US News & World Report Rankings for 2020

So, who did LA Tech piss off at US New & World Report? We've been sliding down hill in their annual rankings of schools and universities for the last 6 or 7 yrs. I found evidence below that we were ranked 190th in the nation back in 2014. Now we're ranked in the 298-389 category. Damn!

There's no way I think the university has truly fallen between 108 to 200 spots in quality the last 6 years. That's absurd. What's going on here? Does USNWR charge schools money for these rankings?

CUSA Schools:

16 Rice
153 UAB
187 FIU
227 Charlotte
249 North Texas
258 ODU
272 FAU
284 Marshall
298-389 LA Tech
298-389 MTSU
298-389 WKU
298-389 USM
298-389 UTEP
298-389 UTSA

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges


Tech was ranked 190th in 2014.
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_ro...6e078dbbb.html

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Originally Posted by HogDawg

So, who did LA Tech piss off at US New & World Report? We've been sliding down hill in their annual rankings of schools and universities for the last 6 or 7 yrs. I found evidence below that we were ranked 190th in the nation back in 2014. Now we're ranked in the 298-389 category. Damn!

There's no way I think the university has truly fallen between 108 to 200 spots in quality the last 6 years. That's absurd. What's going on here? Does USNWR charge schools money for these rankings?

CUSA Schools:

16 Rice
153 UAB
187 FIU
227 Charlotte
249 North Texas
258 ODU
272 FAU
284 Marshall
298-389 LA Tech
298-389 MTSU
298-389 WKU
298-389 USM
298-389 UTEP
298-389 UTSA

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges


Tech was ranked 190th in 2014.
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_ro...6e078dbbb.html

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Yikes.

Just another example of failure going all the way to the top.

Enrollment #s are a big part of this, as are endowments, research outputs, things like that. All things that a solid vision and plan can address.

And for God's sake, Tech, don't go bragging about our backwards slide all over social media: "For the x-teenth consecutive year, Tech was ranked by US NEWS...blah blah blah" -- REGRESSION is not something we need to be showcasing.

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Originally Posted by Blue Dawg

Yikes.

Just another example of failure going all the way to the top.

Enrollment #s are a big part of this, as are endowments, research outputs, things like that. All things that a solid vision and plan can address.

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Vision? Plan?

What are these things you mention?

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Originally Posted by glm47

Vision? Plan?

What are these things you mention?

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Yknow how we wander aimlessly with no direction or goals?

Yea, the opposite of that :furious3:

As someone who contributes annually to LA Tech COES, I find this very disappointing. Doing a piss poor job does not provide much incentive for continued alumni gifting ..................................

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Originally Posted by nadB

As someone who contributes annually to LA Tech COES, I find this very disappointing. Doing a piss poor job does not provide much incentive for continued alumni gifting ..................................

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I work a lot with seniors here at Arkansas and I can tell you I'd put a Tech freshman engineer up against one any day except Sunday (cuz thats the Lord's Day).

But you are right. Why are these rankings dropping, and is there a plan to improve (and if not, why not, could be that 3rd party rankings are not a priority)

like all metrics, the system can be gamed for better rankings without actually improving anything. maybe leadership decided it wasn't worth the money to game the rankings and decided to produce an objectively better product. i have no inside knowledge -- just throwing out that possibility...

What I've noticed over the past 20 years...

While we were bragging about those magazine rankings our enrollment was stagnant and our campus infrastructure was as well.

Over the past 10 years while our magazine status has dropped, our enrollment has increased and our buildings and grounds are BOOMING with improvement. I'll take the last 10 years over the previous 10. BTW, remember how our former president and his main fund raiser dropped the ball regarding our endowment? Remember the governors we've had who had tried to suck the life out of higher education? Again, I'll take the last 10 years considering the BS we've had to deal with over some meaningless magazine rankings.

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Originally Posted by PawDawg

What I've noticed over the past 20 years...

While we were bragging about those magazine rankings our enrollment was stagnant and our campus infrastructure was as well.

Over the past 10 years while our magazine status has dropped, our enrollment has increased and our buildings and grounds are BOOMING with improvement. I'll take the last 10 years over the previous 10. BTW, remember how our former president and his main fund raiser dropped the ball regarding our endowment? Remember the governors we've had who had tried to suck the life out of higher education? Again, I'll take the last 10 years considering the BS we've had to deal with over some meaningless magazine rankings.

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For the most part, I agree with you. But, that said, you would think the $80M to $100M in new construction projects generated at LA Tech over the last 7 years would have had a very positive impact on Tech's rankings in USNWR. Instead, we just keep slipping. It's like the overseers of the report can't see what's going on. Which leads me to believe it's all BS anyway.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HogDawg

There's no way I think the university has truly fallen between 108 to 200 spots in quality the last 6 years. That's absurd. What's going on here? Does USNWR charge schools money for these rankings?

l

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We haven't dropped 108 to 200 spots in quality in 6 years. In 2018 the "National University" Carnegie classification was expanded to include a group of schools - many private - that were previously classified in the "Regional University" classification. I believe it went from 296 schools to 389 schools. That's what comprises USNWR's "National" category.

Many of those privates are ranked higher than Tech for a variety of reasons. For example, Loyola-New Orleans is ranked 196. Its academic endowment is three times that of Tech despite having roughly one-third of the undergraduates as Tech. Loyola moved into the "National" category a couple of years ago. That hurt Tech and others who are lower on the National list.

At the same time I believe some of the changes USNWR has made in how it ranks schools has hurt Tech. One example appears to be the high school guidance counselor assessments (25,000 guidance counselors participated), which was dropped as part of their formula in 2018. I heard for years how well we did in that category.

Tech was in "Tier 1" and was given a ranking for 7 or 8 straight years. After the changes we fell out for a year or two, got back in, and have now fallen out again. I suspect, just like 10 or so years ago, we are right on the line between the ranked schools and the bottom group in the National category.

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Originally Posted by The Historian

We haven't dropped 108 to 200 spots in quality in 6 years. In 2018 the "National University" Carnegie classification was expanded to include a group of schools - many private - that were previously classified in the "Regional University" classification. I believe it went from 296 schools to 389 schools. That's what comprises USNWR's "National" category.

Many of those privates are ranked higher than Tech for a variety of reasons. For example, Loyola-New Orleans is ranked 196. Its academic endowment is three times that of Tech despite having roughly one-third of the undergraduates as Tech. Loyola moved into the "National" category a couple of years ago. That hurt Tech and others who are lower on the National list.

At the same time I believe some of the changes USNWR has made in how it ranks schools has hurt Tech. One example appears to be the high school guidance counselor assessments (25,000 guidance counselors participated), which was dropped as part of their formula in 2018. I heard for years how well we did in that category.

Tech was in "Tier 1" and was given a ranking for 7 or 8 straight years. After the changes we fell out for a year or two, got back in, and have now fallen out again. I suspect, just like 10 or so years ago, we are right on the line between the ranked schools and the bottom group in the National category.

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Thanks. That makes a lot of sense.