OHIO did not fair very well! Coming in nationally at #348, and in the middle of the Ohio Schools.

Check out the bios on many of these folks.  See the common connection?

http://centerforcollegeaffordability.org/about/staff-directory

I'm not really sure how I would objectively rate universities. Probably a 5-star system and leave it at that (basically a tier system, lots of ties). But one could imagine if the intellectual body entrusted with such a task was so thoroughly represented by one school, that school (Ohio University) should fair better than #348. If for no other reason than to ensure the academic integrity of the process.

(I know we're better than #348, not just in my heart either. Heck I work in an office where the only other new college grad in my department within the last few years is an OSU grad. I don't know how you could objectively tell me I would have been better prepared at his university and 209 others, but still get the same job.)

People.. 

Forbes is not an expert on education. No one can actually quantify how much a student learns at a university. This list is useless. People are so obsessed with status and look for anything to reaffirm that they are special. Even if Ohio were a top 100 I would still not take this list seriously. 

Its always been a subject of debate on what characteristics automatically make a college good. It was thought that it was all about admission standards but what was realized is while its generally true the best schools are the most difficult to get into, often schools benefit from where they're located and smaller class sizes are going to be more selective. Then there are schools out there that bought students with a big endowment or gerrymandered the admission numbers by accepting a large number of transfer students (Ohio State in both regards). Go beyond the Ivy League schools, the MIT/Cal Tech's and the next tier consists of major research private and public universities. Schools that have the serious academics have the serious researchers. You can look at total research dollars if you want but one mark of serious research university is the ability to project its research statewide. Ohio has expanded its medical school with its research to a campus in Dublin over 2 hours away.  Ohio is no longer just another residential campus state school that it was in the 60's. Its now a major research university that is statewide in scope with OSU as the only other public in-state with mission on that scale. Does that make Ohio a great university? No, but how do you argue its not a good university because all major research universities are "good" universities when compared alongside your average state school or private college.

That's the thing that stands out to me.