[QUOTE=DelBobcat]
I don't have time right now to look into the stats or find the articles but I have read multiple articles about how universities "game" the U.S. News rankings and Ohio State is always mentioned as one of the biggest offenders.
Whoa, complete misrepresentation of my point. I think my "US News rankings are flawed and OSU has perfected using them to their advantage" and your "its all fake so why worry" are two completely different thoughts. I can recognize that the way we rank schools is flawed and criticize the system without thinking that we should just bury our heads in the sand. Of course OHIO still needs to strive to compete with Miami and OSU. I wouldn't argue that at all. I would also note that OHIO takes its role of serving the Appalachian Ohio community very seriously and we need to continue to balance that as well. We can grow our academic profile while continuing to provide access to disadvantaged students in Southern/Southeastern Ohio (of which I was one).
I apologize if I misrepresented your comments, but I think your statement above was pretty clear. Gaming the rankings implies that they are submitting false data or encouraging unqualified applicants to apply (a'la Duke) or something else beyond simply submitting their data and letting the chips fall where they may, and I'd be interested in reading the articles. Simply doing well in rankings because they attract a selective student body, have large financial resources, high retention and grad rates and a very good reputation among other universities isn't "gaming the system. I think the criteria that I just mentioned are all things that we would like to see Ohio do well in, continue to improve in and remain competitive in.
I don't think the US News rankings are the be-all and end-all, and I think that they are horribly biased towards private universities. That being said, some of the most important criteria (such as those that I mentioned above) I think most would agree are strong indicators of a university's quality. Probably, most importantly they have become something of a benchmark for universities' general quality perception among the general population and prospective students and their parents. Too important in my view, but that doesn't negate their significance nor allow a university to ignore them. In any event, one just can't dismiss the US News rankings to dismiss OSU. If you look at the four most important global rankings of universities, OSU does even better than they do in the US News.
The faculty info that others posted was very interesting. Quite frankly it goes back to my point in the other thread that Vern Alden horribly misjudged the situation in the 60s. Had he created some type of uneasy alliance with OSU (rather than with Miami who essentially left us by the side of the road after getting what they wanted), Ohio might have really positioned itself to become an AAU university. Even if that meant being the clear secondary research university to OSU, it would have meant that Ohio was in that role alone rather than being one of 6 other schools attempting to chase down OSU and diluting state resources in the process. Instead, Ohio funds 8 doctoral programs in History, 7 in political science, 7 in Physics and 6 in Chemistry. It makes it incredibly difficult, if not impossible, for any non-OSU university to rise above the rest and attract the kinds of faculty and researchers that end up at OSU.