<p>woowoo, i think you were replying to my post… there are substantial differences between admissions to graduate schools and professional schools.</p>
<p>I’m surprised no one has jumped on “The top of Bama’s class is equal to the top of Michigan’s class”</p>
<p>Hey, nubs, here I thought you were still an undergrad 
And in ENG no less, as opposed to history ;)</p>
<p>At any rate, as someone officially older than the hills who may have some radically outdated perspectives on such things, I think perhaps what RJK meant in his post referring to rigor and prof caliber of undergrad degree and the bearing of same on grad school admission is that in the world of acad</p>
<p>“but you stated something about admissions into grad schools (specifically for history, i think), and how it is important to come from a university that has a strong grad program.”</p>
<p>I implied that to get a job at a good university teaching History these days is usually going to require attending a top graduate program. Those types of students who are matriculating into top graduate programs are more times that not coming from strong LACs and universities, not mediocre state schools. If I knew that I wanted to become a History professor, I would look very carefully where I attended undergraduate school and make sure the faculty or reputation of the department would help boost my chances to get into a top graduate program. </p>
<p>“you also seemed to think that wisconsin and minnesota had highly respected MBA programs, which is again not true.”</p>
<p>Please find the quote where I state the above?</p>
<p>Not sure where the 38% number came from for UA.</p>
<p>[Graduation</a> Rate Analysis - CollegeMeasures.org](<a href=“Education Data Initiative: College Costs & Student Loan Research”>Education Data Initiative: College Costs & Student Loan Research)</p>
<p>kmcmom, you are correct that i am still in undergrad engr, however, i have actually done research on graduate school admissions and spoken to many faculty and grad students about the process.</p>
<p>i think we may be simply talking about different things. i certainly agree with what you said, but that is not what rjk stated. if you re-read my post, i am specifically talking about rjk’s claim that it is important to come from an undergrad institution that has a strong grad program. especially in the humanities, you’ll find plenty of students at the best grad programs came from undergrad institutions that don’t even have grad programs. there are many factors that are MUCH more important than the strength of an institution’s grad programs. </p>
<p>just curious, what field/subject is your expertise in?</p>
<p>"“An MBA from Minnesota or Wisconsin isn’t that highly regarded either. They’re all regional schools at best.”</p>
<p>Yeah, sure."</p>
<p>unless i’m misinterpreting your sarcasm there</p>
<p>You’re quoting someone else nubs. That wasn’t my comment.</p>
<p>“if you re-read my post, i am specifically talking about rjk’s claim that it is important to come from an undergrad institution that has a strong grad program.”</p>
<p>I never said that. I said it was important to “graduate” from a strong graduate program to get a teaching job at the university level. Many students come from strong undergraduate schools (LACS) that have no graduate programs at all.</p>
<p>rjk, maybe i misrepresented your initial post, but in any case, it’s still incorrect…</p>
<p>the most important factors in getting TT positions is in fact publication records and the specific individuals you studied under. rankings for graduate degrees are overused since at that point departments have strengths and weaknesses in specific subfields.</p>
<p>i’m pretty sure that was you… page 11 of this thread</p>
<p>“the most important factors in getting TT positions is in fact publication records and the specific individuals you studied under.”</p>
<p>I can agree with that. Of course, the “specific individuals” who are going to be noteworthy are usually at the elite universities and LACs. A school like Michigan, which is highly ranked at the graduate level, is going to have many more stars on their faculty than a school like Alabama.</p>
<p>i got my information from us news </p>
<p><a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/university-of-alabama-1051[/url]”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/university-of-alabama-1051</a></p>
<p>The higher number’s probably the 6-year rate - that’s the metric most schools give by default because it’s much higher.</p>
<p>“i’m pretty sure that was you… page 11 of this thread.”</p>
<p>The response was a reply I made from post #149 and goldenboy’s condescending remarks about a school like Wisconsin being “regional.” Regional schools are not ranked among the top 50 in the world.</p>
<p>[World</a> University Rankings 2012-2013 - Times Higher Education](<a href=“http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2012-13/world-ranking]World”>World University Rankings 2013-14 | Times Higher Education (THE))</p>
<p>[QS</a> World University Rankings - 2012 | Top Universities](<a href=“http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2012]QS”>http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2012)</p>
<p>Alabama, on the other hand, is definitely a regional school.</p>
<p>rjk, my point is that you try to justify a lot of your points with rankings. you need to be especially careful about that when you are talking about graduate programs, because most rankings do not break it down into subfields, but rather just rank something broad like “history”.</p>
<p>again, you’re applying those rankings too broadly. universities that are “all-around” good do not necessarily have highly regarded MBA programs…</p>
<p>Purdue’s graduation rate is 42%. Is Purdue a bad school?</p>
<p>I know someone who got a PhD from U of M in EE. He got his undergrad degree from a SUNY school I’m sure no one here from outside of Upstate NY has heard of.</p>
<p>riprorin, i’d hypothesize that purdue’s graduation rate is low because it is heavily focused on engineering and the sciences. those fields tend to have higher dropout rates. alabama, on the other hand doesn’t have such a focus.</p>