<p>It also fell to #13 on the list of best public schools. Tied with UT-Austin, passed by other publics like University of Washington and three UC's: Santa Barbara, Davis, & Irvine. </p>
<p>I think that one thing that definitely hurt us were our graduation rates, which were given more weight this year. Otherwise, I'd be interested to hear other peoples' takes.</p>
<p>I can't advocate the widespread acceptance of the US News rankings, but regardless it is something that people do see and consider when choosing schools, evaluating job applicants, and measuring prestige. For that reason I think that this decline is something that should be taken seriously. More reason to pressure the administration to improve its marketing strategy. The hardest part has been done for them; we have a great school in a great setting that produces great leaders and innovation. All they have to do is open the eyes of people outside the Midwest. Nothing some green paper can't fix.</p>
<p>The increase in weight afforded to graduation rates definitely hurt, as did the addition of the high school guidance counselor reputation survey (where UW didn’t fare as well as it typically does on the dean survey). I think both of these changes are good – graduation rates are important, and the dean survey has as much to do with the quality of the graduate schools than it does undergraduate reputation.</p>
<p>UW is definitely heading in the wrong direction in U.S. News, although in all fairness no public school outside of California seems to be doing particularly well.</p>
<p>Graduation rate is increasingly more important. The cost of college education is felt most by the middle class. Scholarships and aide are mostly designed for the lower income brackets (for good reason); however, it makes the middle class feel left out. A high 4-year grad rate goes a long way to helping the majority of families afford college. The practicality of this can not be over stated. </p>
<p>UW can take steps to improve its four-year grad rate. Doing so, would likely improve its ranking considerably. My suggestions:</p>
<p>1 Academic mapping. Providing a clear roadmap to a student’s goal is an inexpensive way to dramatically improve graduation rate. You can provide such a map without sacrificing creative academic exploration. It takes effort from each department, but the payoff can be handsome. </p>
<p>2 Establish or expand internships for credit. Real world experience during the summer establishes important career contacts and a true learning experience. The university should open its mind to awarding meaningful credits for legitimate internships.</p>
<p>Nothing will happen without leadership from the top. The question is: does the university president view this as a priority issue?</p>
<p>I think you will be seeing action on the graduation rate issue in the next year. It is one of the main goals of one of the recently added fairly high level admins and she started work on it this year. I’ll probably see her this Fall and give an update. Obviously substituting counselors for peers ranking hurts as most of the high achieving high schools they went to survey are on the coasts and few are that aware of the Midwestern schools outside some top privates. The return rate on that survey was well under 25% while the peer review is nerly 50%. I’d like to see them add a more quantitative approach to the faculty rankings portion–or actually add an outright faculty ranking. This is where UW is much stronger than many of the higher ranked places like ND, Wake Forest, Boston College and the like.</p>
<p>Damn, UW is falling hard. What is happening? We may be ranked 47, but we are the 57th University listed — we have dropped over 20 spots in a number of years. I know USNews ratings are bogus, but that is definitely something to be concerned about because people definitely use these rankings.</p>
<p>It’s kind of silly when you think about the fact the only reason USNews changes their criteria is to shake up the list and get people talking again.</p>
<p>Looks like UMN is shooting up (gaining almost 30 spots in only a few years, too). We need to copy them a bit more, they are obviously doing something right.</p>
<p>But how to Indiana get so high? And to fall below them? Please…</p>
<p>as a UW alumnus having graduated in the last 3 years, I am deeply embarrassed by the UW’s continued slide in the rankings, which like it or not, are used by the outside world to gauge the quality of your degree. When I was going to the UW, we were proudly ranked in the low to mid 30’s overall and in the top 8 of public universities. Now, 45? 13th public? This is mediocre stuff. I was dismayed to see our ranking drop to 39 last year and am outraged to watch both the ranking and the value of my degree erode to 45th this year.
I have a couple of questions:
1)What was the UW ranked 10 years ago?
