<p>Duke continues to see record-breaking increases in applications, agree Wake Forest doing well with both UChicago and USC having big gains last 5 years. Among LAC’s, Holy Cross, Davidson and Trinity have done quite well in rise in applications-Davidson and Holy Cross both have strong Division1 sports and locations relatively close to major cities-Charlotte and Boston respectively.</p>
<p>You are going to make me work, aren’t you … but I don’t really have time to do that now. So let’s just go with the NY Times article. There are three parts:</p>
<p>“Nine major buildings for science, medicine, health, art, business, sports, food service and student housing are in various stages of construction here. They encompass nearly three million square feet, at a cost of about $1.66 billion.” </p>
<p>“Five others are in the design stage.” This accounts for the balance of the $2.5 billion.</p>
<p>“This comes after the completion in the last two years of 10 other buildings — for biomedical research, cardiovascular treatment, science, technology, engineering, public health, public policy and drama — covering 1.7 million square feet at a cost of $836.4 million.”</p>
<p>That makes a total of $3.34 billion ($2.5 billion + $836.4 million) since 2006.</p>
<p>To make it easy, let’s just say all the completed projects from 2008 to 2011 (more than 30) accounted for the $2.5 billion reported by NY Times.</p>
<p>If you add up all the major projects currently underway, there is another $522 million.</p>
<p>Michigan also spent $108 million for the 174-acre (30 buildings) Pfizer research complex.</p>
<p>That adds up to $3.97 billions invested since 2006.</p>
<p>^^ Ok!! I don’t have time, too!! It’s game day Saturday!!! BUT, I will take your words!! Good Job!! 
Also, here is a good report to read for University of Michigan for those who are interested:
<a href=“http://www.finops.umich.edu/reports/2010/pdf/UMfinrepFY10lr.pdf[/url]”>http://www.finops.umich.edu/reports/2010/pdf/UMfinrepFY10lr.pdf</a></p>
<p>Chapman University is a school that is certainly on the rise. Chapman’s Admissions staff moved into their new suite on the second floor of Argryos Forum on Oct. 19, with more space and private offices. Their Office of Admissions increased from 15 to 34 staff members compared to 1993.</p>
<p>There’s always new constructions going on.
[Chapman</a> University - About Chapman - Community - Campus Planning](<a href=“Campus Planning and Design | Chapman University”>Campus Planning and Design | Chapman University)</p>
<p>How important are brand new facilities to a school’s “rise”? I know Clemson is doing a lot of construction and us students hate it because it annoys us. How important is it to be 100% up to date on everything? Isn’t stuff like what you learn or what research is going on more important?</p>
<p>This may be a stupid question.</p>
<p>^^ “How important are brand new facilities to a school’s “rise”?”</p>
<p>Gordon Gee’s answer for you at 1:30</p>
<p>[Gordon</a> Gee Welcome Back Interview - YouTube](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube)</p>
<p>Sparkeye7,</p>
<p>Are you doing all this so that OSU would take notice and maybe interview you for a senior PR position?</p>
<p>^^ Sorry for the late reply, and Thanks for asking, Sam! :)</p>
<p>Urh… First off, I don’t think OSU admin comes to this forum at all - as indicated by our subforum here which has been plastered with Miami-Oxford ads for years. Secondly, senior PR? Oh my, I am flattered!! But no, I don’t think I am qualified… However, I appreciate the notice as I am certainly a proud buckeye alumnus.</p>
<p>Finally, if anything, I sure don’t mind returning to Columbus for job as a physician once OSU Medical Center is completed. Go Bucks!! :p</p>
<p>P.S. President Gee actually visited Streeterville a few months back in the building right across from mine, and though I was invited, didn’t even stopby to say ‘hi’… >.<"</p>
<p>Excerpts:</p>
<p>"…it should be apparent that to fulfill our ultimate strategic goalmoving from excellence to eminenceOhio State needs a clear and aggressive goal defined in a way that allows us to know whether we are making progress and assess when that goal will be achieved. This goal must be simple enough to be understood while guiding behavior at all levels of the university.</p>
<p>I believe the goal that is sufficiently ambitious yet appropriate given our aspirations is that by 2020 Ohio State University will be consistently recognized as being among the top ten of all public, comprehensive research universities. This goal is simply a focused, measurable way of saying that as faculty and staff we owe our students and society the very best in the discovery and dissemination of knowledge. </p>
