GFunk loves showing up in these threads playing his favorite game of "my list is better than your list"
I truly don't understand the fascination with research by a lot of people. I'm an attorney. I hire attorneys. When I'm hiring, I look at the schools the person attended. I don't care that Ohio State has a ton of research money for physics. I want to know how competitive the school is for an undergrad with the major my applicant has. Then I look at the specific law school ranking.
I'm not saying research is unimportant. It just seems that people are using incorrect metrics for certain things. It's like saying that UConn's football team should be great because we've recruited well in basketball. (Typed on iPhone. please don't judge typos).
Public education is going to go belly-up. Don't get your hopes up.
Actually, I think the funding challenges of many public institutions, especially in states with multiple universities, will contribute to UCONN's climb in the rankings. I think Connecticut is pot committed and will continue to fund their initiatives.
Consider me a HUGE skeptic. Not pointing a finger at anyone in particular at UConn, but the national trends are hard to deny, even at AAU schools that are a lot better funded than UConn. Here we are talking about undergraduate education the last few days, and UConn's $1.6 billion is going toward buildings, and Avery point and Stamford, and also UConn STEM (read: graduate research). The plans at most state institutions involved gutting the undergraduate curriculum through a host of measures (intersessions, online courses, lower standards for degree, adjuncts). For a long time people have said a BA is nothing more than a glorified HS diploma. It will be increasingly more difficult to disagree with that. UConn's moves do not seem to counter any of what is going on nationally.
The current Pres. and Fed. administration has taken the last Pres. and Fed's plans, and amped them up by a factor of 5x. When they've finally constructed their Ministry of Education (K thru Bachelors), it will be interesting. What will be lost? Not sure anyone knows.
I don't totally disagree regarding national trends in higher education. Where I do disagree somewhat is UCONN's situation in respect to its undergrad efforts. A portion of the STEM initiative is to fund a higher number of related undergraduate students. In addition, a significant percentage of the new faculty hires will be integrated into undergraduate studies. UCONN (along with USC) is one of the few universities nationally to increase its investment in Humanities. UCONN is somewhat unique in that it has more of a vested interest in advancing and expanding both its undergraduate and graduate programs than many other schools.
This could balloon to a much bigger conversation, but I think 2nd tier public and private schools, along with some lower 1st tier privates are going to be challenged to keep pace. Many schools that don't adapt will be hurt by online educators. And let's be honest, online learning, when used in the right proportion can be effective, both in terms of cost and education. What could also be a concern for some institutions is that there are more and more students with enough AP credits to enter college as a Junior. I have several friends with kids that only needed 2-3 (some with summer) years at a quality institution to get their degrees.
You're right this could balloon. My concern is that because of the competition from "credential" mills, that schools are trying to become credential mills. It's pretty easy to do. Make education a sham and hand out diplomas. This is why I'm not such a big critic of the APR anymore, since the entire university is now moving toward a "sham metric" system. I'd put a greater stake in the Steve Jobs experience. He could recite back exactly what he learned at university that was integral in Apple's design and successes. But he didn't get a degree. So what? Now we're moving toward the reverse.
Online education could be fantastic. I spend enough time online to know that. We're probably at the beginning right now of what it will be. But--I think it will turn into a sham. For it to work, you need specialists to spend many hours designing courses with true interactivity. Instead, the rollouts have been close-ended MOOCS that duplicate the same lecture experience that we've been using for 1,000 years. It is dull and unimaginative, and I would bet several years salary that the outcomes will be atrocious. Talking to students who have taken them is funny, they are watching shows, texting, tweeting, eating, etc., fast-forwarding the class, and while you can just as easily daydream in class (or sleep or whatever) there are fewer distractions. I am easily distractable. I would sink with such a curriculum. My sense of the education corporations is that they want to spend very little money on course development in order to fatten margins as much as humanly possible, and if what they're peddling is a sham, they'd rather create a metric that argues against the fact that what they're doing is a big money suck and a waste of time. And so they're developing SATs for the END of your college years, but without coercing and compelling students into taking such exams (by withholding a diploma, I suppose) the whole enterprise is shaky.
The largest universities today are online entities. I do agree that there is a risk of churning out credentials. But, I suspect there is also money to be made in educating to a higher level. Imagine if an online "startup" could show that their students performed higher than a top university on third party testing, i.e., LSATs
I envision universities hiring user experience teams to deliver an optimized experience that blends a real-time interactive experience with online instruction and prepackaged content. That's already happening to a certain extent, but agree, that many universities are feeling their way through it, and we are still on the front end of things.
Only 1 pt separates UCONN from the next three public universities: Texas, Ohio State, and Washington. The stellar stats of the incoming class along with nearly 150 new faculty (many leaders in their respective field), will enable UCONN to pass at least two more public institutions come the fall 0f 2014.
GFunk loves showing up in these threads playing his favorite game of "my list is better than your list"
I do find it incredibly hard to believe that there are grad students out there looking at US News grad rankings when the grad programs are actually ranked by the National Academies and Carnegie. If this is happening, I would suggest such students reconsider the prospect of grad school.
I disagree. I still have my 2006 US News Undergraduate Rankings & the Public Policy - City Management section will always have my annotations. Granted, I looked at NSR and Carnegie as well. US News was a decent primer, but of all the publications I used, aside from actual faculty publications, Planetizen's Best Urban Regional Planning Guide worked best for my field. Planetizen, US News, Carnegie and NSR had a lot of crossover. More importantly, I spent time speaking and writing to faculty and current grad students, as well as reviewing applied program opportunities that earned credits, and of course internship opportunities. Somewhat less fortunate, I put too much emphasis on funding opportunities, and proximity to home mattered. I wasn't exactly solvent when I started grad school.
I really have no idea what you're talking about. Did you read my posts carefully? I certainly applauded UConn's rise in US News. But how often is this thing cited at this point? It's just tiring & only spells out part of the picture. BIG schools look at all levels of the university mission - the AAU things is not to be taken lightly, though I feel it's overstated.
Lastly, I've been quite clear on this board here since joining Boneyard: UConn to the BIG would be a sweet addition.
and what is that based on ???If in 16 years my kid has to choose between UConn and UT-Austin, I would hope he would choose Austin.
Are you saying UConn will pass two of Texas, Ohio State, or Washington by next year? I could maybe see Ohio State in the next decade but the other two I find hard to believe we would ever pass. Admittedly, I have no knowledge of how these things work but my perception has always been Texas and UW are there with UNC, GT, UCLA, and other top publics.