Ranked #70. Only two spots above Baylor. t.u. sitting at #52. Weren't we in the fifties just a few years ago?

Probably the result of new policies focused on increasing enrollment and acceptance rates.

It needs to be addressed.

Or it illustrates that USNWR is a non-existent rag getting by on a non-transparent index that is largely meaningless.

Has the administration said anything regarding this continual dropping in those rankings?

They seem to keep pumping all the good rankings the business school has been getting.

They need to address the drop

They won't though

4+ pages

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they hate us

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Or it illustrates that USNWR is a non-existent rag getting by on a non-transparent index that is largely meaningless.

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This.

Here are the categories USNWR uses to rank the schools:

Undergraduate Academic Reputation (22.5%): This item is based upon the opinions by school presidents, provosts, deans of admin, and high school counselors. Highly subjective.

Retention (22.5%): Based upon how many first-year students return for another year (20%) and the 6 year graduation rate (80%)

Faculty Resources (20%): Looks at class sizes with less than 20 students (30%) and more than 50 students (10%), faculty average salary (35%), degree level of profs (15%), student to faculty ratio (5%) and how many full time profs you have (5%)

Student Selectivity (12.5%): Average SAT and ACT scores (65%), number of 1st year students who were top 10% in class (25%), acceptance rate (10%)

Financial Resources (10%): Spending/student. The more the better.

Graduation Rate Performance (7.5%): Compares actual grad rate to a US News prediction of what is should have been.

Alumni Giving Rate (5%): Average percent of grads with bachelor degrees who give to the school. (Not amount given, just percentage of number who gave)

Why does it matter. I have never known anyone that chose to come to A&M or not come to A&M based on that ranking. This includes students, professors and administrators.

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Why does it matter. I have never known anyone that chose to come to A&M or not come to A&M based on that ranking. This includes students, professors and administrators.

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You serious?

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Or it illustrates that USNWR is a non-existent rag getting by on a non-transparent index that is largely meaningless

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If we were in the top 25 everyone would be bragging how great this poll was, but since we're not let's criticize the messenger.

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It needs to be addressed.

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We solved it just last week!

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Ranked #70. Only two spots above Baylor. t.u. sitting at #52. Weren't we in the fifties just a few years ago?

Probably the result of new policies focused on increasing enrollment and acceptance rates.

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It's been discussed. Poorly. Admin hasn't addressed it.

Most around here like to throw out the rankings of schools. Yes USNWR has their ranking scheme and it's stupid. But wtf are people going to use as a metric? Students take it seriously, filter out colleges that are too low on the scale, and the school misses out on excellent students. I know because I used it when choosing between A&M and UT. The difference was like 10 then and the price was way better here. Sad as it is, I kick myself now for not knowing that they were gonna diploma nuke the place.

Here's the funny part. People here will say "it's about what you can do." That's certainly true. But the people who get the opportunities to do are few.

For fun, do the following exercise. You have 20 candidates. You only have time to interview 10. All of the candidates are roughly equivalent. Solid GPAs, extracurricular activities, sociable, relevant experiences, etc., etc.

8 are from Ivy League or Duke or Stanford so you give them an interview.
8 are from large colleges with poor reputations. Discard.
(For fun also, why is the university of phoenix bad? ITT Tech? Maybe because they let everybody in....)

You have 2 slots left, 4 candidates left.
Let's say the candidates are from these schools:

• Penn State
• Ohio State
• Purdue
• Texas A&M

How do you pick? Lemme know. State schools are responsible for educating the public. Flagship state schools are responsible for educating the best of the public.

Tl;dr
Everybody learns the same useless crap in undergrad. You pay for the name. Nobody needs Texas A&M to teach them digital logic or circuit analysis. A book and persistence will suffice and is a hell of a lot cheaper. That name's value is based on rankings. USNWR is one of those rankings.

Apparently some people prefer the scent of bleach to fresh air.

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About 33% will say it's useless.
Another 33% will say it matters but "I can't do nothin."
The other 33% will say it matters and we can still do something.
The other 1% will post boobs.

well i'd say it is but one data point and look at the overall picture

salaries of grads
rank of those getting jobs
graduation rates
research rank and dollars
acceptance rate
incoming scores
endowment
scholarships
faculty (tenure, retention, salary, experience, etc.)
AAU status
etc.

there is much more to the picture than this ranking.

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Why does it matter. I have never known anyone that chose to come to A&M or not come to A&M based on that ranking. This includes students, professors and administrators.

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Then you don't know me. I chose A&M because the engineering department was ranked ~10 at the time while the Ivy schools that were ranked above A&M were 4-5x the cost. A&M's ranking, combined with the price, was the deciding factor in me choosing A&M. Couldn't justify spending an extra $110k on my education to move up 7 or 8 spots on the rankings...

What Ivy League Engineering school is above A&M? MIT, Stanford, Cal Tech, Carnegie aren't IVY league to me. The closest one is Cornell and they are one spot below A&M in the latest ranking, Columbia is 3 spots below?

Glad I've been out of school for ten years and I'm successful and nobody gives a rip where A&M is ranked in these journals because I'm not an idiot and it doesn't really affect anything in the real world!

