Re: US News Rankings
Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:35 am
Looks like we are down 2 more this year.
fan wrote:Looks like we are down 2 more this year.
gostangs wrote:This is a constant source of frustration. SMU has higher average student ACT scores than UT - but they are a full 20 plus spots ahead of us? SMU tied with A&M? They are more than 100 SAT average points below us. Embarrassing.
Our admissions team is doing their part bringing in great student quality - the problem lies elsewhere - time for change.
We need to fund someone who's full time job it is to move the needle on this for us - we are the only ones not gaming the system. If we lose our rep we are in trouble - we will be viewed as a really expensive less than average university
tristatecoog wrote:#42. UT-Austin
#49. Lehigh, Northeastern, Pepperdine, Miami FL
#53. tOSU, Purdue, RPI, Santa Clara, Villanova
#58. FSU, Syracuse, Maryland, Pitt and U-Dub. 'Noles and Pitt seem to be rising.
#63. Penn State, Rutgers and UConn
#66. SMU, LMU, George Washington, A&M, Fordham, UMass, WPI and Minnesota.
#76. Baylor, American, IU and Yeshiva
#80. TCU with Denver, BYU, Stevens Institute, Michigan State, NC State, Howard and Gonzaga. Think TCU was in low-90s last year.
#97 Auburn
#103. CU-Boulder and USF
#124. KU and Missou
#133. OU
#143. Alabama, UTD, Cincy and Tulsa. Golden Hurricane has been dropping like a rock. Was ~100 couple years ago.
#160. Arkansas, UCF and Ole Miss.
#176. UH, Louisville and Wazzu.
#187. OK State
#206. Miss State
#217. TX Tech and ECU.
#241. WVU
#249. UNT
#258. Memphis -- finally found them
Florida schools seem to be rising On the whole. UF at #30. Rising population with solid public U funding?
AfricanMustang wrote:gostangs wrote:This is a constant source of frustration. SMU has higher average student ACT scores than UT - but they are a full 20 plus spots ahead of us? SMU tied with A&M? They are more than 100 SAT average points below us. Embarrassing.
Our admissions team is doing their part bringing in great student quality - the problem lies elsewhere - time for change.
We need to fund someone who's full time job it is to move the needle on this for us - we are the only ones not gaming the system. If we lose our rep we are in trouble - we will be viewed as a really expensive less than average university
Before this year's changes; an area in which SMU continued to struggle was graduation and retention rates - hence things like building new residence halls and requiring second year students to stay on campus with the goal of building a sense of community. The halls opened Fall 2014, so Spring 2020 would be the first time 6 years will have been completely finished for a student that entered Fall 2014.
Also, one thing that dragged SMU behind was when it changed the University Curriculum (UC) formerly GEC which led to many kids taking longer to graduate, this has since been rectified but obviously it stills affects the graduation rate so we have to wait for those kids it affected to phase out (graduate)
AfricanMustang wrote:AfricanMustang wrote:gostangs wrote:This is a constant source of frustration. SMU has higher average student ACT scores than UT - but they are a full 20 plus spots ahead of us? SMU tied with A&M? They are more than 100 SAT average points below us. Embarrassing.
Our admissions team is doing their part bringing in great student quality - the problem lies elsewhere - time for change.
We need to fund someone who's full time job it is to move the needle on this for us - we are the only ones not gaming the system. If we lose our rep we are in trouble - we will be viewed as a really expensive less than average university
Before this year's changes; an area in which SMU continued to struggle was graduation and retention rates - hence things like building new residence halls and requiring second year students to stay on campus with the goal of building a sense of community. The halls opened Fall 2014, so Spring 2020 would be the first time 6 years will have been completely finished for a student that entered Fall 2014.
Also, one thing that dragged SMU behind was when it changed the University Curriculum (UC) formerly GEC which led to many kids taking longer to graduate, this has since been rectified but obviously it stills affects the graduation rate so we have to wait for those kids it affected to phase out (graduate)
In May 2010 the Board of Trustees approved a new general education curriculum, the University Curriculum (UC) that was launched in fall 2012. Almost immediately after adoption, a number of issues arose regarding its feasibility. These included an overly ambitious Second Language Requirement (SLR) and an overly complex structure and assessment. Over the next four years further problems surfaced including the inability of high-credit majors (e.g., engineering and performing arts) to graduate in four years, the difficulty in creating four-year plans for many other students and the lack of clarity and consistency in determining how courses should fit within the curriculum. Following a report commissioned by then Provost Paul Ludden, the University Curriculum Council took a number of steps to simplify the curriculum that resulted in a significantly revised version that went into effect in fall 2014. Unfortunately, these changes had unintended consequences that required further modifications that went into effect in fall 2016. Thus, we have had three versions of the University Curriculum since its inception.
The multi-year changes that led to our current version of the University Curriculum, UC 2016, have been so dramatic and the process so ad hoc and carried out with so little faculty oversight, that the Faculty Senate passed two resolutions in January 2016 requesting that incoming Provost Steve Currall create a Task Force to propose a more cohesive revision of the University Curriculum to be ratified by the SMU faculty and the Board of Trustees. While a brand new curriculum might seem desirable at this juncture, the effort to replace it after only six years would require a herculean effort. In addition, UC 2016 contains many important features that it inherited from UC 2010 that are worth preserving and others that have resulted from our post-implementation experience. Examples include a robust and feasible SLR, a curriculum that draws from courses across all undergraduate schools and the recognition of student work outside the classroom.
Since September 2016 the General Education Review Task Force has been creating this revised curriculum, the Common Curriculum (CC). In spring 2018, members of the task force met with every SMU academic department and with groups from Student Affairs, Advising, the Registrar and Admissions Counselors, among others, to describe the proposed curriculum. Based on feedback, a number of changes have been made. We recommend that the faculty of SMU and the Board of Trustees adopt the Common Curriculum to go into effect in fall 2020.
https://www.smu.edu/-/media/Site/Provos ... .pdf?la=en
Mustangs_Maroons wrote:when you look at the universities that are ranked from 31 to where SMU is, it really is disappointing that we as a university have not been able to do more with the inherent strengths of the university (higher student profile, location in Dallas, inherently strong UG areas such as business, etc).
It's amazing how Turner has been here for so long. The guy is 74 - what other university has a president that is that old. No offense but we need new blood. We should get a provost from a university such as Duke, Brown, ND, WashU or Northwestern and hire then as president of the university. They will get us focused on the right things to get SMU to where it belongs on the academics rankings. Focus on research, professor recruitment and student scholarships. Forget now about new buildings and those damn fountains.
fan wrote:Hopefully then we've addressed the issues and our rank improves next year.
AfricanMustang wrote:Mustangs_Maroons wrote:when you look at the universities that are ranked from 31 to where SMU is, it really is disappointing that we as a university have not been able to do more with the inherent strengths of the university (higher student profile, location in Dallas, inherently strong UG areas such as business, etc).
It's amazing how Turner has been here for so long. The guy is 74 - what other university has a president that is that old. No offense but we need new blood. We should get a provost from a university such as Duke, Brown, ND, WashU or Northwestern and hire then as president of the university. They will get us focused on the right things to get SMU to where it belongs on the academics rankings. Focus on research, professor recruitment and student scholarships. Forget now about new buildings and those damn fountains.
When you talk about focusing on research, isn't that what the new Moody School of Graduate and Advanced Studies with the accompanying $100 million is supposed to achieve?