RightSaidFred
Be cool, don’t be culo
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2018
- Messages
- 5,328
Do you actually think there is a measurable or real difference in those rankings, say between a school ranked 40 and one ranked 55?
Keeping in mind that the criteria used for ranking, and also their weighting, is purely subjective.
I think you can use those rankings to get a general idea of academic rank, but to view it as a discrete numerical certainty is just folly. Maybe it’s better to look in terms of groups of 10 or 15 to be on the list because otherwise I don’t think it means much of anything.
For example, look where Purdue was ranked. Are you kidding me? Purdue? Do people realize what type of academic institution Purdue is and the type of reputation they have, especially in engineering and the sciences.
If you’re looking at two resumes, both with 4.0 average one at Purdue and one at UFåg, which one is going to impress you the most. Yet one school is ranked 10 spots higher than the other.
There are some posters on here that just want to shlt on Miami academically. I can show you the world rankings where Miami is ranked higher than a lot of schools that are above it in the US News and World report ranking.
Only 10% of their weighted rankings are based on measurable academic performance metrics related to selectivity, exclusivity and academic performance of incoming freshmen. That should tell you all you need to know right there.
This is pretty much true, as I see it.
US News rankings for universities matter about as much as JD Powers rankings matter for cars - that's to say... not very much at all. What matters a lot more is the brand. Just as nobody is going to think Ford is a better brand of car than Mercedes just because JD Powers ranks them higher in some category, nobody is going to think Florida is a better school than Purdue just because US News puts out some list.
What matters is the brand.
In my humble opinion, Miami's brand academically isn't as good as some people here think it is, and it isn't nearly as bad as other people think it is. I've always thought that what they need to do is establish a niche, pour a ton of research and resources in to that niche, and start to develop a reputation around it. Better to be elite at something than "just OK" at a lot of things.
Just as Stanford, Berkeley, and CalTech built their reputation by servicing the needs of Silicon Valley, and the Ivy League schools made their reputation by servicing the needs of the big cities of the Northeast, Miami should focus on what goes on in South Florida commercially and demographically, and the school should build its reputation that way.
Could be a lot of things. They could build a brand around the med school, for example. South Florida has a greater need for quality healthcare access than any other region in the country, due to the high number of retirees in the area. Why not use that?
I would find some sub-specialty within the healthcare space - maybe something to do with cardiology or anything required by an aging population - and I would really focus on building the school's academic brand around that.
There are other ways they could go. Law is one - especially if they focus on international commerce or something leveraging the international flavor of the city. Financial services is another.... sort of.... although the city of Miami is still not a major hub in that space. Growing, though.
And they really need to leverage the Latin American connection. There are some seriously smart people coming out of Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, etc.... who go to local schools for undergrad and then to elite global universities for graduate school. We should be getting those kids in as undergrads. UM should be the gateway for the brightest 18-year-olds in Latin America who want to study internationally.
There's a lot of things they could do. I hope one day UM gets a president with a real vision for the school, because it has a ton of potential. But that's just my opinion.