An Annual
Report on the
U.S. Colleges
and Universities
with the Smartest
Studiers
StudyBlue
College
Rankings
Report
2014
College Rankings Report 2014
2
Introduction
Bird’s Eye View
The Smartest
Studiers
Ivy vs. State
The Nerdiest
Notetakers
Degree vs. Degree
Who Knew?
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4
5
8
9
11
12
Prospective students must look beyond the traditional metrics to decide where they can receive a quality education without breaking the bank. Being a successful college student isn’t just about individual intelligence and lectures from world-renowned professors—it’s also about learning alongside your classmates. In fact, recent studies, such as this one by Uri Treisman at University of California, Berkeley, demonstrate that surrounding yourself with
dedicated peers and collaborating with fellow students lead to better results than studying alone.
The purpose of this study is to identify the colleges and universities across the U.S. that attract the most studious learners. Rather than just basing college rankings on typical statistics like graduation rates, test scores and average class sizes, we looked for unique metrics that can inform prospective students about the studying habits and success rates of students at their potential school.
We narrowed our findings down to the following five categories:
THE SMARTEST STUDIERS
What schools have the highest percentage of students reaching mastery of their study material?
IVY VS. STATE
Does the Ivy League really attract the smartest studiers?
THE NERDIEST NOTETAKERS
At which schools do students take the best notes?
DEGREE VS. DEGREE
Which majors study the most or the least?
WHO KNEW
What surprising results did we find along the way?
This study was conducted by StudyBlue, the leading crowdsourced learning app used by 1 in 5 college students in the U.S. to master any subject. More than 6 million people use StudyBlue to create, share and compare notes pulling from the largest and fastest-growing library of online study material in the world, containing more than 250 million user-generated digital notecards.
The data used for the study was pulled from the cumulative usage of StudyBlue for the past three years through August 2014 on college campuses with at least 1,000 users. Educational institutions considered were limited to those that appear on the U.S. News & World Report’s National University Rankings.
As the cost of higher
education continues to rise at
a ghastly rate and new online
education providers threaten
to make on-campus learning
obsolete, the methods of
evaluating a valuable college
education are changing.
College Rankings Report 2014
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4
Being a successful college student isn’t just about being smart — it’s about studying smart. StudyBlue, the leading crowdsourced learning app used by 1 in 5 college students in the U.S., developed college rankings based on the campuses with the smartest, most thorough studiers as determined by cumulative usage of the app.
We looked across the country to see what schools lead the pack with the most thorough studiers. Using personalized quizzes on StudyBlue, students can practice for their upcoming exams to ensure they know their stuff. These are the top 20 campuses with the highest percentage of students reaching 90% mastery on their quizzes —or an A-range in a typical college course.
Indiana State University University of Wyoming Louisiana Tech University University of Idaho
New Mexico State University Washington University in St. Louis
Sam Houston State University University of Denver
University of West Florida University of St. Thomas 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Oklahoma State University - Stillwater
Wichita State University Hofstra University DePaul University University of South Dakota University of Chicago University of Rhode Island Pepperdine University University of Colorado Denver Illinois State University
College Rankings Report 2014
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The Sycamores
at Indiana State
University came
out far ahead
with 78% users
reaching A-range
mastery, a
whopping 12%
more than the
number two
school, University
of Wyoming (65%).
78%
The Smartest Studiers
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2
3
4
5
Now that we know where the most studious students attend school, we wanted to know what they were studying. These are the five most popular subjects at the top 20 schools based on the number of StudyBlue users in classes for each subject. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the sciences (like biology, chemistry and psychology) and occupational subjects (like marketing and accounting) had the most students using tools like StudyBlue to master their material.
Most Popular Subjects The Smartest Studiers
Marketing
Chemistry
Accounting Psychology
College Rankings Report 2014
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Does the Ivy League truly attract the most dedicated students? Our data indicates that smart studiers often choose to attend state schools instead, where tuition is a much easier pill to swallow.
Indiana State University Princeton University Yale University University of Idaho University of Wyoming Harvard University University of Pennsylvania New Mexico State University Louisiana Tech University Dartmouth University 78% $8.4k 52% $41.8k 42% $44.8k 61% $6.8k 65% $6.8k 51% $43.9k 36% $47.7k 59% $6.6k 65% $8.0k 48% $48.1k
Ivy vs. State
State SchoolsIvy League Schools
Percentage of studiers mastering content. Scale: 0% -100%
In-state tuition and fees.
