ISU keeps going up and we keep going down.
When did ISU start beating us?
Graduation Rate 51%

http://www.suntimes.com/29769535-761/uic...A7807l0z4h

http://www.suntimes.com/csp/cms/sites/ST...090914.pdf

Why is our acceptance rate "low" comparatively?

We have a lot of good mojo with the FB program, campus improvements, increased research right now. Why can't they translate this into retention/graduation/enrollment #'s?

P.S.: I joined the alumni association for the first time ever last night. Despite attending football games regularly, apathy was at my own door step I guess.

I would definitely like to see the graduation rate higher, but NIU has a few things going against it there.

I believe they have more transfer in and out than ISU. I don't have a stat, but a strong hunch. NIU also has the chance program, which ISU does not. We are getting more disadvantaged kids that aren't in a good situation to attend and pay for college compared to our peers.

The facts NIU accepts a way smaller percentage though, in my mind is good, even when they are accepting some marginal students, it also shows they have put in effort to get more successful students as well.

The one thing to remember about these rankings is that they are mostly subjective opinions from people who have never even set foot on 90% of the campuses.

As HuskieJWN stated the Chance program plays into some of the actual objective data. But if you look at all of the people who enroll at NIU and then drop out (for whatever reason), how does that honestly affect the quality of other students' education?

When I was in grad school I got to attend an ASEE (American Society of Engineering Education) conference, just so happened that a guy from US News and World Report gave a presentation on their process for ranking colleges. I was dumbfounded at how meaningless it was, but the best part was the Q&A. Professors and Deans from all of the top engineering colleges (even the ones they ranked high) ripped him non-stop telling him how and why he (and his magazine) were irresponsible for the methods that they use until the moderator cut off questions due to time.

The true measure of a university is what the students do with their degree after graduation (and I don't mean how much they donate back to the university). The only thing that they should be ranking (but don't even include) is Return on Investment - How much do you earn vs. how much your education cost. e.i. If you have to pay $400k for your degree but only end up making $50k per year, you have wasted your money. The list of NIU alumni with impressive accomplishments is growing everyday, and from my albeit biased view point it is growing faster than ISU (who doesn't even have an engineering college or a law school).

The focus is on increasing Freshman retention. NIU is losing 8mil a year in income because of all the FR that we lost from last year to this year.

We can improve, and we will. I think the pieces are in place for it to do so, but it takes a few years to show the results. I think we all need to put our money where our mouth is (and this is coming from someone who does not donate, but realized the other day that he should).

Maybe this already exists, but I think there should be a "young alumni scholarship" in which recent grads pool their money and pick a student to provide a full four year scholarship for. Instead of that money going into a general fund, I think it would help new grads to see the student they are helping and follow their academic career.

My biggest beef is that they do not fairly represent endowment/giving figures. NIU has built +$50m in buildings sponsored by donors over the last few years and gets no credit for this in their "rankings" ISU could never pull this off.

(09-09-2014 10:24 AM)cosine4 Wrote:  The one thing to remember about these rankings is that they are mostly subjective opinions from people who have never even set foot on 90% of the campuses.

As HuskieJWN stated the Chance program plays into some of the actual objective data. But if you look at all of the people who enroll at NIU and then drop out (for whatever reason), how does that honestly affect the quality of other students' education?

When I was in grad school I got to attend an ASEE (American Society of Engineering Education) conference, just so happened that a guy from US News and World Report gave a presentation on their process for ranking colleges. I was dumbfounded at how meaningless it was, but the best part was the Q&A. Professors and Deans from all of the top engineering colleges (even the ones they ranked high) ripped him non-stop telling him how and why he (and his magazine) were irresponsible for the methods that they use until the moderator cut off questions due to time.

The true measure of a university is what the students do with their degree after graduation (and I don't mean how much they donate back to the university). The only thing that they should be ranking (but don't even include) is Return on Investment - How much do you earn vs. how much your education cost. e.i. If you have to pay $400k for your degree but only end up making $50k per year, you have wasted your money. The list of NIU alumni with impressive accomplishments is growing everyday, and from my albeit biased view point it is growing faster than ISU (who doesn't even have an engineering college or a law school).

This!!! +10000

NIU has one of the best ROIs around. That truly is the best measure for a college should be ranked. Yes, there is experience and lifestyle and all, but what you paid for education and the fruits you receive after it really are the only thing that matters.

This was kind of a dick thing at the time, but illustrates the point. Last year at the Iowa game, we had been going back an forth with one fan in front of us and he started talking **** about the academics because we said no actual Iowa fan has an education. He kept going on and on about how NIU wasn't a good school. So I said hey buddy how old are you, he said 30. I was like well I'm 22, you want to compare salaries, cuz I guarantee my education got me more money than you. He didn't say anything the rest of the day about NIU academics.