<p>well, this thread is no longer worth reading.</p>
<p>Rogracer, Machen evidences his belief by his action. Regardless of how immune to manipulation you may believe the opinion portion of the ratings to be, he thinks he is making some improvement in UF’s standing. Or, it could be he thinks the ratings are a joke and he’s voting what he’d like the rating of his employer under his administration to be. </p>
<p>Maybe he emails or faxes his ratings to his US News voting friends as a go-by and then they fax their wishes to him. By this method we game even the PA. This is not too difficult, for as Sweetheartcroc correctly inferred that state schools command little attention outside their state, so ratings of UF by others may be quite few, thus increasing the weight of those who actually take the time to fill in that particular circle on the list.</p>
<p>Ah yes….so now we have a conspiracy theory proposed. So now the math question becomes: how many co-conspirators do we need to be involved to improve UF’s PA score by the least significant digit?</p>
<p>@aforautumn: yes it’d really not … I just asked the difference between UF and FSU psychology program … I didn’t ask about anything else, not even University of Miami; just UF and FSU.</p>
<p>There’s no need for anyone to have a debate…</p>
<p>.@fsutimes: Do both of them like it ?</p>
<p>Yes, all have been very happy with their decisions. One graduated from UF, one from FSU and one is still at FSU. All three got into both universities and made their decisions based on where they felt the most comfortable. The oldest was all business and cared only about academics, the next had fallen in love with Tallahassee at Boys’ State and had a wonderful time making lots of life-long friends during his time at FSU, and the third is a mixture between the two. The two campuses really do have completely different feels to them, so I encourage you to visit if you can before you decide. As with any college, the experience will be what you make of it. I don’t think you can go wrong with either school :)</p>
<p>Apparently some of us just like to debate. ;)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Interesting question.</p>
<p>This is actually quite workable in the era of email and smart phones. It takes far less legwork to execute, but you have to be in the circle of persons who get to vote. Since most college presidents know each other, especially in a region or state, and they strive to keep their ballots secret it’s easier than it appears, especially if they think the ratings are a joke to start with. It could be an amusement for these pressured folks. It could also be very informal and devised at cocktail hour.</p>
<p>Yes, interesting question for the mathematically challenged perhaps. But here is the answer: Machen would need 105 co-conspirators to rate UF a perfect 5.0 in order to raise UF’s PA assessment score one-tenth of a point.</p>
<p>Since Machen only gave out a handful of 5s in his evaluations, I guess we can now conclude that he was giving out some other form enticement, perhaps something along the lines of UM booster Nevin Shapiro?</p>
<p>@fsutimes2: Oh okay . Thank you for the advice !</p>
<p>Rogracer, you should post your assumptions and your references before casting aspersions. Show your work, as it were, for peer review.</p>
<p>However, in this case I am going to change my opinion of the ability to game the PA assessment and agree with you. Brian Leiter has been a critic of the US News rankings, in particular concerning law schools. He agrees that the PA portion is not manipulable as stated here:
See: [Brian</a> Leiter The U.S. News Law School Rankings:*A Guide for the Perplexed](<a href=“http://www.leiterrankings.com/usnews/guide.shtml]Brian”>Brian Leiter The U.S. News Law School Rankings: A Guide for the Perplexed)</p>
<p>I think a fair parallel can be drawn on this point between the undergraduate reputation of a university and the law school reputation as the used by US News methods are highly likely to be the same, especially for purposes of informal commentary in this forum. </p>
<p>You may want to email Dr. Machen and notify him his strains on his PA form are in vain as are that the friends of Machen US News ratings club. ;)</p>
<p>Yet, if you read further down the detailed analysis of Brian Leiter you will substantial find data that is highly manipulable by schools.</p>
<p>Here is a link to more recent cases of manipulation:</p>
<p>[Gaming</a> the College Rankings - NYTimes, January 31, 2012](<a href=“Gaming the College Rankings - The New York Times”>Gaming the College Rankings - The New York Times)</p>
<p>So then the question becomes does UF provide completely accurate data to US News regarding the highly manipulable data?</p>
<p>I know it’s somewhat unrelated, but I would just like to ask which school is better for Public relations/journalism/English ? I was accepted to both schools and this is a tough decision for me.</p>
