Yes. I provided a ranking from a website that more people look to for college academic rankings than any other by far. I could show you a half dozen more and none of them would show A&M in the top 50. Not elite. Even in the SEC. Not even in the state of Texas.
But, from that source, how do they ascertain what makes a university the best?
I'm a career academic ... I've been around universities all my life. I've been to many a conference ... I've delivered presentations to places like caltech, Princeton, and Yale (to name but a few).
If you're a top-notch faculty and you have a chance to get a job at Vandy or A&M ... and your other options are Florida or Georgia ... your first pick likely is Vandy. A&M would be next. Florida would be next. And Georgia would follow up in the rear.
Now, maybe Florida is okay for undergrad students ... that's cool. However, I'm curious by what metrics the website uses to discern what is meant by the "top schools."
If you read my prior post ... I made mention of research monies ...
There you'll see that A&M is regularly ranked WITHIN the top 25 in terms of R&D expenditures. Notice that this data is unambiguous ... it's data ... it's not obscured by "hidden" metrics for performance.
How famous and well-respected the faculty are at an institution - that is another critical ingredient that is built into the prestige of an institution. Below you'll find a link that listed the 50 American universities with the most Nobel prize winners ...
One of the biggest claims to fame a university can cite is how many Nobel Prize winners it has produced, either from its faculty or its graduates. But what makes a university a Nobel university? A university that has produced a large quantity of Nobel Prize winners has done so due to its ability...
www.bestmastersprograms.org
Again, the Nobel is pretty highly regarded ... and it's easy to fact-check the linked data. (little ambiguity)
Anyhow, if you check it out ... you'll see that Florida and Georgia don't make the list ... in contrast, A&M and Vandy do (right next to each other - no less)!
If you try to sort by MacArthur fellows ... then none of them even make the top 50 (lots of B1G schools there ... btw).
Using the same website you did ... suppose we try to go by some measure like "teaching quality."
Places like Vandy, Dartmouth, and Notre Dame own some of their reputation due to their quality teaching their students.