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10 easily

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About 33% will say it's useless.
Another 33% will say it matters but "I can't do nothin."
The other 33% will say it matters and we can still do something.
The other 1% will post boobs.

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#iamthe1%

SEC is dumbing us down

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Ranked #70. Only two spots above Baylor. t.u. sitting at #52. Weren't we in the fifties just a few years ago?

Probably the result of new policies focused on increasing enrollment and acceptance rates.

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It's been discussed. Poorly. Admin hasn't addressed it.

Most around here like to throw out the rankings of schools. Yes USNWR has their ranking scheme and it's stupid. But wtf are people going to use as a metric? Students take it seriously, filter out colleges that are too low on the scale, and the school misses out on excellent students. I know because I used it when choosing between A&M and UT. The difference was like 10 then and the price was way better here. Sad as it is, I kick myself now for not knowing that they were gonna diploma nuke the place.

Here's the funny part. People here will say "it's about what you can do." That's certainly true. But the people who get the opportunities to do are few.

For fun, do the following exercise. You have 20 candidates. You only have time to interview 10. All of the candidates are roughly equivalent. Solid GPAs, extracurricular activities, sociable, relevant experiences, etc., etc.

8 are from Ivy League or Duke or Stanford so you give them an interview.
8 are from large colleges with poor reputations. Discard.
(For fun also, why is the university of phoenix bad? ITT Tech? Maybe because they let everybody in....)

You have 2 slots left, 4 candidates left.
Let's say the candidates are from these schools:

• Penn State
• Ohio State
• Purdue
• Texas A&M

How do you pick? Lemme know. State schools are responsible for educating the public. Flagship state schools are responsible for educating the best of the public.

Tl;dr
Everybody learns the same useless crap in undergrad. You pay for the name. Nobody needs Texas A&M to teach them digital logic or circuit analysis. A book and persistence will suffice and is a hell of a lot cheaper. That name's value is based on rankings. USNWR is one of those rankings.

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Awesome post!

Yeah. Worthless rankings.

http://today.tamu.edu/2016/03/16/texas-am-fares-well-in-u-s-news-graduate-school-rankings-law-school-makes-major-advancement/

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Glad I've been out of school for ten years and I'm successful and nobody gives a rip where A&M is ranked in these journals because I'm not an idiot and it doesn't really affect anything in the real world!

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That's the equivalent of "I got mines."

And thank the lord for the 1%.

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SEC is dumbing us down

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I get (I think) that you're joking.
But believe it or not the Big XII was worse.

Alabama is probably going to be moving up - their acceptance rate is lower than ours now. Florida and Georgia are great public schools. Vanderbilt is Vanderbilt.

This harm is self-inflicted.

WSJ had an article in 2010 that ranked Penn State first and A&M second for employers preference for hiring. The article has not been refreshed as far as I know.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704358904575477643369663352

well, I got mine...seriously, wtf, I am pretty sure we were close to #39 in USNWR ranking in late 80's...place gone to ****s since I left A&M...

I would say these are good criteria to base a ranking on and are important in determining the quality of a school. These three count towards more than 50% of the USNWR ranking.

Retention (22.5%): Based upon how many first-year students return for another year (20%) and the 6 year graduation rate (80%)

Faculty Resources (20%): Looks at class sizes with less than 20 students (30%) and more than 50 students (10%), faculty average salary (35%), degree level of profs (15%), student to faculty ratio (5%) and how many full time profs you have (5%)

Student Selectivity (12.5%): Average SAT and ACT scores (65%), number of 1st year students who were top 10% in class (25%), acceptance rate (10%)

#SECready

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Everybody learns the same useless crap in undergrad.

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Spend some time with a tt grad and they will blow your mind => 4 years of nothing taught nothing learned

Say what you want about the rankings, there is no way to sugarcoat our free fall

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Everybody learns the same useless crap in undergrad.

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Spend some time with a tt grad and they will blow your mind => 4 years of nothing taught nothing learned

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Duh,

You don't count places where all they teach is Raider Rash.

I am hopeful that things will turn around. I expect A&M to go up when the next rankings are released.
I think that the mentality seemingly adopted by Chancellor Sharp and some others does not reflect what is needed for an institution to be among the best public universities in the nation. It isn't like he doesn't have some good ideas, but some really miss the mark.

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I am hopeful that things will turn around. I expect A&M to go up when the next rankings are released.
I think that the mentality seemjngly adopted by Chancellor Sharp and some others does not reflect what is needed for an institution to be among the best public universities in the nation, it isn't. like he doesn't have some good ideas, but some really miss the mark.

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This. I don't think Chancellor Sharp is a bad person at all. He doesn't have bad intentions behind his actions, but bigger != better. He does have a loud mouth though, but that's fine when directed at the school at Austin.

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WSJ had an article in 2010 that ranked Penn State first and A&M second for employers preference for hiring. The article has not been refreshed as far as I know.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704358904575477643369663352

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Companies have consistently noticed my Texas A&M degree in interviews throughout my career. I make sure it is the first thing people see on my LinkedIn profile and elsewhere, first because I love A&M and second because it is so well respected in the marketplace.