<p>Got accepted into both UF and FSU but I’m definitely going to FSU because it has better Political Science and Film programs than UF and I’m interested in studying one of those.Now when people generalize my school by saying its full of UF rejects, i can prove them wrong ;). Goodluck future Gators!</p>
<p>Sorry for the double posting, but in regards to Bornforthestage’s question, FSU is known to be more of a liberal arts school than UF (which is best in the math/science/engineering/etc areas) so when it comes to public relations and journalism FSU seems like a better fit. You should definitely search up more information regarding both schools and those areas of study before making any final decision though.</p>
<p>UF is better for engineering, FSU is better for physics. They are equal in chemistry. Math - they are very close, again I’d suggest you review your particular area, as for math such as actuarial science - FSU (see other posts reference this) English, I’d say Florida State due to the strength of the FSU creative writing program.</p>
<p>In general, UF currently has more research concerning agriculture and medicine, but FSU has more research in the sciences, like physics. The National Science Foundation funding bears this out, as FSU has more NSF funding than any other university in Florida.</p>
<p>UF has a journalism major, FSU has a communications major.</p>
<p>For the record, I think Bernie Machen is a two-faced snake; he’s a sneak, a conniver, a US News cheat…and he probably cheats at cards too when he can get away with it. Right this very minute Machen is conspiring with Florida state senator JD Alexander to steal USF’s Lakeland branch campus to serve the interests of Alexander and Machen’s UF. Machen has said publically UF will “help” the USF Poly campus in splitting from USF. I am confident Alexander and Machen are conspiring and have a “private understanding” that goes beyond UF just “helping out” some to make the Lakeland school independent. UF’s campus located in sparsely populated north-central Florida is built out and can’t grow anymore; I think Machen is actually getting involved in the USF Poly fracas as a method to get a foot in the door to eventually establish a UF campus in the populated I-4 corridor. Machen has no business sticking his nose in the USF Poly affair because the Board of Governors is already working on the deal with USF–UF has no business getting involved unless UF and Machen think UF can benefit from sticking their noses in where they don’t belong. Senator Alexander is chair of the Florida senate Budget Committee and carries the state checkbook in his hip pocket. He is trying to intimidate others in the legislature and also the Board of Governors into allowing the split of the Lakeland school from USF; folks fear Alexander will not fund items in state budget for them if he doesn’t get his way. Alexander’s family owns 10s of thousands of acres of land near the proposed 12th state university in Lakeland and will benefit from the college’s future growth. If Alexander owned land between the FSU branch campus and the airport in Panama City, he’d probably add that school to the conforming bill to steal that school too. Machen and Alexander are a quinella of shifty conspirators!</p>
<p>[Budget</a> bill would make USF Polytechnic state’s 12th university - Tampa Bay Times](<a href=“http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/college/budget-bill-would-make-usf-polytechnic-states-12th-university/1214569]Budget”>http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/college/budget-bill-would-make-usf-polytechnic-states-12th-university/1214569)</p>
<p>[Reaction</a> on Florida Senate’s USF Poly Budget-Bill Move Mixed | TheLedger.com](<a href=“http://www.theledger.com/article/20120209/NEWS/120209272?tc=ar]Reaction”>http://www.theledger.com/article/20120209/NEWS/120209272?tc=ar)</p>
<p>So glad p2n we finally agree that Machen had no realistic mechanism for manipulating the PA rankings. I’ll leave inferences that UF has a systemic policy for rankings manipulation for another thread, as this one has been hijacked long enough.</p>
<p>FSU definitely blows UF out of the water in FILM. But journalism is definitely UF. However, there aren’t very many jobs for journalism graduates at the moment.</p>
<p>“The University of Florida Department of Journalism has consistently been ranked among the top 10 journalism programs in the nation and has a long tradition of producing award-winning student journalists.”</p>
<p>[Journalism</a> - Undergraduate Studies - College of Journalism and Communications](<a href=“http://www.jou.ufl.edu/academic/jou/]Journalism”>http://www.jou.ufl.edu/academic/jou/)</p>
<p>Thanks all! There is definitely more of an emphasis on PR for me</p>
<p>Could yall please take the Machen argument some where else? This was my forum &yes, i do appreciate yall’s help but the argument is becoming annoying. Thank You. </p>
<p>&abornforthestage, it all just depends on what you particulary want. What exactly are you looking for in liberal arts? Doi you prefer Communications or Journalism better?</p>