RepTheGables
Energy Vampire
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2012
- Messages
- 4,159
Certainly disappointing, but as it's been mentioned ITT, everything below the 20s fluctuates pretty heavily.
If you want to classify major universities by overall general quality (a tough thing to really nail down), there are probably four tiers that we'd be interested in:
1. Top Ivies + Stanford, MIT, UChicago
2. Elite private universities (e.g. Duke, Northwestern), elite public universities (Cal), and other Ivies (e.g. Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell)
3. Strong private universities (e.g. UM, USC), strong public universities (e.g. UF, UNC, UTexas)
4. Decent private universities (e.g. Baylor, TCU), decent public universities (e.g. FSU)
Obviously, these aren't hard and fast. You could argue that USC belongs in #2 and that Duke is somewhere between #1 and #2. For most of its history, UM was in the #4 box. Right now it's in #3, even though it briefly flirted with the edge of #2 when I was there a decade ago. I suspect that flirtation was largely due to Shalala's fundraising and spending binges, which roided up one component of the score.
I personally find these rankings to be pretty annoying. In large part, they're based on a positive feedback loop fed by the perception of merit, and that will fluctuate with time. But they do strongly impact the quality of student that a university is able to attract. If UM were to sneak into the top 25 USNWR, they'd be poaching national prospects from the #2 camp instead of (as it often is now) getting rich kids who couldn't get into USC.
Whether we push into #2, float around #3, or fall back into #4 remains to be seen. Current USNWR rankings aside, I like the trajectory that UM is on. The new uniform-RSMAS tie-in was a stroke of brilliance and absolutely put UM into the minds of bright high school students who are looking for access to world-class marine science research as undergrads. The school should continue to leverage the brand in that way down the road.
If you want to classify major universities by overall general quality (a tough thing to really nail down), there are probably four tiers that we'd be interested in:
1. Top Ivies + Stanford, MIT, UChicago
2. Elite private universities (e.g. Duke, Northwestern), elite public universities (Cal), and other Ivies (e.g. Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell)
3. Strong private universities (e.g. UM, USC), strong public universities (e.g. UF, UNC, UTexas)
4. Decent private universities (e.g. Baylor, TCU), decent public universities (e.g. FSU)
Obviously, these aren't hard and fast. You could argue that USC belongs in #2 and that Duke is somewhere between #1 and #2. For most of its history, UM was in the #4 box. Right now it's in #3, even though it briefly flirted with the edge of #2 when I was there a decade ago. I suspect that flirtation was largely due to Shalala's fundraising and spending binges, which roided up one component of the score.
I personally find these rankings to be pretty annoying. In large part, they're based on a positive feedback loop fed by the perception of merit, and that will fluctuate with time. But they do strongly impact the quality of student that a university is able to attract. If UM were to sneak into the top 25 USNWR, they'd be poaching national prospects from the #2 camp instead of (as it often is now) getting rich kids who couldn't get into USC.
Whether we push into #2, float around #3, or fall back into #4 remains to be seen. Current USNWR rankings aside, I like the trajectory that UM is on. The new uniform-RSMAS tie-in was a stroke of brilliance and absolutely put UM into the minds of bright high school students who are looking for access to world-class marine science research as undergrads. The school should continue to leverage the brand in that way down the road.