New USNWR ranking is out

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Michigan
1

<p>Not much has changed. The formula is not intended to mix private and public universites, with the latter taking a hit on several fronts. Below are some highlights:</p>

<ol>
<li>Michigan improved slightly overall, up to #28 this year from #29 last year.</li>
<li>Our Business school improved to #3 from #4 last year.</li>
<li>The CoE also improved slightly, up to #6 this year from #7 last year.</li>
</ol>

<p>As always, Michigan did well where it matters most; the peer assessment score. This rating determines how respected one's degree is in the academic world, so all those interested in graduate school do well to attend Michigan. This year, Michigan's PA improved to 4.5 from 4.4 last year. Michigan always fluctuates between 4.4 and 4.5. With a PA of 4.5 this year, Michigan tied with Penn. Below are the top 20 universities according to Peer Assessment ratings:</p>

<ol>
<li>Harvard University (4.9/5.0)</li>
<li>Massachusetts Institute of Technology (4.9/5.0)</li>
<li>Princeton University (4.9/5.0)</li>
<li>Stanford University (4.9/5.0)</li>
<li>Yale University (4.8/5.0)</li>
<li>University of California-Berkeley (4.7/5.0)</li>
<li>California Institute of Technology (4.6/5.0)</li>
<li>Columbia University (4.6/5.0)</li>
<li>Cornell University (4.6/5.0)</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins University (4.6/5.0)</li>
<li>University of Chicago (4.6/5.0)</li>
<li>University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (4.5/5.0)</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania (4.5/5.0)</li>
<li>Brown University (4.4/5.0)</li>
<li>Duke University (4.4/5.0)</li>
<li>Northwestern University (4.4/5.0)</li>
<li>Dartmouth College (4.3/5.0)</li>
<li>University of Virginia (4.3/5.0)</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon University (4.2/5.0)</li>
<li>University of California-Los Angeles (4.2/5.0)</li>
<li>University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (4.2/5.0</li>
</ol>

2

<p>Thanks for making the effort posting this Alexandre. Once again at least academe understands the quality of The U-M.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the info, Alex.</p>

<p>Good to see Michigan improve.</p>

<p>Berkeley always seems to truck alone…assessors are probably ambivalent weighing Cal’s top faculty with the larger undergrad population.</p>

<p>Wisconsin should be around Northwestern/Virginia level, IMO.</p>

4

<p>The USNWR does not have a “grudge” against Michigan, although it does believe that ranking public universities too high is bad for business. The USNWR started ranking universities in the mid 1980s. Quickly, it realized the potential of such a publication. Surely enough, the college rankings edition rose to represent 25% of the magazine’s annual revenues. </p>

<p>For this reason, they added several variables into its equation that are not relevent to quality of education but are subtly designed to hurt public universities, such as alumni giving rates and financial resources. If one analyzes those meaningless criteria, they would realize how they are designed purely to discriminate against public universities:</p>

<ol>
<li>Alumni giving rate: The USNWR claims that the greater the percentage of alums give to their alma matter, the more satisfied they are with their college education. To a degree, that makes sense, assuming you are comparing identical universities. However, comparing small private universities to large public universities in this way is very flawed. Public universities never solicited alumni donations until recently while private universities have depended on alumni donations for over a century. That is why private universities had such strong legacy policies, ensuring continued cash flow required for their costs of operation. Public universities received more than sufficient funds from state appropriations that relying on alumni generosity was not a consideration. This changed in the late 70s, when public universities started to realize that state appropriations would not keep up with annual increases in cost of operation. Also, the manner in which private universities can reach out to alums varries significantly from that of public universities. Private universities can be far more aggressive while publics have severe restrictions. This said, there is no difference in the loyalty, satisfaction or effectiveness of alumni networks at popular public universities such as UNC or UVA and top private universities such as Dartmouth or Notre Dame. Private universities also resort to soliciting alumni donations in ways public universities are not allowed to, such as directly contacting alums, sending out bulk emails to entire alumni networks asking them to donate to improve their rankings and in some case, even exposing alums who do not donate in a humilating fashion. Public universities do none of the above. In short, this variable is complete excrement.</li>
</ol>

<p>Financial resources. How can I count the ways…! What universities choose to include as “spending on students” is open to so much interpretation that it really isn’t possible to compare universities on this basis. One thing is certain, this variable encourages wasting resources rather than preserving them as universities that spend more do better. However, does spending more necessarily mean spending smart? Public universities have been finding ways to cut wasteful spending for decades while private universities have been inventing ways to make themselves look better in this section of the USNWR. “Fuzzy math” I calls it!</p>

<p>Faculty resources. Private universities yet again resort to suspicious and wasteful measures to score points on the USNWR formula, such as dividing lectures into smaller sections taught by the same professors and forcing students to take several seminars that are completely useless.</p>

<p>If one were to clear the ranking of all noise and irrelevancies, Michigan would be ranked anywhere between #6 and #17 in the nation, with very little separating al universities within that range.</p>

5

<p>^ Let me guess, you’re affiliated with Duke?</p>

<p>

Duurrrrh, perhaps because it’s nearly 3-4 times the size of small, selective privates? Increase student population and average SAT scores will start approaching the national average.</p>

<p>Michigan offers tremendous breadth and depth. It’s one of a handful of universities that can meet that benchmark…I’d classify it easily in top 6-10. </p>

