Why is Miami University slipping down in ranking? Miami used to be one of the top university in nation (public Ivy) and 1st choice for academic people in ohio back in 1800s and 1900s. Back in 1990s, miami was ahead compared to ohio state but now ohio state is way ahead in ranking. Right now it is ranked 78th by usnews and 170th by forbes.
So does anybody know why Mimai U is loosing it’s prestige?
I’d like to hear more about this, as well.
I think that perhaps larger universities with big-time spectator sports, especially the urban ones like OSU, are more appealing to today’s youth than they were to my generation 30 years ago.
Also, Engineering is a hot major now, and Miami just has a small Engineering school. It doesn’t have a big CS program, either, nor does it have well-established graduate programs in these areas that would bring research funding with trickle-down benefits for undergrads.
Plus, a lot of high-stat kids apply for these majors, which drives the median SAT/ACT scores up for the entire applicant pool, resulting in higher rankings than would otherwise be the case. Compare the fall in ranking for “low-STEM” Miami with the rise for “high-STEM” Ohio State.
It doesn’t have PhD candidates, so the “research performance” metric is low compared to other schools. It ranks very well for what it does “undergraduate teaching” https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/undergraduate-teaching
Actually, Miami does have a number of doctoral programs. However, it certainly does not have as many such programs as major research universities do. You comment is still valid; Miami doesn’t qualify as a LAC, nor does it have the size and scope of doctoral (and professional) programs to be highly-ranked as a research university.
I didn’t even realize they were doing post graduate degrees there. Not having half the school (like at Case) in graduate school makes that easy to overlook.
http://miamioh.edu/graduate-school/academics/program-by-subject/index.html
My guess is that the majority of grad (esp. doctoral) degrees are awarded by the college of education, but there are some in other areas.
Do this for fun. Grab a long tape measure and extend the tape out 4000 millimeters(157 1/2"). Each mm on the tape represents the ranking of one of the four thousand colleges in America. The very tip of the tape measure is the number one school in the US and all the way back at the tape measure box is number 4000. Now take a sticky note and attach it to the tape measure to represent Ohio State’s ranking and then do the same thing for Miami U. You will see that when you look at it from the stand point of over 12 feet of tape representing the 4000 colleges in America they both occupy a nearly identical spot near the very front of the tape. Hopefully at this point you feel silly for thinking there was a big difference between the two. Neither is even close to being elite, and they both are well within the top 100 schools. They are essentially the same.
@EDHDAD that is an awesome analogy that may come into play at our house later in March. ;))
Please can I connect with graduate students at Miami university
Cell n molecular biology
thats not true at all, look at US New’s ranking for undergraduate education, it ranks 5th, ahead of Stanford.
miami isnt favored in the algorithm for the national US News rankings for best schools in some way, havent spent the time to see what it is.
That is true but if you look at it over time it is slipping in ranking. For example
~2 or 3 years ago, Miami was ranked 69th in the nation by us news but now it’s 78th in the nation
~Undergraduate education was ranked 3rd or 4th few years ago.
~Biggest one: Miami’s Farmer School of Business was ranked among top 25 in 2017 but now it is somewhere in the 40s for 2018(43rd I think).
@AS12345 The rankings are very fluid and schools go up and down over time. It’s not that the schools themselves are doing anything differently, it just that organizations like US News continually change their metrics so that their results stay interesting and viable in the eyes of the consumers. If the rankings stayed the same every year, why would anybody bother to read their findings? In the end, I think most people are not dumb enough to let US News decide what school is best for them. US News is just a handful of people in an office gathering data on a mostly subjective basis, and the data that is objective is often misreported by top schools anyways.
One ranking for Miami that is not given enough attention is the Best Undergraduate Teaching list. Miami ranks number 5, behind Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown and Rice, and they’re followed by Michigan and William and Mary - quite an impressive peer group! Notice the absence of University of California - when a school focuses on research, teaching suffers. Ohio State was listed at 17. Everyone should take these lists with a grain of salt, but you do go to college to learn, and the key factor to that is a high-quality teacher.
miami university is pretty high ranked still, but it’s mostly because people favor the prestige by name so ivies and super hard to get into private schools
@Lilbluejay Which is a big reason why our country has such a big student loan problem. People think that the degrees from those expensive private schools guarantee them a good living when in fact the type of degree you get and how well you apply it has a much bigger impact than the pedigree of the school. A STEM degree from any state college is much smarter than a humanities or sociology type degree from an elite school.