Oso planning to go pro
Feels about right overall. But are we behind Gonzaga, Santa Clara and Loyola Marymount?https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities
Strong placing. Would love for us to be top-75, but the difference between 70 and 100 is very small honestly. It's why we keep seesawing back and forth around our ranking.
The Big East list for national universities (Butler, PC, and Xavier are ranked regionally).23. Georgetown49. Villanova63. Connecticut83. Marquette103. Creighton127. DePaul127. Seton Hall172. St. John'sThere's little change in the overall list over the years, although Villanova has certainly stepped up while St. John's continues to slowly drop down the rankings.
I've come to the conclusion that these rankings are more of a popularity contest than anything else, but all in all I think MU had a decent showing this year and it seems about right. The reason we've fallen behind a little from when we were ranked 75 eight or nine years ago, is because about 3 years ago, I believe just under 50 institutions that were previously in the "Regional University" category jumped to the "National University" category because they advanced in the Carnegie Classification from an R3 institution to an R2 institution which is a higher classification of research activity. MU made that same jump in 2012 or so I think. Gonzaga, Santa Clara, LMU and Villanova were all among those 50 or so institutions that moved up from Regional to National Universities in 2018 I think it was. I don't know much about SCU, GU or LMU's student stats, but living on the East Coast where Villanova is very popular, their student stats are quite a bit higher than MU's and a lot of other schools in the top 100 as well, so I think just by virtue of that, they'd pretty much be guaranteed to be a top 50 school even when they advanced despite the fact they're now in the same category as many of the Big 10 Research schools. I believe they were the #1 or 2 Regional when they were in that group. Given how many really good schools made that jump, MU has still held better than I would have expected. Sure they moved down a few notches, but so did a lot of schools. Fordham took a similar hit for essentially the same reason, although they're still ranked ahead of us. It's unfortunate that so many people still take these as seriously as they do but given the cost these days, I guess they have to. I still think its a popularity contest and schools on the east coast have an unfair advantage for stupid reasons.Does anyone else find it odd that in this year's rankings, the undergraduate business school was only ranked 106 despite having 3 programs in the top 25 (Supply Chain, Accounting, and Finance). Call me crazy but it seems to me any undergraduate business school with 3 Top 25 ranked majors, two of which are Accounting and Finance would be ranked much higher than 106 overall. While I'm sure they're fine programs, something seems to be off here. Just saying. Overall though, I'm not disappointed even though these don't really mean Jack.
The vast majority of Marquette students come from the Chicago-Milwaukee urban area. Within one state of Chicago are these schools.6 University of Chicago 9 Northwestern14 Wash U St Louis19 Notre Dame23 Michigan42 Madison47 Illinois49 Purdue68 Indiana83 Marquette83 Michigan State (tie)83 Iowa103 Loyola Chicago103 St Louis103 UIC112 IIT122 Iowa St127 DePaul136 Drake148 Michigan Tech172 Valparaiso187 Detroit196 IUPUIMarquette will never keep up with the elite institutions like Chicago and Northwestern, or with the resources of the Big Ten research institutions (though we are tied/ahead of a few of them), but to be #2 among private, religious colleges on this list...that's exactly where Marquette wants to be. 20 spots ahead of SLU and LUC? 40+ ahead of DePaul, Drake, and Valpo? That'll make the board and donors happy.
Disco... I agree that the on the surface the program rankings simply do not add up to the overall ranking for the University. In addition, the inclusion of once classified Regional Universities (including Villanova, Zags, LMU , six years ago) has skewed the results. So, what if I told you that the Popularity Rankings only account for 20% of the overall rankings. It is a fact. 40% of the Ranking is based on empirical and important outcomes including retention and graduation rates. For example MU SIX YR (not 4 year) graduation rates over the nearly last decade for MU has been 82% while Nova 90%. Gonzaga 86%, Santa Clara 89% and BC 93%. BTW our 4 yr Graduation rate hovers at 65%. So, a few years ago when the average freshman class was 2,000 student with a graduation rate in SIX years means only 1,600 students made it to the finish line.... My point is that the 80% empirical measures is the story of the rankings while the 20% Opinion Poll (supply chain ranking, accounting, real estate) do not move the ranking in a material way. Our highest rated College in the US News is Nursing at 43 which has been our MOST selective college in the last five years with the highest ACT scores and GPA at admission. Nursing is based on Popularity Rankings part of the rankings which aligns with Nursing demand at MU.I applaud MU for committing to double the enrollment of our highest ranked college with the greatest demand. The punchline is improve OUTCOMES not Opinions will change our rankings.
Just to clarify, the six year graduation rate is a snapshot of those who started as freshmen and graduated from Marquette within six years. It does not include students who transfer out and graduate elsewhere, or those who transfer in and graduate from MU. Including those who may transfer from a tech or community college.
It would be interesting to see the details behind the graduation rates. Just from personal experience, Marquette's environment isn't for everyone, and a decent number of students realize that and transfer out after Freshman year. Also, at least from my experience, MU has more of a focus than other schools on co-op and extended internship that push graduation beyond 4 years. Plus, high tuition means 6 years isn't realistic. I'd guess the 5yr grad rate is almost the same as the 6 yr grad rate. I'd also guess the 5 yr grad rate of students that came back for their Soph. year is pretty high.Finally, how good of a metric is grad rate? Is it partially related to how easy the school is?
It amazes me that Princeton ranks so high. It neither has a law School or Medical School. It does have an outstanding Physics department and one of only a few Universities to have a tokamak fusion reactor. They are also a leader in Biomedical Engineering. That said many part time ad hoc professors that teach at Princeton also teach at our surrounding community colleges. Most of these professors have full time jobs at the many pharmaceutical companies within a 30 mile radius of Princeton. I guess I would be safe in saying that many of our two year community college students are getting the same education as a Princeton undergrad with the same instructor.
If comparing schools for the purpose of undergrad degree, these USNWR rankings might be more appropriate: Marquette University - #58 in Best Undergraduate Teaching (tie)#54 in Best Value Schools