New USNWR rankings out

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Michigan
41

<p>No, Michigan's faculty is universally acknowledge to be one of the top 10 in the nation, if not the World. Quality is not the issue. </p>

<p>The faculty resources rank supposedly measures class size (% of classes with fewer than 20 students and more than 50 students), faculty salaries, student-faculty ratio, % of faculty who are full time professors and finally, the proportion of professors with the highest degree in their field. Many of those criteria are flawed, but that's what the USNWR is all about!</p>

<p>The difference between #1 and #100 is actually fractional, but unless a university is ranked among the top 25 in this field, it will never be ranked among the top 15 overall. Michigan has the peer assessment score, financial resources and selectivity rankings to make the top 15, but its financial resources rank is way too low.</p>

42

<p>Alexandre, does the fact that Michigan is a public school make it have lower faculty/financial resources than their private counterparts?</p>

43

<p>Partly, but other reasons why Michigan (and most other large universities, private or public) are hurt by the Faculty Ranking is because of the following reasons:</p>

<p>1) Michigan has many non-traditional departments, like Kinesiology, Music, Art, Nursing, Natural Resource Management etc... Average salary for faculty in those departments is significantly lower than those of professors in the colleges LSA, Engineering, Medicine, Law and Business, and that lowers the average faculty salary. Schools like Caltech, Penn, Harvard, Dartmouth etc... do not have such departments and as such, their average faculty salaries will be higher. Also, all top universities have a fair share of super-star faculty that command the highest salaries. The thing is, at large schools like Michigan and Cornell, they make up a smaller percentage of the total faculty than at scools like MIT or Caltech because Cornell and Michigan require huge faculties to teach their undergrads whereas schools like Caltech and MIT do not. Again, average salaries are further diluted.</p>

<p>2) Michigan has a huge undergraduate student body that makes up 66% of the total student body at the university. Schools like Harvard, Columbia, Chicago, MIT, Caltech have small undergraduate student bodies that make up 30%-40% of the total student body. What does that mean? Without going through a lot of explaining, smaller schools with large graduate programs (that make up over 60%of the total student body) will usually have much better student to faculty ratios, but many of those professors will be exclusively teaching graduate students. </p>

<p>Those two points affect the other components of the faculty resources in ways that make it impossible to compare various universities on a linear scale.</p>

<p>In short, there are many reasons why the faculty resources rank isn't very telling. I am not saying that the faculty ranking isn't important, because it is. However, the way the USNWR goes about it is severely flawed. Like I said, there isn't much difference between most elite universities where true faculty resources are concerned.</p>

44

<p>Is it hard to get in touch with professors at UM? This is kind of a general question and the answer is usually yes for any university that has a large pop'n or under-grad pop'n, but are you only going to get in touch with a professor if you take the initiative? I heard at some smaller schools, professors are really interested in you and actually want to get to meet you.</p>

45

<p>M4gici4n, I think that in both cases, people exaggerate the facts. </p>

<p>At major research universities like Cal, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, MIT, Michigan, Northwestern, Stanford etc..., you are going to have Freshman classes with over 100 students. Even smaller upper level classes will sometimes have more than 30 students. Once a class has that many students, professors, who usually have other commitments to research and graduate students, will not be able to show too much interest in their students. Of course, at those top universities, professors will generally respond positively to students who take an active interest in their studies, but the onus falls on the student, not the professor. </p>

<p>As you point out, at smaller colleges like LACs, Rice, Dartmouth and Brown, the faculty is typically less involved in reseach and with graduate students. As such, they have more time to work with undergrads. But it's not like professors at smaller schools will be sitting with students discussing the meaning of life until the early hours of the morning. It's not like students will be dining at professor houses on a weekly basis. </p>

<p>In both cases, people tend to exaggerate the extent to which students interact with their faculties. Without a doubt, the small, non-research based institutions, like the LACs and Dartmouth, will have more faculty to student interaction. But those same universities will typically not offer the same flexibility and academic variety availlable at the larger research universities. It is a tade off really. Some students thrive on interacting with professors. Others would rather have more variety but have to figure things out on their own. There is no good or bad here. It is a matter of preference.</p>

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<p>M4gici4n, my cousin transferred from Harvard to Michigan because the professors at UM seemed to care more about the students and sharing their research, while the professors at Harvard often secluded themselves away from the students.</p>

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<p>thanks alex and christine. I see how both types have their advantages and disadvantages. I will have to see where I fit in :D</p>

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<p>M4gici4n: Any idea what you plan on studying? There's a chance somebody around here would know about your specific department of interest, as opposed to just getting info about the university as a whole.</p>

49

<p>I will be heading out to michigan in a week or so, so i dont exactly have hands on experience, but i did get a chance to talk to professors in the physics department before i made my final decision.</p>

<p>When i was making my college choice i really did not get ANYTHING out of the blah blah look at this building campus tours or the boring information sessions. I just e-mailed the physics departments of the schools i applied to and asked if i could meet with some professors. I found that all teh schools, big or small, were very very helpful in setting up meetings. </p>

<p>My experience at michigan itself was obviously good enough to send in the check. I met with 3-4 physics professors and each one was excited, engaging, and very helpful. I spent 2 hours touring the labs with one of them! They all talked about how much they enjoyed doing research with undergrads and how much they have undergrads assist in major research. </p>

<p>I would say the professors were extremely helpful.</p>

50

<p>dilksy, I want to apply to the school of engineering. I'm interested in aerospace engineering, possibly. :D</p>