USA TODAY: 2014 College Rankings

setshot · September 10, 2013, 07:47:50 AM

VALPO has slipped to SIXTH place in the 2014 MW Regional rankings. WHY?
The top six schools in order are:
Creighton
Butler
Drake
Xavier
Bradley
VALPO

We all know that our football team is an embarssement,now we have slippage in our academics. OMG!

vu72 · September 10, 2013, 09:05:24 AM

That is disappointing. That's the lowest it has ever been.

Valposter · September 10, 2013, 09:53:51 AM

What were we historically ranked? What were the rankings from the last two or three years if anyone knows it. Just curious....haven't seen this ranking in the past. Is this a list of just private schools? Surprised that Miami (public) and Dayton (private) are not on the list.

setshot · September 10, 2013, 10:08:53 AM

We were tied for fourth last year along with Xavier. Bradley was ranked fifth. Under the Harre Admin. we were ranked #1 for a few years. Then the slide began.

historyman · September 10, 2013, 10:13:23 AM

Quote from: setshot on September 10, 2013, 10:08:53 AMWe were tied for fourth last year along with Xavier. Bradley was ranked fifth. Under the Harre Admin. we were ranked #1 for a few years. Then the slide began.

Must be the nepotism issue. This university suffers from way too much nepotism. Right, dad. $:-\$

valpotx · September 10, 2013, 10:20:54 AM

We alternated #1 and #2 while I was in school...

valpo95 · September 10, 2013, 10:27:04 AM

Quote from: Valposter on September 10, 2013, 09:53:51 AM
What were we historically ranked? What were the rankings from the last two or three years if anyone knows it. Just curious....haven't seen this ranking in the past. Is this a list of just private schools? Surprised that Miami (public) and Dayton (private) are not on the list.

Miami was listed at #75 and Dayton was listed at #112 on the National Universities listing, where the schools have both national/international scope, typically offer PhDs and have a commitment to a research agenda. Valpo has been historically listed under the Regional Universities listing, where the schools don't offer many graduate degrees and do not have a major research agenda. Being categorized with Creighton, Butler, Drake and Xavier is OK with me, but it is disappointing that the ranking has fallen so much over time.

You can find more about the rankings here:

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges

vu72 · September 10, 2013, 12:11:10 PM

Quote from: Valposter on September 10, 2013, 09:53:51 AM
What were we historically ranked? What were the rankings from the last two or three years if anyone knows it. Just curious....haven't seen this ranking in the past. Is this a list of just private schools? Surprised that Miami (public) and Dayton (private) are not on the list.

The ranking first came out in 1983 and Valpo has never been outside of the top 5 until this year. Recognize however that the "Midwest" includes Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota and Missouri. There are probably 200 or so schools in this category.

agibson · September 10, 2013, 12:35:03 PM

Quote from: vu72 on September 10, 2013, 12:11:10 PMThe ranking first came out in 1983 and Valpo has never been outside of the top 5 until this year.

6th is disappointing. The five above us are sort of the usual suspects, but it does seem a bad omen to be behind all of them this year. I don't if US News gives enough detail for us to decide specifically why we're below (or why we fell).

As for the category, "Regional University". I wasn't able to quickly turn up the exact criteria. But, a little counter-intuitively, "Regional University" seems to have more to do with degrees offered "full range of undergrad programs and some master's programs but few doctoral programs" than with the scope of the university (local vs. regional vs. national vs. international). They happen to split these masters-level universities up regionally. Maybe they do tend to have a more regional-reach, but I don't think that's how US News is dividing the pie.

More doctoral programs, we'd probably be a "National University". Fewer (or no) masters and we'd be a "college" or a "liberal arts" college. It's not immediately clear how they split those two groups into national vs. regional pools. Maybe there "scope" does have some considerable role. But, for the "University" categories it really seems to be more about doctoral vs. masters.

agibson · September 10, 2013, 12:54:11 PM

There's some fairly reasonable, if not easy-to-digest, description of the methodology at
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2013/09/09/how-us-news-calculated-the-2014-best-colleges-rankings

I attempt a quick summary, below.

