year numbers. ASU expects total enrollment could top 80,000 in the coming academic year.
Chief executives. College is more than a steppingstone for amassing wealth and grabbing leadership roles. But if both of those goals are on your agenda, then consider Stanford. Among Pac-12 schools, it has by far the most alumni who serve as CEOs at Fortune 500 global corporations. Harvard has 25 alums occupying the top job at giant companies, according to a study by Britain's Times Higher Education. The University of Tokyo is second at 13, followed by Stanford with 11. Among the notable Stanford alums: Charles Schwab, who earned a bachelor's degree in 1959 and a master's degree in 1961.
USC has four top global CEOs, while Cal and Colorado have two each (schools with one CEO weren't listed). If the Pac-12 totals seem low, it's because most of the men and women running giant global companies got their education in other nations, since this is an international study.
Overall excellence. Pac-12 universities run the gamut in overall quality, with Stanford finishing tops in the conference and fifth overall in US News & World Report's 2013-2014 study. (Princeton was first nationally, followed by Harvard, Yale and Columbia). Cal was second among Pac-12 schools, placing 20th overall. Los Angeles rivals USC and UCLA, curiously, tied for 23rd in the national rankings, and Washington was 52nd.
After that, there was a notable gap until Colorado arrived in 86th place, followed by Oregon (109), Arizona (119), Utah (121) and Washington State (128), with ASU and Oregon State tying at No. 142. The US News & World Report rankings look at various factors including academics, extracurricular activities, costs and location. More than 200 universities were evaluated.