Miami University drops in the newest annual ranking
September 16, 2022
Miami University has fallen two spots in the U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking of U.S. colleges and universities.
According to the report, which is based on a range of data, Miami’s ranking moved from 103rd to 105th out of 443 national universities.
Miami University’s position among the top public schools has also fallen two spots, from 46th to 48th.
Compared to other national universities in Ohio, Miami ranks behind Case Western Reserve University and Ohio State University.
Gary • Sep 29, 2022 at 10:35 am
So, you just decline to print comments that you do not like? That’s quite a policy.
adviser • Sep 30, 2022 at 8:59 am
This account is overseen by a faculty member with many other responsibilities. I’m not on the OO site between publications very often.
Gary • Sep 29, 2022 at 9:49 am
First, let me say that as a college admissions counselor, I think that rankings are nonsense, particularly those put out each year by U.S. News (a publication that now exists only to rank things but is otherwise defunct). That being said, people unfortunately use these rankings as a bible and they make decisions based on them. They determine which schools are “good” schools and which are not based on these rankings. This is eventually going to trickle down to employers who might not want to recruit at a school that has fallen outside the top 100.
With respect to Miami, there is an irony in that they constantly tout their rankings in print announcements, on their website and even when one is put on hold during a phone call to the financial aid office, yet those rankings have been plummeting for more than a decade.
In 2008, U.S. News ranked Miami at 67 (which, frankly, is probably the right place if rankings were done based on teaching, learning and outcomes, which they are not). Then the drop began, but even 5 or 6 years ago, those rankings still hovered in the high 70s. Still pretty good. It has been a downhill spiral since that time. Now, this is primarily because U.S. News constantly alters the criteria on which it relies to rank schools (although always completely flawed), but all schools are subject to it and there are a lot of schools who figured out how to deal with it and have engaged in efforts to stay ahead of the curve (and, yes, game the rankings). For example, Elon University, which 25 years ago was Elon College and on the verge of closing its doors, managed to vault into the position of being the #1 regional school in the south and then, three years ago, moved to the national university category well into the top 100. Then you have Northeastern, which was a commuter school 25 years ago and ranked in the mid-200s that managed to move to the top 40 and one of the most selective schools in the country. Now, this obviously demonstrates how nonsensical the rankings are, but people shopping for colleges do not care.
So, now, kids who never would have applied to Elon are applying there while the same kids, ones who a few years ago would have applied to Miami, are ignoring Miami since it is no longer a top 100 school. And this is the case even with the3 generous merit aid given by Miami to Ohio residents and non-residents alike. Meanwhile, it has come to the point where the overwhelming majority of applicants to Miami are admitted, which will no doubt affect graduation rates (another metric where Miami expresses great pride). So much for being a “public Ivy.”
While I constantly tell my clients that rankings do not matter, in the minds of most they do. The irony is that rankings matter a lot to Miami given that they constantly reference them. If Miami is so focused on rankings, then there is a huge disconnect between their marketing and their leadership and, frankly, when a college plummets in the rankings 27 places in 5 years (and, the school’s endowment remains stagnant), something needs to change at the top. Instead, contracts to those individuals have been extended. It all makes no sense.
It is all a real shame because, as a Miami parent, I am ecstatic about the education that my child is getting. The question is whether a Miami degree will mean us much to employers as it has in the past. I fear that it will not.