I know people love to dismiss these as meaningless, and they certainly have their flaws. They, however, also are the most widely referenced and disseminated university rankings in the country. Prospective students and parents pay attention to them. They do matter to a university's reputation and image and ability to recruit students.

So at this time, I'd like to firmly congratulate Dr. Roderick J. McDavis for his brilliant leadership in allowing OUr university to fall behind a glorified commuter school. Congratulations, now GTFO!


http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/kent-state-is-only-ne...

"Firmly"

not so fast... 7 universities are tied with Cincinnati at 135 and 5 others are tied with Ohio 146.... and three are tied at 143.

we are talking 17 universities more or less the same...

Fair enough. We're tied with a glorified commuter college. It doesn't negate the fact that we've slipped roughly 50 spots under McDavis' "leadership," which can't come to a close fast enough for me.

What that 50 points is ignoring is that they've added a lot more private schools to the national rankings than before. The ranked schools go all the way to #220 this year. Secondly the data points beyond 100 are close. Universities are tied at #103, #107, #111, #118, #124, #129, #133, #135, #143, #146 10 data points for 50 spots. Third there is no hope for moving higher in the rankings. If Kansas with its 1.5 billion dollar endowment is only #115 on the list there is no hope for Ohio to get into the Top 60 maybe even Top 100. Unless the cure for cancer was found on Ohio's campus leading to becoming that #1 medical research school in the country. That is what sort of happened to Duke. Ohio is solidly in the mid tier of national universities which is better than the multitudes of unranked and regional universities.

Outside of the Top 40 schools which are ranked as such as the traditional Top 40 schools the schools that have moved up the most on the standardized scores are the corporate/research brand schools with high salary professional programs. Selectivity has followed the highly paid professional focus. At the Top 40 level its different where you could major in history and get recruited off campus by an investment bank. Its also the schools in the the top tier cities which have the highest concentration of wealth that have a perception advantage. If Ohio was located in Cuyahoga county the perception difference would have made it a top tier school. McDavis realizes this and why he's put the medical school in Dublin the wealthiest suburb of Columbus. He's building up the economy of Athens with more students and in people coming into town for athletics. Obviously 1500 SAT scores are better but how do you compete with schools in Boston, New York and Chicago for them? Ohio to its credit has worked hard to be as good as it could be without big city resources.

For those who care, Ohio set a record again this year for freshman class GPA at 3.48 up from 3.46 from last year. I do not understand why its a perpetual policy to expand the freshman class if possible. Alden is overcrowded and so are the classrooms.

http://www.athensnews.com/news/campus/ou-sees-record-enro...