2)From all i have read, the UW has tightened admissions standards (higher ACT scores, class rank, etc) and hired more top-class faculty since I attended. Why is it dropping in the rankings? What will the administration do to reverse this embarrassment?</p>
<p>Minnesota has stalled at around 64. Indiana was well below that at 75 so UW is still ranked well above them. And UW did repass Illinois and is 45, not 47. When there are ties they skip some numbers to the next spot.</p>
<p>Yes but mostly no. I do not want UMN to be higher, but I do not like this trend for UW-Madison. What UW should do is drop OOS tuition like UMN; make the school more competitive for Illinois/Iowa/Indiana/etc students.</p>
<p>Or have more scholarships. I’m not sure how long UMinn can afford to discount OOS tuition that much. The state is not going to be giving them lots more $$$$ anytime soon as they are as broke as the rest more or less. I really think that counselor ranking thing was the problem and I don’t know how you work on that. Invite them all for tours. In my experience most GCs are not all that well informed about schools outside their state. I hav egone to several high schools in Seattle and they were generally clueless about our UW. One asked me if they had D-1 sports. Really now. At my HS they took the teachers that could not teach and made them GCs so they did not have to fire them. They wanted to send everyone to small LACs you never heard of. I think they got some kickbacks. Also nearly all went to smallish teacher’s colleges like Trenton State (Now CONJ) and Kutztown State.</p>
<p>Just a quick question, if you all don’t mind me chiming in. What caused the Big Ten schools like UW, OSU (slightly), and UMN to fall this year? Was it due to a change in the scoring? </p>
<p>Honestly I don’t understand how the “regional” UCs can rank ahead of most of the Big Ten…</p>
<p>My children go to a private, well-regarded Catholic high school in Fort Lauderdale. The GC department is energetic and generally knowledgeable. When my son cited UW-Madison as a possible choice, nearly every one gave him a blank stare and questioned why he would subject himself to the bitter cold? He gave them his reasons and they still looked at him with indifference. This school had sent students to UW, but certainly not the best or brightest. As a matter of fact, UW was considered a good school to send football players that failed to get offers from the SEC!</p>
<p>This really has to stop. As I have gone through the process with my son, I have come to realize that UW is not just a good school. It is truly exceptional. And, while magazine rankings are poor science, that fact is that they wield a great deal of influence. </p>
<p>UW should be able to move up the rankings with careful planning. Proper marketing to GC’s and efforts to improve four-year grad rates will do wonders. </p>
<p>UW should target poorly represented regions of the nation. They should invite GC’s to Madison and offer side trips to Chicago. A few lectures, some site seeing and a fun night in Chi-town should change perceptions quickly. It sounds silly and expensive, but think again. The monetary impact to the school could be formidable. A better reputation will lead to better students, stronger academics and more research grants. Let’s not forget that universities compete for the big dollars.</p>
<p>I see one wholly inexplicable thing on the guidance counselor rankings – IUPUI tied with UW (!) – but other than that there’s not a midwest school on the list that’s higher or equal to UW where a good case can’t be made that it belongs there. Again, we are talking about undergraduate education, not graduate. </p>
<p>As for barrons’ comments about his personal experience with high school guidance counselors in his day, I’m not sure how applicable it is to the discussion. I’d want real evidence of counselor incompetence, not personal anecdotes from one poster. I bet if UW ranked higher in the survey barrons would be singing a wholly different tune.</p>
<p>St. Thomas Aquinas? Great High School Football team. Sorry, irrelevant to this discussion, just had to ask because they’re literally the number 1 program in the country which is pretty awesome. Last year they sent two guys to UW, and this year they sent one more (a speedy running back named James White who’s already making a name for himself at Fall camp). On Wisconsin!</p>
<p>really upsetting news… my son graduated top 10% of a private california high school and 2 of the gc told him that uw madison was superior to ucsb and cal poly san luis obispo for science. he also declined admissions to georgia inst tech. i’ve read so many stories of problems at the uc’s (he was declined at ucb with a 4.23, 2100 sat and 5 ap) so we decided uw was the best choice. now he wants to major in chem engineering…hopefully uw will improve in future rankings.</p>
<p>UW was still ranked highly in engineering and especially Chem E–top 5.</p>
<p>By more fact driven rankings UW has not changed at all. It is still #17 in the world rankings by SJTU which focus on sciences and engineering and still has one of the top research grant operations in the US. Those grants are highly competitive and only go to top people in their fields. UW was #1 for state U’s the last few years and in the Top 5 for decades. Is it as exclusive as some others which is mostly what US News measures–Nope. But the faculty is as strong as pretty much anywhere outside the Top 10 schools and has been hiring more top people while others are frozen.</p>
<p>^It’s a rare undergrad who needs a top research professor to maximize his or her potential. The consistent quality of fellow students and lecturers, and post graduation prospects in grad schools/job markets are what should probably matter to undergrads. </p>
<p>There are many top privates–WUSTL quickly comes to mind–that have shown how you game the system. Send out applications to anyone with a high ACT/SAT score. Invite top students to visit campus with free airfare. Reach out with brochures and mailings all across the nation. Increase merit scholarships at the expense of heightened tuition. </p>
<p>Couple these marketing ploys with effective yield protection (waitlist students who are “too good” and wait to see if they show interest) and USNWR will love you. You’ll have low acceptance rates, high GC recognition, and high yields. </p>
<p>Whether that’s frivolous spending is another issue–and probably an issue that colleges across the nation will soon be forced to address if tuition rates keep rising.</p>