Great to hear!

Pretty sure this is a first, I know university administrations have been aiming for higher classification for decades. I believe Dr. Ping led our last jump.

Not surprised by Buffalo but initially so for Kent until I considered their Liquid Crystals Institute.

Yet - In spite of the apparent high level of research - The question lingers - "What is Buffalo?" :)

This certification means we are on the same level of research institution as Yale and MIT. TAKE THAT NERDS!

The State University of New York at Buffalo was also just declared a flagship institution and is the largest in New York. AAU membership is a big deal and Buffalo has the highest academic rankings in the conference. Given all of that, it is truly an outlier in the MAC. On paper, the biggest school in a big state would be a P5 member. In fact, of the 30 most populous states, the only other exception is UMass.

Here's a good snapshot view of where research universities stand on the food chain using nine metrics that rank everything from research dollars to fundraising to faculty quality and median SAT scores. You can look at a ranking of all universities together or just private or just public. You're right that Buffalo is kind of near the bottom, but I'd guess that Kansas or Missouri would be next up on the chopping block.


https://mup.umass.edu/sites/default/files/mup-2019-top-am...

As for Miami, I've stated it here before. They benefited immensely from their former President rigging the system as Regents Chair in the 60s and 70s to make them the only selective public university in the state. Once they lost that advantage, they've plummeted back to their historical norm of being just another "Four Corners" college. Also, while Fiami lacks a med and law school, they are also a complete non-entity as a Ph.D granting research university.

Anyways, this is a great and significant achievement for Ohio. It's not AAU membership, but it is something truly substantive that will help our national preception, ability to grow our research footprint and to attract students and faculty.

Someone help me out here... Is this the same as the Tier ranking that is often used to rank schools? Are we officially a Tier I Research Institution or is that a separate categorization?

Buffalo is ranked in between Illinois-Chicago and the University of Hawaii in federal research dollars. Significantly below the University of Cincinnati. Its not correct to brand Buffalo as being among the very top universities in the country on the basis of having AAU membership. The same for Ohio with the R1 designation.

I do like the broadening out of the MAC academic reputation over the last couple of decades. Buffalo, Ohio, Kent with the R1s. Medical schools at WMU and CMU. It might not be long before WMU earns a R1 with the 500 million dollar academic gift. Toledo of course is one of the few universities with a medical, law, pharmacy and engineering college.