<p>There are many different university ranking systems, including US News & World Report, the American Association of Universities, and our own internally developed set of key assessment dimensions. None of these is perfect and none reflects all the dimensions of excellence many of us believe should be relevant. However, when one looks at the vector, pattern, or clustering of different rankings, one does find some levels of consistency. That is, universities listed in the top 10 to 15 of any one ranking tend also to be found at some point within the same range of other rankings. This outcome results from the fact that most assessments use similar metrics, although they may well combine such measures in different ways, accounting, in part, for different outcomes. As we have examined a wide range of assessment systems, we see considerable overlap in assessment dimensions. These include measures of faculty quality and achievement; student quality and post graduate success; academic program quality; measures of student experiences; overall resource availabilities; and overall assessments of perceptions of institutional quality.</p>
<p>But, in its simplest form, to be consistently ranked among the top ten of all public research universities regardless of ranking source, a university must invest in attracting and supporting outstanding faculty and students. In addition, it must combine these into programs of academic study that have impact.</p>
<p>For Ohio State, this means that, first, we must increase the number of highly talented research and teaching faculty at Ohio State Universitythat is to say, tenure-eligible faculty. After reviewing some initial analyses and assessing the effects of different actions, I believe that an eight to ten percent increase in the cohort of tenure-track faculty, with a mix of both junior and senior appointments, will be reflected in significant rankings improvements. To accomplish this, we will be increasing funding to cover recruitment of faculty, including compensation costs as well as start-up funding, space, and staff assistance for research purposes.</p>
<p>Given that we hire about 250 faculty members per year through normal attrition, achieving such an incremental recruiting goal will not be easy. Complicating this effort will be the reality that the production of new doctorates in critical areas has declined considerably, and the availability of existing talent has been decreased through demographic factors and competition from universities worldwide.</p>
<p>But in the absence of such an initiative, we will not succeed. Put another way, great faculty provide the entrance fee that allows us to stay in and win the competition for recognized excellencean excellence that, in turn, attracts and retains additional great faculty colleagues and stimulating students. This is a truly virtuous cycle that we must nourish.</p>
<p>And this brings me to a second major initiative. While the quality of our student body has increased considerably, and our graduation rates have improved, we still lag behind our very best peers. To succeed we will have to invest in the student experience in ways that increase graduation and completion patterns, while, at the same time, competing aggressively for the very best students state wide, nationally, and internationally. To accomplish this, we will be increasing levels of student scholarship support and investments in classroom and other learning environments and technologies.</p>
<p>The third major initiative flows from a commitment to the first two. That is, we must develop funding well beyond the levels we are currently experiencing and deploy that funding in ways that magnify impact. Such resources will be needed to recruit and retain faculty, staff, and students and also to create the facilities and infrastructure essential for their success. Our current funding levels are not sufficient for this purpose. If we are serious about bringing to the State of Ohio the benefits associated with being an acknowledged top ten public research university, we must find the resources to address faculty, staff, and student needs.</p>
<p>Assessments from our evolving strategic planning activities indicate that to respond to these needs effectively, by 2020 we will need to deploy about $5 billion in annual expenditures above our current financial allocations. This is a very significant increase in our funding base, and there is little point in setting such a goal unless we can commit to generating this level of incremental funding. Fortunately, also as a result of our strategic planning activities, Senior Vice President for Business and Finance Geoff Chatas and I, along with Vice Provost Mike Boehm and others, have been identifying sources of funding that would be available as we pursue this goal. We believe it will be possible to generate the funding necessary for success.</p>
<p>In broad terms, over the next eight to ten years we should be able to reallocate about $1.4 billion through cost savings, attract $2.9 billion in incremental annual funding, and identify $700 to $800 million in new non-recurring income, such as that derived from monetizing assets…"</p>
