CSNbbs

Full Version: W&M Still Among the Top 50 Colleges
You're currently viewing a stripped down version of our content. View the full version with proper formatting.
I suspect most have seen this article, but if not, here it is.

One note: UVA dropped one spot to #25, while W&M stayed at #32. (This is among ALL Colleges, not just Public).

Virginia Tech moved up to #69, Mason moved up to #140, while VCU fell to #171.

https://wmalumni.com/get-informed/gale/2...kings_2017


The U.S. News and World Report released their rankings today and continues to rank W&M among the nation's best (including #6 Public University, #7 best undergraduate teaching, and jumped from #34 in 2012 to #18 in alumni giving among all universities)!
Northeastern moving up in the world!
NE is criticized for customizing the school to the ranking criteria. We need to increase our endowment which stands at $800M range.
Is it true that financial resources is a component of this rating?
(09-12-2017 07:03 PM)WMSportsBlog Wrote: [ -> ]Is it true that financial resources is a component of this rating?

yes.

Quote:The measures fall into seven broad areas: undergraduate academic reputation (including peer assessment and, for the National Universities and National Liberal Arts Colleges categories only, high school counselors' ratings); graduation and retention rates; faculty resources (class size, for example); student selectivity (for example, average admissions test scores of incoming students); financial resources; alumni giving; and graduation rate performance.

the push to increase the percent of alumni that give over the last 2 years directly impacts the US News ranking (as well as obviously being good for the school)
(09-12-2017 07:27 PM)soccerguy315 Wrote: [ -> ]
(09-12-2017 07:03 PM)WMSportsBlog Wrote: [ -> ]Is it true that financial resources is a component of this rating?

yes.

Quote:The measures fall into seven broad areas: undergraduate academic reputation (including peer assessment and, for the National Universities and National Liberal Arts Colleges categories only, high school counselors' ratings); graduation and retention rates; faculty resources (class size, for example); student selectivity (for example, average admissions test scores of incoming students); financial resources; alumni giving; and graduation rate performance.

the push to increase the percent of alumni that give over the last 2 years directly impacts the US News ranking (as well as obviously being good for the school)

Ah -- thanks for the clarification. I do remember reading somewhere that the discrepancy between W&M's financial resources (while "low") and our overall rank (higher), represents the biggest gap between the two rankings for any school anywhere close to us in the overall rank.

Really hoping to fix this over the coming years; if they didn't take financials into account, I'd assume we'd be top-25, or at the very least, in the 20s (as UVA is) -- as we certainly should be.
(09-12-2017 07:43 PM)WMSportsBlog Wrote: [ -> ]
(09-12-2017 07:27 PM)soccerguy315 Wrote: [ -> ]
(09-12-2017 07:03 PM)WMSportsBlog Wrote: [ -> ]Is it true that financial resources is a component of this rating?

yes.

Quote:The measures fall into seven broad areas: undergraduate academic reputation (including peer assessment and, for the National Universities and National Liberal Arts Colleges categories only, high school counselors' ratings); graduation and retention rates; faculty resources (class size, for example); student selectivity (for example, average admissions test scores of incoming students); financial resources; alumni giving; and graduation rate performance.

the push to increase the percent of alumni that give over the last 2 years directly impacts the US News ranking (as well as obviously being good for the school)

Ah -- thanks for the clarification. I do remember reading somewhere that the discrepancy between W&M's financial resources (while "low") and our overall rank (higher), represents the biggest gap between the two rankings for any school anywhere close to us in the overall rank.

Really hoping to fix this over the coming years; if they didn't take financials into account, I'd assume we'd be top-25, or at the very least, in the 20s (as UVA is) -- as we certainly should be.

I heard the same thing and once personally looked at the numbers when I was a student. It was staggering. There wasn't a school even close to the gap W&M had. I'm excited to see what the school can do with a bigger endowment going forward.
We retained our outstanding #6 ranking among public universities only,,,UVA is #3.
I think we are kind of sandwiched between national university and liberal arts college category. We are good at maximizing our limited resources. President Revely has done a remarkable job of stabilizing our college while launching a for the bold campaign. Our next president will need to continue the initiatives President Revely started and go even further in terms of increasing our endowment. The College can do so much more with a blank check.
Endowments are one of the biggest things that let universities do university stuff (for lack of a better term). I'm sure it's a major factor in the rankings, so I thought I'd have a look at where we rank. Not shockingly, we are the highest ranked school with an endowment under $1 Billion. In true WM nerd fashion, I went through and looked at the endowment for each school ahead of us in this years rankings:

School Endowment
Princeton 22.1 Billion
Harvard 34.5 Billion
Chicago 7 Billion
Yale 25.4 Billion
Columbia 9 Billion
MIT 13.1 Billion
Stanford 22.3 Billion
Penn 10.7 Billion
Duke 10 Billion
Cal Tech 2.1 Billion
Dartmouth 4.47 Billion
JHU 3.3 Billion
Northwestern 9.6 Billion
Brown 3.2 Billion
Cornell 5.7 Billion
Rice 5.3 Billion
Vandy 3.8 Billion
Notre Dame 10.4 Billion
Wash U 6.4 Billion
Georgetown 1.4 Billion
Emory 6.4 Billion
Cal Berkeley 4 Billion
UCLA 3.5 Billion
USC 4.6 Billion
CMU 1.7 Billion
Uva 5.8 Billion
Wake Forest 1.1 Billion
Michigan 9.7 Billion
Tufts 1.5 Billion
NYU 3.4 Billion
UNC 2.8 Billion
BC 2 Billion
WM 803 Million

I'm all for touting the "we do more with less line" but this is why the current fundraising campaign is fantastic. These resources allow us start reaching beyond the normal things we do as a university. It's what pushes research, facilities, attracts more grants, professors, and consistently top notch students. Reveley did a great job, and I'm glad that there's a desire to include that aspect going forward. Can you imagine if we suddenly had a $3 Billion endowment? I know that's a pipe dream, but I let my mind wander about what that would mean for WM. Obviously we're a passionate sports group, but we went to WM so also recognize the value of the rest of the school; a huge endowment increase like that would yield some pretty amazing results.
For those that are bored, there are some *really* interesting readings about our endowment in the 1800s.

Couple interesting tidbits:
-Jefferson borrowed $24,000 from W&M (and it was never paid back in full)
-Our endowment took a huge hit after the Civil War due to investments in Confederate treasury bonds.
-$32,000 had been invested in confederate bonds in addition to $70,000 damage to campus ($57k to the wren building)

Highly recommend flipping through the Google Books link after you've completed your scouting of Bucknell's secondary this week.



http://articles.dailypress.com/1993-10-1...-professor

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/7001...story.html

https://books.google.com/books?id=QYdiL7...nt&f=false
So, in other words, we're not well-endowed.
(09-13-2017 03:30 PM)Tribal Wrote: [ -> ]So, in other words, we're not well-endowed.

It's not about the size, but how you use it?
(09-13-2017 11:49 AM)hktribefan Wrote: [ -> ]Endowments are one of the biggest things that let universities do university stuff (for lack of a better term).
WM 803 Million

Okay, I'll take the bait and say what everybody is thinking: with $803M we could even afford to pay for a better OOC basketball schedule, higher coaches salaries, and the occasional splurge on a postseason tournament game to give the kids some extra experience. .......But we won't. W&M will just invest it because, after all, it is simply having the money that counts, not what you actually do with it.
(09-13-2017 11:57 PM)Zorch Wrote: [ -> ]
(09-13-2017 11:49 AM)hktribefan Wrote: [ -> ]Endowments are one of the biggest things that let universities do university stuff (for lack of a better term).
WM 803 Million

Okay, I'll take the bait and say what everybody is thinking: with $803M we could even afford to pay for a better OOC basketball schedule, higher coaches salaries, and the occasional splurge on a postseason tournament game to give the kids some extra experience. .......But we won't. W&M will just invest it because, after all, it is simply having the money that counts, not what you actually do with it.

I think you may be missing what an endowment does and is for...
(09-13-2017 11:57 PM)Zorch Wrote: [ -> ]
(09-13-2017 11:49 AM)hktribefan Wrote: [ -> ]Endowments are one of the biggest things that let universities do university stuff (for lack of a better term).
WM 803 Million

Okay, I'll take the bait and say what everybody is thinking: with $803M we could even afford to pay for a better OOC basketball schedule, higher coaches salaries, and the occasional splurge on a postseason tournament game to give the kids some extra experience. .......But we won't. W&M will just invest it because, after all, it is simply having the money that counts, not what you actually do with it.

