US News Academic Rankings

[Jeffreauxdawg]

Not to steal 615's thunder, but here are the 2022 rankings that came out today. Not in the 400's, but they're still ******.

https://www.usnews.com/best-college...ities?schoolName=Mississippi+State+University

Vandy 14
Florida 28
Texas 38
Georgia 48
Texas A&M 68
Auburn 99
Tennessee103
South Carolina 117
Missouri 122
Kentucky 127
Oklahoma 127
Alabama 148
Ole Miss 148
Arkansas 162
LSU 172
Mississippi State 196

I don't care what the reasons or excuses are... I absolutely hate seeing Mississippi State come in last place on this stuff. Down 40 spots from 2015 (Ole Miss is up 1 spot since 2015.) All Mississippi State alumni should be disappointed in this crap. In sports we are given a set of rules and go compete within the rules, even though they are not always fair. In business, we do the same thing. I don't care if the rules are unfair to Mississippi State in these rankings for whatever real or perceived reasons. It's someone's job to do better.

This crap becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. As you slide down these rankings, the school becomes less attractive to more and more competitive students. Anyone that thinks this doesn't matter has never had to compete for a top 10% job or grad school.

 

[8dog]

Send a box of Edam Cheese to all 1000+ peer reviewers. Put a list of accomplishments on the box and clarify we are MS ST. Not the U of MS or OM. Because if ESPN cant keep it straight I cant imagine the provost at Oregon St can.

 

[onewoof]

Send them some soft pretzels

 

[Cooterpoot]

Most students couldn't care less about those rankings. But for certain programs, it's a killer. Our engineering school has fallen down the rankings from where it once was.

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

Agree. I would guess maybe 10% of college bound students place a high priority on reputation. But those 10% are going to be the top 10%. That's kinda what I mean about this self fulfilling prophecy. You slide low enough, long enough, the perception becomes reality.

It's not a lot different than K-12 honestly. When a school district gets a good reputation it attracts more families that care about the quality of education and in turn better students enroll in the district. The better students, make the district even better than before. The same happens in reverse.

 

[TaleofTwoDogs]

Has there been any response from the university leadership about these surveys? What about the Board of Trustees? Their motto includes transparency in higher education and this subject definitely qualifies.

 

[grimedawg1]

State has its own issues to deal with, but I notice over in Alabama that auburn is rated ahead of Alabama - with Bama being near the bottom of the conference. Why is auburn ranked fairly well among sec schools?

 

[615dawg]

This is actually improvement. We were in the 220s last year. Still third worst Power 5, but good to be in top 200 again.

 

[idog]

it's just a magazine

 

[o_1984Dawg]

Do you have a record of how our rankings have changed over the years?

 

[Duke Humphrey]

Auburn has had a capped enrollment for several years

State has its own issues to deal with, but I notice over in Alabama that auburn is rated ahead of Alabama - with Bama being near the bottom of the conference. Why is auburn ranked fairly well among sec schools?

Alabama has been in growth mode. The people who work on these rankings love to see exclusivity/high percentage of rejection of applicants.

ETA: there are probably other reasons too, but this is a big reason

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

One could only guess it's a point of emphasis and effort on behalf of Auburn's leadership, faculty, alumni, and students. So I decided to do a 15 minute dive into Auburn's plan to continue to climb the ladder of academic rankings. What I have found is their strategic plan. It addresses nearly every criteria in the USNWR methodology.

Look at this robust website laying out Aubie's strategic plan. Complete with graphs and charts laying out dozens of data points considered in the rankings:

http://ocm.auburn.edu/strategic_plan/index.php
http://ocm.auburn.edu/strategic_plan/goals/experience.php
http://ocm.auburn.edu/strategic_plan/goals/research.php
http://ocm.auburn.edu/strategic_plan/goals/service.php
http://ocm.auburn.edu/strategic_plan/goals/faculty-staff.php
http://ocm.auburn.edu/strategic_plan/goals/enrollment.php
http://ocm.auburn.edu/strategic_plan/goals/excellence.php


I particularly like the section on strategic enrollment:

[FONT=&quot]Enrollment might be Auburn University’s biggest challenge over the next five years and beyond. Demographics and affordability issues are increasing competition for a shrinking pool of qualified students. The number of high school graduates nationally is declining and is predicted to drop significantly over the next decade. Complicating matters, affordability issues are causing some qualified students not to matriculate in college. Auburn University must ready itself for this decline in qualified students through (1) mindful, proactive enrollment management actions that support recruitment and retention of students, with an emphasis on underrepresented students, and (2) increasing graduate enrollment. Addressing accessibility and affordability is critical to sustainability, requiring the university to more aggressively pursue initiatives, such as online education, dual enrollment, two-year school partnerships, and flexible curricula.[/FONT]

View attachment 21760

Here's Keenum's Strategic Plan... A 3 page PDF that looks like something an undergrad education major made for a little extra credit:

https://www.president.msstate.edu/communications/state-of-excellence-strategic-plan/



Auburn's plan is aspirational, but also data driven. It can be tracked, measured, and adjusted... That piece of **** 3 page PDF from Keenum is a joke of an effort.

 

[DawgatAuburn]

This is incorrect. Auburn has admitted record sized freshman classes in two consecutive years and three times in the last seven. Overall enrollment has grown to about 31,000.

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

It was 156 in 2015. Below are the results for the last few years prior to this year. Hard to find good data. It will bounce around 10-15 spots down here because of all the ties. Just one school moving out of a tie might move 10 spots up or down. But it's fairly safe to say we have fallen around 20-25% since 2015. USNWR puts out its rankings in the fall for the following year. So today's #196 is for 2022.

View attachment 21761

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

2 things can be true.

Duke is correct. If you look at the strategic plan it looks like they are trying to cap undergraduate enrollment at 25K and grow overall enrollment by increasing graduate students.

Dawg at Auburn is also correct. The freshman classes are getting bigger though. So the question is how do you enroll more freshman, but still cap enrollment? By lighting a fire under the asses of 3rd year sophomores and 4th-5th year juniors.

Interestingly, in state enrollment has dropped to 60%. Which they are calling a lower limit, not a target.

View attachment 21762

 

[stateu1]

#1 in baseball.