2013 USNews Rankings

[Big D]

The 2013 rankings are out...Like last year, I've compared UIC to Depaul, Loyola, and UWM.

U.S. News Ranking

UIC: #147 (up from #150 in 2012; down from #143 in 2011)
Depaul: #134 (down from #132 in 2012)
Loyola: #106 (up from #119 in 2012)
UWM: rank not published (unranked last year)

Rankings, Scores & Key Indicators

Score: 38 (unchanged from 2012)
High school counselor score (out of 5): 3.7 (improved from 3.4 in 2012)
Average freshman retention rate: 80% (unchanged from 2012)
6-year graduation rate: 54% (improved from 53% in 2012)
Classes with under 20 students: 28.7% (worsened from 29.8% in 2012)
Classes with 50 or more students: 19% (unchanged from 2012)
Student-faculty ratio: 19:1 (worsened from 17:1 in 2012)
Fall 2011 acceptance rate: 62.8% (improved from fall 2010 rate of 63%)

U.S. News Rankings details

#77 Top Public Schools (up from #79 in 2012)
#100 High School Counselor Rankings (up from #147 in 2012) (Depaul: #100, Loyola: #63, UWM: #121)

#65 Part-time M.B.A. (down from #59 in 2012) (Depaul: #37, Loyola: #59, UWM: #78)
#38 Best Education Schools (up from #41 in 2012) (Depaul: unranked, Loyola: #100, UWM: #67)
#64 Best Engineering Schools (up from #68 in 2012) (UWM: #131)
#77 Best Medical Schools: Primary Care (up from #92 in 2012) (Loyola: unranked)
#62 Best Medical Schools: Research (down from #56 in 2012)(Loyola: unranked)
#71 Biological Sciences (Loyola: #130, UWM: #144)
#67 Chemistry (Loyola: rank not published, UWM: #107)
#42 Clinical Psychology (up from #50 in 2012) (Depaul: #94, Loyola: #60, UWM: #70)
#58 Computer Science (Depaul: rank not published, UWM: #110)
#19 Criminology
#69 Earth Sciences
#65 Economics (UWM: rank not published)
#41 English (Loyola: #94, UWM: #52)
-- #16 Literary Criticism and Theory
#45 Fine Arts (down from #37 in 2012) (UWM: #62)
#36 History (Loyola: #119)
#36 Math (UWM: #104)
#11 Nursing (Depaul: #127, Loyola: #50, UWM: #36)
-- #6 Clinical Nurse Specialist: Community / Public Health
-- #16 Nurse Practitioner: Family
-- #15 Nurse Practitioner: Pediatric
-- #7 Nursing Service Administration
#5 Nursing-Midwifery
#4 Occupational Therapy (UWM: #28)
#14 Pharmacy (down from #9 in 2012)
#16 Physical Therapy (down from #15 in 2012) (UWM: #63)
#70 Physics (UWM: #102)
#62 Political Science (Loyola: rank not published, UWM: #62)
#60 Psychology (Depaul: #146, Loyola: #117, UWM: #103)
#37 Public Affairs (up from #41 in 2012) (Depaul: #104, UWM: #59)
-- #9 City Management & Urban Policy (down from #8 in 2012)
-- #26 Public Finance & Budgeting (up from #27 in 2012)
#16 Public Health
#24 Social Work (down from #22 in 2012) (Depaul: #79, Loyola: #44, UWM: #52)
#41 Sociology (Loyola: #82)
-- #14 Sex and Gender
-- #22 Sociology of Population

From the above categories, 23 of them include more than one of the four schools in the rankings. UIC finished first among the four schools 21 times, and tied for first 1 time. Depaul finished at the top of the part-time MBA list, but that was the only time any other school (of these four schools) took first outright. In other words, UIC dominates these schools in these field rankings.

[UICJohn]

With tight budgets in all areas of education, I would think that class size would be affected and judging from those numbers it is. There will be large classes at any state public university. It is just how it is.

However, positive things are the improved score on High School Counselor ratings. The biggest problem that UIC faces is that it just doesn't have that name recognition yet. When someone says UIC, they think commuter school, a young school, downtown, etc. They don't think of academics and that is something that takes time.

[postagepaid]

Thanks for the breakdown, Big D. Interesting stuff -- With many guidance counselors on the brink of retirement, UIC's reputation might be finally catching up with itself in that area, but I'm surprised that such a significant jump in the counselor rating didn't make much of an impact in the overall score. Also, next year will begin to see the results of the admission's office first big national and international recruitment push.

[insideuic]

UIC just was slammed by USN&WR for being one of the top "under-performing" colleges in the nation. UIC which is rated highly in the peer section but not so highly in the overall ranking was classified as the third worst under-performer in the nation.

Bad press, even if it's horrible "analysis". Take a second to chime in if you want!

www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/07/the-most-underperforming-_n_2257267.html

[Big D]

Welcome to the board insideuic.

Can anyone explain to me what this cryptic article is trying to say...and what kind of logic they're using? I can only assume I'm reading this incorrectly.

My understanding is that the overall ranking (let's call it "Z") is divided up into two general parts:

* academic reputation (from peers, high school counselors, etc.). We'll call this "X".

* ...and a bunch of other stuff (graduation rate, financial resources, class size, student:faculty ratio, alumni giving (lol)). We'll call this "Y".

If I'm reading this right, US News is saying that if X is worse than Z, then it's because Y is strong and is making up for a lower X. These are the overperformers.

But, if X is better than Z, then it's not because Y is weak, but it's because X is wrong. This is UIC and the other underperformers.

Can someone who understands this article confirm my understanding, because this is the biggest bunch of nonsense I've seen.

We all know that Y is weak for UIC. We have low grad rates, big classes, poor alumni giving rate, etc. That is why our Z is dragged down. It's not necessarily because X (our academic reputation) is higher than it should be and will be plummeting any day now.

What a crock this article is. I didn't think I could think any less of USNews rankings, but it's borderline 1-ply toilet paper at this point.

Really terrible press for UIC...and someone high up at UIC should come out and address it. All this great news with UIC basketball on the rise, being named one of the top young universities in the world...all great recruiting tools...and then this.

Ugh.