<p>Source: [Provost</a> Alutto’s Address to the University Senate 2012 - Office of Academic Affairs - The Ohio State University](<a href=“http://oaa.osu.edu/provost-address-to-senate-2012.html]Provost”>http://oaa.osu.edu/provost-address-to-senate-2012.html)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You missed the point. Almost no one knows that selectivity counts for 1.50% of the rankings, nor would they care even if they knew. Selectivity = exclusivity, and people always want to join the most exclusive club they can. That’s why people could care less than Brown is “ranked” #15 at USNWR; Brown is the most selective Ivy (in single digits) behind just Harvard and Princeton. The more “selective” a college is, the attractive it becomes to people who perceive themselves as select. Every school wants its applicants to know that “it’s almost impossible to get in,” so that even more will then apply. Every college President wants that perception, so that is why they go crazy with marketing to build applications, even from the most hopeless pools. When people get reams of cards and paper from UChicago over an extended period, it tends to mislead people into believing that, gee, UChicago is cool and/or UChicago wants them. So, they apply and boost the numbers. Every college wants to follow that precedent and out-number the others and be perceived as highly selective. Within that perception, “rank” in some USNWR table is very much discounted. Real people “rank” by selectivity, almost exclusively. That’s the fact.</p>
<p>just some updated news…</p>
<p>[More</a> than $2B in construction paints OSU?s future - Campus - The Lantern - Ohio State University](<a href=“http://www.thelantern.com/campus/more-than-2b-in-construction-paints-osu-s-future-1.2792551]More”>http://www.thelantern.com/campus/more-than-2b-in-construction-paints-osu-s-future-1.2792551)</p>
<p>[Thomson</a> Reuters Partners with Ohio State University to Develop and Launch Campus-Wide Platform for Managing and Measuring Scholarly Activities | University Business Magazine](<a href=“http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/thomson-reuters-partners-ohio-state-university-develop-and-launch-campus-wide-platform-managing]Thomson”>http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/thomson-reuters-partners-ohio-state-university-develop-and-launch-campus-wide-platform-managing)</p>
<p>[OSU</a> 4th-most ?media savvy,? ahead of curve, Gee says - Campus - The Lantern - Ohio State University](<a href=“http://www.thelantern.com/campus/osu-4th-most-media-savvy-ahead-of-curve-gee-says-1.2790553]OSU”>http://www.thelantern.com/campus/osu-4th-most-media-savvy-ahead-of-curve-gee-says-1.2790553)</p>
<p>[Office</a> of International Affairs - Ohio State to open Global Gateway office in Mumbai](<a href=“http://oia.osu.edu/news-releases/2211-ohio-state-to-open-india-gateway-office-in-mumbai.html]Office”>News | Office of International Affairs | The Ohio State University)</p>
<p>[Gee:</a> Greek life up 73 percent, should be more - Campus - The Lantern - Ohio State University](<a href=“http://www.thelantern.com/campus/gee-greek-life-up-73-percent-should-be-more-1.2812129]Gee:”>http://www.thelantern.com/campus/gee-greek-life-up-73-percent-should-be-more-1.2812129)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.thelantern.com/mobile/campus/gee-more-time-on-campus-enhances-college-experience-1.2807391[/url]”>http://www.thelantern.com/mobile/campus/gee-more-time-on-campus-enhances-college-experience-1.2807391</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.thelantern.com/campus/north-campus-could-soon-feature-new-residence-halls-1.2808794[/url]”>http://www.thelantern.com/campus/north-campus-could-soon-feature-new-residence-halls-1.2808794</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2012/02/oil_and_gas_drillng_will_add_5.html[/url]”>Shale gas and oil will add $5 billion to Ohio's economy by 2014, say economists - cleveland.com;
<p><a href=“$10 Billion a Year Expected from Ohio's Utica Shale Formation - American Thinker”>$10 Billion a Year Expected from Ohio's Utica Shale Formation - American Thinker;
<p>Go Bucks!! :)</p>
<p>USNWR Ranking:</p>
<p>2011 Ohio State #53</p>
<p>2012 Ohio State #55</p>
<p>uh oh. :-)</p>
<p>^^^oops!..</p>
<p>Universities that are “on the rise” are ones that were not particularly well regarded before. It’s easy to rise when you start out with less. Once you hit the top 25, it becomes nearly impossible to continue a legitimate rise (the fluctuations in US News don’t constitute legitimate rises/falls). The only way for that to happen is for another university to drop, and for that to happen, there needs to be a major event outside of its control - say the university is hit by an earthquake and mostly destroyed. Top universities will not sit on their laurels and allow others to overtake them. For every step that a lower-ranked school makes, a higher-ranked one also takes a step (or two).</p>
<p>100 years ago the relative competitiveness of schools was not so rigid, because the university endowment “landscape” as we know it today had not yet developed. Thus schools could much more easily break into the top rankings (and indeed, many did - JHU, Caltech, Chicago, Stanford, UCLA, etc.). </p>
<p>The world, especially the US, has entered into unprecedented territory with endowments now supporting large portions of a university’s budget (some as high as 30-40%). In the end, money is what determines the quality of university - it builds cutting-edge facilities, which allows it to recruit top faculty (not to mention more money = higher salaries), which raises the prestige, which attracts more grad/undergrad students, which allows it to be more selective, which raises the prestige, which allows it to get more grant money, etc. Money talks - there’s a reason that surveys of prestige look more or less like rankings of endowments.</p>
