What are your thoughts? Does USC deserve another 3-way tie with UCLA?
I personally thought we would break the top 20 mark this year. Also, do you think the completion of the University Village will affect the ranking? It think it definitely adds to the schools amenities and culture.
That’s far too optimistic… How could any university jump more than 5 ranks in the USNWR in a year? I would never have any trust in a ranking that is that fickle to begin with.
Completion of the Village will garner publicity and definitely attract more applicants, driving down the acceptance rate, while also contributing to the subversion of the idea that the area around USC is still unsafe. The Village will generate more foot traffic and economic input from outside the college via the metro line that passes by it, improving perceived safety and providing some semblance of a legitimate college town experience. In terms of the area outside campus, many are expecting the Village to be the place Westwood was before its major decline in the 90s.
The expenditures towards this development being contributed to from the endowment are going to be baked into this year’s budget, likely affecting rankings 2 years down the line. Nikias is far from an aggressive expansionary leader, and I think he has been intentionally careless about the rankings. He let us slip to 25 last year when literally nothing changed other than our acceptance rate going further down. Part of the school’s tradition has also been to refuse to co-operate with common data sets, so certain rankings give us fat zeroes in a number of metrics. Nikias’ primary focus right now is fundraising and meeting the 6 billion target, which is maybe the foundation the next president needs in order to take the school into the stratosphere. He’s only been in office for a while, so he is also likely to do it himself if he wants to refocuses away from fundraising after he’s done with the 6 billion, provided the trustees didn’t bring him in for this purpose alone.
The top 20 isn’t going anywhere at all, with only schools like Emory, Rice, and ND looking likely to drop down some spots. Emory is the most likely of those to be overtaken by Berkeley and USC in the near future. Breaking a 23rd tie would put us at a 21st tie with Berkeley or Emory, which is what I truthfully project by 2020.
The project that will actually lead to sizeable shifts in USC’s ranking is the biotechnology park. Despite it barely having anything to do with the undergraduate body, birthing a nexus of biotech activity on USC-owned land will make a dent on international rankings that care mainly about research output and graduate academics.
@epicer, I don’t think anyone could have said it more eloquently and accurately.
Any other thoughts on the matter?