I don't think they make all of their data public.

For the data that they give easiest access to (acceptance rate, freshman retention, 6-year graduation) we edge Butler on 6-year graduation rate. But, otherwise, we seem to be worst or tied-for-worst among the top-6 in each category. Admittedly, those categories are probably less than a third of the total weight, so I wouldn't read too much into them.

US News seems to think that changes to their methodology this year may explain a variety of differences in the rankings... (You can see their page for a discussion of what's changed. Generally, it seems, an attempt to put more weight on "outputs" and less on "inputs".)

Quick summary:
"we gather data from each college on up to 16 indicators of academic excellence. Each factor is assigned a weight that reflects our judgment about how much a measure matters."

"U.S. News made significant changes this year to the Best Colleges ranking methodology to reduce the weight of input factors and increase the weight of output measures."

Undergraduate academic reputation (22.5 percent): (survey of presidents, provosts and deans of admissions)

Retention (22.5 percent): (six year graduation rate and freshman retention)

Faculty resources (20%) (class sizes, faculty salaries, fraction with highest degree, student-faculty ratio, full time faculty percentage)

Student selectivity (12.5%) (SAT/ACT, fraction in top quarter of HS class, acceptance rate)

Financial resources (10%) " the average spending per student on instruction, research, student services and related educational expenditures in the 2011 and 2012 fiscal years. Spending on sports, dorms and hospitals doesn't count. "

Graduation rate performance (7.5 percent) (graduation rate compared to a US-News-predicted rate)

Alumni giving rate (5 percent)

agibson · September 10, 2013, 12:55:59 PM

Did they do away with their "Best Buy" category?

Ah, now it's "Best Value" - maybe it always was.

So, there's the silver lining.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/regional-universities-midwest/best-value

72% receiving need-based grants, average cost after receiving need based grants $23.4k.

#2, behind Creighton.

agibson · September 10, 2013, 01:04:45 PM

Didn't we used to have a better tool for tables?

The current version seems pretty non-user friendly.

Here's a quick ASCII version.

Overall Ranking. Value Ranking. School (average cost after receiving need based grants)

1   1   Creighton ($25.5k)
2   9   Butler ($29.5k)
3 11   Drake ($28.2k)
4        Xavier (not even in the top 15)
5   7   Bradley ($26.0k)
6   2    Valpo ($23.4k)
7   5   John Carroll ($25.0k)
...
9   3   Evansville ($21.8k)
...
13   4   Dominican ($20.9k)

Value is good. And I'm not sure I'd want to trade places with either Bradley or Xavier. But, it would sure be nice to have the overall ranking higher (to the extent that you think their methodology is sensible, etc, etc.)

vu72 · September 10, 2013, 01:04:48 PM

The ranking system is a bit convoluted but here are some schools ranked in our category: Most State direction schools (Eastern Illinois, Western Illinois, Northern Michigan, University of Illinois-Springfield, U of Wisconsin-Eau Claire), but then others like U of Indianapolis, Indiana Wesleyan as well as a school like Chicago State.

At the same time schools including Franklin and Taylor are included in the Regional College category probably because they offer few if any Masters degrees in the same way that Valpo is ranked as a Regional University because of limited Doctorates.

agibson · September 10, 2013, 01:38:41 PM

Quote from: vu72 on September 10, 2013, 01:04:48 PMhere are some schools ranked in our category: Most State direction schools (Eastern Illinois, Western Illinois, Northern Michigan, University of Illinois-Springfield, U of Wisconsin-Eau Claire), but then others like U of Indianapolis, Indiana Wesleyan as well as a school like Chicago State.

A few more that may be of interest:

Detroit (25), UWGB (65), Augsburg MN (26), Concordia University Wisconsin (aka Mequon) (68), Concordia-RF (83), Evansville (9), Northern Iowa (13) (and a total of 108 that had rankings published, with a number 39 rankings unpublished, and 12 or so with no ranking)