<p>Different strokes for different folks. </p>

<p>

I’m glad we agree on the peer assessment and ARWU rankings.</p>

6

<p>Originally Posted by Alexandre </p>

<p>If one were to clear the ranking of all noise and irrelevancies, Michigan would be ranked anywhere between #6 and #17 in the nation, with very little separating al universities within that range.</p>

<p>Yeah, this is a complete lie and its unfortunate a super moderator of CC would be spreading this kind of vitriol. No matter how well the data was audited, Michigan would never close the gap between itself and Cornell and Northwestern, let alone Columbia or Duke. All these schools are not only better but far and away better in almost every statistical factor that is even tangentially related to the quality of undergraduate education besides the Peer Assessment score. Michigan’s SAT averages are almost 200 points less than the top privates and its class sizes are more than twice as big for example."</p>

<p>How is what Alexandre is saying a “complete lie?” He stated Michigan would be ranked anywhere between 6th and 18th in the country. You mentioned what you thought were the top 13 colleges in the country. So what did he say in that regard that you thought was untrue?</p>

7

<p>“Michigan offers tremendous breadth and depth. It’s one of a handful of universities that can meet that benchmark…I’d classify it easily in top 6-10.”</p>

<p>Not only does it have trememdous breadth and depth, but it also has tremendous quality in virtually all of it’s offerings.</p>

8

<p>

that’s what I meant by “depth”. ;)</p>

9

<p>I always thought breadth meant the number of disiplines offered and depth meant the number of courses offered in those disciplines. There are schools, such Ohio State for example, that also offer breadth and depth. That does not always indicate to me that quality is automatically inherent. :-)</p>

10

<p>The USNWR rankings have had an interesting history, but they remain the most visible (read: publicized) of any college rankings. They are, quite simply, a money maker for USNWR. I cite this excerpt from Gerhard Casper, then President of Stanford University, in a correspondence to USNWR expressing his concerns regarding their methodologies:</p>

<p>"I am extremely skeptical that the quality of a university - any more than the quality of a magazine - can be measured statistically. However, even if it can, the producers of the U.S. News rankings remain far from discovering the method. Let me offer as prima facie evidence two great public universities: the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and the University of California-Berkeley. These clearly are among the very best universities in America - one could make a strong argument for either in the top half-dozen. Yet, in the last three years, the U.S. News formula has assigned them ranks that lead many readers to infer that they are second rate: Michigan 21-24-24, and Berkeley 23-26-27. "</p>

<p>My guess is that there are posters in this forum that would make a strong argument that neither UM or UC-Berkely are anywhere near the “top half-dozen”–but then again, what credability does a past President of Stanford University bring to the table?</p>

<p>Complete text of his letter is here:</p>

<p>[Criticism</a> of College Rankings - September 23, 1996](<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/pres-provost/president/speeches/961206gcfallow.html]Criticism”>Criticism of College Rankings - September 23, 1996)</p>

11

<p>

You’re right. That’s why USNWR decided to stop publishing a weekly magazine and focus its dying business on rankings.</p>

<p>

Number of courses is still breadth to me, novi. Quality of those courses is depth.</p>

12

<p>^^^^Gotcha. :-)</p>

13

<p>One of the main complaints that I hear from students is the lack of teaching ability of the GIs they put in front of their students.
Perhaps if they changed this, the rating would go up.</p>

14

<p>I don’t think that quality of GSIs impacts the USNWR ranking. Besides, GSI’s only teach 3% of the classes at Michigan. Generally, GSI’s are used primarily as assistants, leading sub-sections and discussion groups.</p>

15

<p>It’s kind of funny that Michigan is always ranked so low in the USNWR rankings but in the top 20 if not 15 in almost any other ranking, well except for the Forbes one which ranks Michigan something atrocious like 150. I think the Forbes one is by far the worst, even worse than the USNWR rankings, which I don’t like that much either.</p>

16

<p>Oooohhh, our Duke friend seems to have disappeared…</p>

17

<p>Fret not UCB, he’ll be back…under a different identity no doubt. Its lesdiablesbleus’s apparition in its nth form! That guy just won’t get a hint.</p>

18

<p>I like the version where the guy claimed that Duke has a better football team than Michigan and touted the Duke tailgate experience … that was after Duke had its first 5-Win season in like a decade. What was that guy’s pseudo-name?</p>

<p>We need some humor in this forum.</p>

19

<p>Since you asked for some humor - here are the astounding Duke football figures from their own “Duke Today” publication in an August 2010 article titled “Rebuilding Duke Football”</p>

<p>Duke Football By the Numbers</p>

<p>9,762: Season ticket sales(end of May 2010)</p>

<p>2,292: Employee Athletic Pass sales in 2009</p>

<p>201,09: Total attendance in 2008 (Cutcliffe’s first season)</p>

<p>7: Home games in 2010</p>

<p>33,941:Capacity of Wallace Wade Stadium</p>

<p>9 wins, 15 losses: Cutcliffe’s record at Duke</p>

<p>8 wins, 50 losses: Previous five seasons at Duke</p>

20

<p>That is pretty good. Now tell me about the “great Duke tailgate experience”:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>How many people attend these tailgates on the average, or How many Duke alumni actually come back for football home games?</p></li>
<li><p>Do they have Homecoming game in the fall? Do they know what it means?</p></li>
<li><p>How many Duke students actually believe that Duke has a football team?</p></li>
</ul>

<p>p.s. I know you are reading.</p>