I don't think anyone is thinking that. Our endowment is not all liquid, most of it is tied to investments.
The William & Mary Athletics Department ranked No. 1 among Division I public universities in the latest Federal Gr… https://t.co/XJgHEmpOU7 https://t.co/jwyng1rsk9

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
(09-13-2017 11:49 AM)hktribefan Wrote: [ -> ]Endowments are one of the biggest things that let universities do university stuff (for lack of a better term). I'm sure it's a major factor in the rankings, so I thought I'd have a look at where we rank. Not shockingly, we are the highest ranked school with an endowment under $1 Billion. In true WM nerd fashion, I went through and looked at the endowment for each school ahead of us in this years rankings:

School Endowment
Princeton 22.1 Billion
Harvard 34.5 Billion
Chicago 7 Billion
Yale 25.4 Billion
Columbia 9 Billion
MIT 13.1 Billion
Stanford 22.3 Billion
Penn 10.7 Billion
Duke 10 Billion
Cal Tech 2.1 Billion
Dartmouth 4.47 Billion
JHU 3.3 Billion
Northwestern 9.6 Billion
Brown 3.2 Billion
Cornell 5.7 Billion
Rice 5.3 Billion
Vandy 3.8 Billion
Notre Dame 10.4 Billion
Wash U 6.4 Billion
Georgetown 1.4 Billion
Emory 6.4 Billion
Cal Berkeley 4 Billion
UCLA 3.5 Billion
USC 4.6 Billion
CMU 1.7 Billion
Uva 5.8 Billion
Wake Forest 1.1 Billion
Michigan 9.7 Billion
Tufts 1.5 Billion
NYU 3.4 Billion
UNC 2.8 Billion
BC 2 Billion
WM 803 Million

I'm all for touting the "we do more with less line" but this is why the current fundraising campaign is fantastic. These resources allow us start reaching beyond the normal things we do as a university. It's what pushes research, facilities, attracts more grants, professors, and consistently top notch students. Reveley did a great job, and I'm glad that there's a desire to include that aspect going forward. Can you imagine if we suddenly had a $3 Billion endowment? I know that's a pipe dream, but I let my mind wander about what that would mean for WM. Obviously we're a passionate sports group, but we went to WM so also recognize the value of the rest of the school; a huge endowment increase like that would yield some pretty amazing results.

Added info for enrollment and endowment/student (as that's a better measurement, typically). Numbers just quickly pulled from google.

School Enrollment $/Student
Princeton 8,181 $2,701,381.25
Harvard 22,000 $1,568,181.82
Chicago 14,467 $483,859.82
Yale 12,385 $2,050,867.99
Columbia 31,317 $287,383.85
MIT 11,376 $1,151,547.12
Stanford 16,336 $1,365,083.25
Penn 24,806 $431,347.25
Duke 14,832 $674,217.91
Cal Tech 2,240 $937,500.00
Dartmouth 6,350 $703,937.01
JHU 24,000 $137,500.00
Northwestern 21,000 $457,142.86
Brown 8,848 $361,663.65
Cornell 21,904 $260,226.44
Rice 6,740 $786,350.15
Vandy 12,686 $299,542.80
Notre Dame 12,292 $846,078.75
Wash U 15,155 $422,302.87
Georgetown 4,793 $292,092.64
Emory 14,769 $433,340.10
Berkeley 40,173 $99,569.36
UCLA 44,947 $77,869.49
USC 44,000 $104,545.45
CMU 13,961 $121,767.78
UVA 21,985 $263,816.24
Wake Forest 7,591 $144,908.44
Michigan 44,718 $216,914.89
Tufts 10,872 $137,969.09
NYU 50,027 $67,963.30
UNC-CH 29,084 $96,272.86
BC 14,125 $141,592.92
WM 8,617 $93,187.88
(11-14-2017 02:20 PM)Tribal Wrote: [ -> ]The William & Mary Athletics Department ranked No. 1 among Division I public universities in the latest Federal Gr… https://t.co/XJgHEmpOU7 https://t.co/jwyng1rsk9

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Damn 13 straight years? I take a lot of pride in the fact that our school actually graduates its athletes.
(11-14-2017 05:30 PM)zablenoise Wrote: [ -> ]
(11-14-2017 02:20 PM)Tribal Wrote: [ -> ]The William & Mary Athletics Department ranked No. 1 among Division I public universities in the latest Federal Gr… https://t.co/XJgHEmpOU7 https://t.co/jwyng1rsk9

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Damn 13 straight years? I take a lot of pride in the fact that our school actually graduates its athletes.
It's a great honor and something to keep in mind when we get frustrated. We've had some lean years and some very good years but one thing is constant--the strength of our student-athletes.

What often goes unseen is that our athletes are held to the same academic demands as every other student.

If you come to W&M, you ain't taking the easy road.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
Reference URL's