Scale: $0 - $50,000
Key
*Tuition for 2014-15 as cited by US News & World Report. In-state tuition shown for State Schools.
Washington State University - Pullman Campus
Oklahoma State University - Stillwater
University of Missouri - Columbia
University of South Dakota University of Arkansas - Fayetteville
Louisiana State University Iowa State University University of Mississippi Utah State University Illinois State University 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 University of Kentucky West Virginia University University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Auburn University Kansas State University Brigham Young University University of Maine Orono San Diego State University Oregon State University Baylor University
The Nerdiest Notetakers
Notetaking is one of the most important skills for any student aiming to get that coveted 4.0 GPA. On StudyBlue, students help each other learn by sharing digital notecards with peers around the world who are studying the same subject. As a testament to the “we are smarter than me” mentality of our learner community, more than 100 million digital notecards have been shared and used on StudyBlue by a learner other than the notecard’s maker. That’s a lot of shared knowledge! We wanted to find out what campuses have the best notetakers. These campuses came out on top for having the most popular digital notecards viewed by students at schools other than their own.
College Rankings Report 2014
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StudyBlue users
at Washington
State University
(or “Wazzu”) have
created digital
notecards for
more than 600
classes. It’s a trove
of information
from Abnormal
Psychology
to Veterinary
Pathology, all
available for
learners to tap
across the globe.
The Nerdiest Notetakers
Engineering students are always humble bragging about their all-nighters, but are they actually doing the most work? We looked into what majors and disciplines spend the most time studying on StudyBlue. Beware, students majoring in an Asian language, it looks like you’re never going to put down your vocab cards. Theater majors, you can leave that smartphone in your dorm room and take your “studying” to the stage.
Slavic Languages & Literature Distance Education
Environmental Horticulture Korean Department Veterinary Pathobiology Japanese
History of Art & Architecture Design, House &
Merchandising Latin
Latin Classics
Medical Administrative Assistant
Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Science East Asian Languages & Literature
Philology
Construction Management Technology
Chinese
Asian Languages & Cultures German Occupational Therapy Assistant Optometry 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 MOST Notecards
Studied per Student FEWEST NotecardsStudied per Student
Statistics Mathematics Women’s Studies
Emergency Medical Technician Liberal Arts
Physics Neurology
Film & Video Studies Health Education
Integrative Studies in Social Sciences
Psychology & Social Behavior Business Finance
Social Sciences
Information & Communications Technology
Counseling Psychology African Studies Organic Chemistry United States History Microeconomics Theater & Drama
Average Number of Studies per Person for Slavic Languages = 50
Average Number of Studies per Person for Theater & Drama = 5
A
VSDegree vs. Degree
College Rankings Report 2014
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Okay, and now for the strange, zany, random facts and everything in between! We unearthed a lot of fun information along our journey to find the smartest studiers.
Who said Ivies know best? Students at Brown, Columbia, Stanford and Cornell are in the top 10% of schools with the least thorough studiers according to our rankings.
Organic chemistry is one of the LEAST studied disciplines. So what are those pre-med students complaining about?
The overachievers are hiding out at the University of Idaho! This is where the highest percentage of students — more than 50%—reached not just 90% but 100% mastery of their material while taking practice quizzes.
On which campuses will you find the most students with their noses in their phones? These schools have the highest percentage of students using mobile apps to study: Rice University, University of Louisiana at Lafayette and Louisiana Tech University.
For some reason, women are just. on. top. of. it. Women spend 5.4% more time studying than men.
StudyBlue is a crowdsourced learning app used by more than 6 million people to master any subject. Students and lifelong learners alike can create, share and compare notes pulling from the largest and fastest-growing library of online study material, containing more than 250 million user-generated digital notecards covering every topic from Portuguese to Psychology to Pilates.
StudyBlue allows people to study anytime, anywhere across all of your Web, iOS and Android devices. For more
information, visit http://www.studyblue.com.
Number of Users 6,000,000
Percentage of Users Who Use the Mobile App
50%
Number of Digital Notecards 267,000,000
Number of Shared Notecards 108,700,000
Number of Countries with StudyBlue users:
200+
About the creators
of the study.