<p>I’d say there are two scenarios in which a real shake-up in the rankings of top schools would happen. One is some major world event - say another huge depression that levels all the top schools’ endowments and puts them on the same playing field. But even then, that only gives lower-ranked schools an opportunity to come out stronger, and the higher-ranked ones are more likely to weather such an event better (survival of the fittest, etc.).</p>
<p>The second scenario is much more probable: that legislation could be passed that sets a ceiling on endowments. Before the recent recession, legislatures were beginning to put a lot more pressure on exorbitantly rich universities to spend more of their endowment, or risk being forced to through legislation. These threats quieted down during the recession, but now that endowments are reaching their pre-2009 levels, you can expect these threats to pick up again. And they’ll get louder - in 5 years, assuming 10% annualized returns, Harvard’s endowment will be approaching $60 billion, YSM will be in the $30-40 billion range, and many of the under-$10 billion endowments will have exceeded $10 billion. In just 5 years. Think about it in 10 years, or 20 years. The top endowments could easily exceed $100 billion or $200 billion. Congress won’t let this go unnoticed, and I think they might end up curbing additional endowment growth. This would effectively allow lower-ranked schools to catch up.</p>
<p>IMO this is going to cause a huge controversy in elite higher education, and right now is the “quiet before the storm.” It’ll be interesting to see what happens in just the next few years.</p>
<p>@rjk,</p>
<p>"USNWR Ranking:</p>
<p>2011 Ohio State #53</p>
<p>2012 Ohio State #55</p>
<p>uh oh. :-)"</p>
<p>Correction</p>
<p>USNWR Ranking:</p>
<p>2011 Ohio State #56</p>
<p>2012 Ohio State #55</p>
<p>2013 Ohio State #50 (Prediction)</p>
<p>P.S. I mistakenly thought that it was Ohio State that Michigan was playing against last night… :p</p>
<hr>
<p>Well written, phantasmagoric!! I agreed!! :)</p>
<p>"Correction</p>
<p>USNWR Ranking:</p>
<p>2011 Ohio State #56</p>
<p>2012 Ohio State #55"</p>
<p>I stand corrected. Michigan did beat “Ohio” last time they played in THE game. The score was 40-34. :-)</p>
<p>“Universities that are “on the rise” are ones that were not particularly well regarded before. It’s easy to rise when you start out with less.”</p>
<p>“Well written, phantasmagoric!! I agree(d)!!”</p>
<p>;-)</p>
<p>“The only way for that to happen is for another university to drop, and for that to happen, there needs to be a major event outside of its control - say the university is hit by an earthquake and mostly destroyed. Top universities will not sit on their laurels and allow others to overtake them. For every step that a lower-ranked school makes, a higher-ranked one also takes a step (or two).”</p>
<p>I somewhat disagree with the above statement as it relates to the USNWR rankings. Michigan dropped ONLY because the data used to rate schools has been tweaked to give an advantage to private schools. The PA score of Michigan , the one that indicates how well it is perceived by other schools, has been pretty consistant.</p>
<p>Excerpts</p>
<p>"Ohio State University leads the country with 20 faculty members who have been elected as fellows to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.</p>
<p>The university has ranked first or second each year for the past decade in the number of scholars chosen for this award, which is based on an evaluation by peers in the same academic discipline.</p>
<p>The 20 Ohio State will be welcomed to the association at the AAAS’ annual meeting in February. The association is the worlds largest general scientific society.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt University has the second highest number of fellows, with 14 faculty members named to the group, and the University of Michigan ranks third with 13. The University of California, Berkeley is fourth with 11 and Michigan State University, Indiana University, the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Texas, Austin all rank fifth, with each offering 10 new fellows.</p>
<p>In the last dozen years or so, the number of current and former Ohio State faculty carrying the rank of AAAS fellow has reached nearly 200, making it one of the largest contingent of such scholars at any institution in the country…"</p>
<p>Source: [OSU</a> ranks first in science fellows | The Columbus Dispatch](<a href=“http://www.dispatch.com/content/blogs/the-eteam/2011/12/aaas-fellows.html]OSU”>http://www.dispatch.com/content/blogs/the-eteam/2011/12/aaas-fellows.html)</p>
<p>^ well, to be fair, the AAAS (the academy, not the association) fellowship isn’t a well-respected award among top schools. Notice that in faculty awards lists by university, AAAS nearly always indicates Arts & Sciences; the “other” AAAS is typically not mentioned.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well, as I said, changes in US News aren’t legitimate rises/falls. My statement above applies to what are actual changes in the relative quality of top universities (by any number of measures, criteria, methodologies, etc.).</p>