Marquette Drops In Rankings

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

I've read locally here in Connecticut that even Yale hates the ratings.  Because the university's rating seems to fluculate in the Top 5, they often get asked questions from prospective students and parents such as, "What did you do to lose your number 1 rating in US News?"

[Avenue Commons]

In that case I don't think Marquette has anything but to feel proud.  UW-Madison is the public university showcase school in Wisconsin with large state funding and bragging rights to some Nobel winners.   Hence, excellent job Marquette.

I totally agree. We're not an Ivy League school and we aren't a big state school with massive funding. If you look at it in that context we're doing pretty well. I'm proud of being the #5 Catholic school behind only Notre Dame, Georgetown, Boston College and Fordham.

[augoman]

In that case I don't think Marquette has anything but to feel proud.  UW-Madison is the public university showcase school in Wisconsin with large state funding and bragging rights to some Nobel winners.   Hence, excellent job Marquette.

I totally agree. We're not an Ivy League school and we aren't a big state school with massive funding. If you look at it in that context we're doing pretty well. I'm proud of being the #5 Catholic school behind only Notre Dame, Georgetown, Boston College and Fordham.

remember guys, Northwestern (#14) is the smallest (7,700 enrollment) and the ONLY private school in the big 10!  Talk about accomplishment!

[Pakuni]

Just got my copy of the new U.S. News today (yes, Avenue, I do read it for more than just the rankings) and noticed a pretty telling tend in the rankings: there seems to be a institutional bias against private schools, with a some Ivy League exceptions, in the peer assessment category.

According to U.S. News, peer assessment is the largest single factor in a school ranking, accounting for 25 percent of a school's total score. The magazine defines peer assessment as "How the school is regarded by administrators at peer institutions. A school's peer assessment score is determined by surveying the presidents, provosts, and deans of admissions (or equivalent positions) at institutions in the school's category. Each individual was asked to rate peer schools' undergraduate academic programs on a scale from 1 (marginal) to 5 (distinguished)."

When you look at the rankings, the large public universities score disproportionatley well in peer assessment when compared to their private peers, even when the schools in question are far apart in their overall rankings.

For example, Lehigh U. ranks 31st overall, but has a peer assessment score of 3.2 That's a worse peer assessment than the University of Oregon (112th overall), University of Arizona (92nd), University of Missouri (91st), University of Kansas (85th), University of Colorado (79th) and Virginia Tech (71st).

Another example: Boston College ranks 35th overall, but gets a peer assessment of 3.6, the same or worse than Arizona, Minnesota, Iowa and Maryland, all of whom rank 54th or lower in the total rankings.

If college administrators really believe those schools are better than Lehigh and BC, there's something wrong with the state of college administration today.

Closer to home, MU gets a 2.9, lower than every single BCS school on the list.

I have no idea the cause of this  - perhaps more college administrators went to BCS schools? - but it appears it skews the rankings heavily in favor of the large state universities.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Bias Pakuni?  You don't say!   

[Ready2Fly]

In light of the donation today, I decided to take a look at the total endowments of the Catholic schools ahead of us in the rankings.

Notre Dame - $5.5 billion
Boston College - $1.6 billion
Georgetown University - $951 million
Fordham University - $372 million
SLU - $862.5 million

MARQUETTE - $301.2 million

Granted, I got all of these numbers from Wikipedia, so I'm not sure how accurate/up-to-date thse numbers are.

Assuming they're accurate and up-to-date, this is one area where we're sorely lacking compared with our peers.  I bet another Final Four run (or, even better, national championship) would do wonders for that endowment number.  I'd be interested to see how much it grew after our run in '03 or if the majority of that went to the AL.

I bet once Mr. Wade enters the fattest of his earning years he'll send a Jefferson-like donation our way, too.  Not saying I'm expecting it or would think any less of him if he didn't.  Just seems like something that's in his nature.

Also, does anyone here have any first-hand knowledge (or know someone who knows someone who knows someone) of how endowments are grown?  Is it mostly dependent on fat-cat alum?  Or is it more a function of the money-managers handling the funds?  Or, like the case with most things, is it a combination of the two?

[BuzzSucksSucks]

Marquette's Magis Campaign, from 1998-2005, raised over $356 million.   

"Julie Tolan, vice president for university advancement, and Jean Dole, chief campaign officer for university advancement, presented the groundwork Monday for a future campaign, which is currently in the early planning and leadership phases.

Dole said the quick startup was the result of momentum from the Magis Campaign and the efforts of University President the Rev. Robert A. Wild.

'We have a very popular president, who is long-tenured, who wants to see the endowment grow to a billion dollars,' she said."

http://media.www.marquettetribune.org/media/storage/paper1130/news/2006/11/21/News/Fundraising.Campaign.To.Promote.Endowment-2504643.shtml

"The bulk of Marquette's donations comes from a very small portion of donors, according to Dole. In the Magis Campaign, 95 percent of donations came from 5 percent of the donors.

Tolan said she expected the next campaign to rely on 3 percent of donors for 98 percent of incoming funds."

[Ready2Fly]

Thanks, MOwarrior.

Those are some ridiculous stats on the donors.  I assumued the bulk came from the top, but wow.

The billion dollar goal seems lofty, but it looks like it's an important one to reach if we want to be considered with Georgetown and Boston College.