USNWR Rankings

[iheartheflames]

Totally off athletics, but...

UIC came in 9 schools under being ranked by the magazine as a 2nd tier school this year. It looks like, alumni giving and faculty resources (classroom size) are dragging the school down (though the alumni giving was at 3% a few years back).

Here's the breakdown:

U.S. News rank 134
Overall score: 31
Peer assessment score (5.0=highest) 3.0

Graduation and retention rank: 188
Average freshman retention rate: 78 %
6-year graduation rate: 50 %
Predicted graduation rate 58 %
Overperformance(+)/Underperformance(-): -8

Faculty resources rank: 217
Classes with under 20 students (2007): 37 %
Classes with 50 or more students (2007): 19 %
Student faculty ratio (2007) 16:1
Percent of faculty who are full-time (2007) 91 %

Student selectivity rank 118
SAT/ACT 25th-75th percentile (2007) 21-26
Freshmen in top 10 percent of high school class (2007): 23 %
Freshmen in top 25 percent of high school class (2007): 58 %
Fall 2007 Acceptance rate: 64 %

Financial resources rank: 34

Alumni giving rank: 214
Average alumni giving rate (2007): 6 %

Let's push that up: www.brilliantfutures.uic.edu

[Big D]

Hey iheartheflames, thanks for the breakdown. If you go to the US News website, they lump all the 3rd tier schools together in alphabetical order, but it's nice to know we're so close to tier 2. Could you post the exact rankings of the other HL schools?

The US News rankings are definitely biased towards older, more traditional schools with money, so it's hard to say that they can be taken seriously, but at the same time, the average person eats these rankings up...it's all about public perception, and so for that reason, we need to be as high on these rankings as possible.

I may be wrong, but I believe our peer score has dropped a little bit over the years (again, I could be wrong on that). We're definitely hurt by alumni giving and our graduation rates, so hopefully, as we improve those, we can slide into the top 125.

Have you guys seen the RIDICULOUS rankings done by forbes.com? They try to rank all the schools together. You can find UIC near the end of the rankings at #547.

www.forbes.com/lists/2008/94/opinions_college08_Americas-Best-Colleges_Rank.html

The scoring methodology they use?...

1. Listing of Alumni in the 2008 Who's Who in America (25%)

2. Student Evaluations of Professors from Ratemyprofessors.com (25%)

3. Four- Year Graduation Rates (16 2/3%)

4. Enrollment-adjusted numbers of students and faculty receiving nationally competitive awards (16 2/3%)

5. Average four year accumulated student debt of those borrowing money (16 2/3%)

Can you even believe #1 and #2? What a joke. UWM should enjoy this though. This is the 1st and only time they'll find their school ranked above UIC at #527. I guess one less UWM student must've complained about their professors.

[iheartheflames]

You're right. Our peer rating, under Fish was a 3.1, we used to lead the pack on the 3rd tier schools. Doesn't really make sense that we slipped considering that 3 of our colleges were ranked tops (CBA, CUPPA, SPH) in research productivity by the Chronicle of Higher Education last year.

Other HL Rankings, in order:

National Schools: Comprehensive UG programs, Doctorate Level, Research

Loyola: 116
Illinois-Chicago: 139
Wisconsin-Milwaukee: 210
Wright State: 219
Wisconsin-Green Bay: 226
Cleveland State: 256

Master's Regional Schools/ Midwest: Universities-master's comprehensive UG, some Masters, no grad, no research

Valpo: 3
Butler: 4
Detriot-Mercy: 21
Youngstown State: 104

[Big D]

Yeah, that sounds right...I thought I remembered us being a tenth or two higher and at the top of the 3rd tier rankings as far as peer score is concerned.

So, wait...are we 134 or 139?

Our peer score is not likely to change too much (especially if Fish was only worth 0.1 points) so we're going to have to improve in other areas to climb the rankings. Actually, I'm somewhat surprised that Loyola is only 20 or so spots above us. They brag about their academics but they're not much ahead of UIC.

[iheartheflames]

Sorry, Typo. 134 ranking.

Housing is going to make a big impact on retention over the next few years. Their Freshmen retention rate is in the low 90s versus the campus's general 78 rate.

And the campus is really focused on improving graduation rates (with huge increases over the last few years).

Selectivity could go up as well, but the real test will be how UIC fares when there's a dip in high school graduates in the next few years.

FYI, Depaul is tied with us at 134.