(01-24-2016 02:06 AM)TodgeRodge Wrote: (01-23-2016 06:32 PM)nzmorange Wrote: (01-23-2016 05:39 PM)TodgeRodge Wrote: (01-23-2016 03:30 PM)nzmorange Wrote: (01-23-2016 02:30 PM)gopher952 Wrote: No thanks no need for Iowa state. Kansas sure. Oklahoma maybe but idk since there not AAU. I would like to see the big 10 stick with good academic schools.
AAU membership is based on research prowess, not the school's ability to attract and educate high quality students. Furthermore, one school's research has little impact on any of their conference mate's. In fact, as far as I can tell, its impact is primarily limited to the budget benefits of pooled purchasing agreements. However, those agreements don't have to be based on conference affiliation. With that in mind, there's no reason why this realignment would have to have any impact the CIC's membership.
IMHO, conference affiliation impacts academics to the extent that it impacts who the school is able to advertise to, and where they're able to effectively advertise. Without looking, my guess is that Minnesota's strongest recruiting grounds are the Great Plains and the Great Lakes. This realignment would give them great exposure in the Great Plains against the best schools in the region, and decent exposure in the western Great Lakes against several of the premier schools in the region. Additionally, the a hotter schedule would give Minnesota increased flexibility to schedule games against select Great Lakes schools, thereby ensuring strong exposure in that region as well.
In the end, I have a hard time seeing why (or how) Minnesota's academics would be adversely affected.
the bold part is false the AAU gives a great deal of consideration to the academic metrics of incoming students and graduation rates, but they do so within the context of the mission of the university as well and comparisons to similar universities
Tell that to Notre Dame, Dartmouth, Wake Forest, Boston College, Williams (and countless other small schools), SUNY Buffalo, and SUNY Stonybrook.
Only one of the 8 criteria even considers undergraduate education and that isn't even until phase II. Even then, like you said, it's examined within the context of the school's mission, not an objective standard.
Reasonable minds can differ as to the exact balance, but I'd say it's ~90% research orientated and ~10% education orientated.
https://www.aau.edu/uploadedFiles/About/...Policy.pdf
Buffalo and Stony Brook are AAU members
Williams College barely offers any graduate degrees and has only 36 majors that is hardly a comprehensive university and "numerous other small colleges" are just that SMALL COLLEGES
the AAU is for research UNIVERSITIES and while research plays a factor you are not going to be able to conduct hundreds of millions of research while ignoring graduation rates, overall breadth and depth of programs, faculty quality, freshman metrics or many other factors to get into the AAU based on "research" nor are you going to get in based on a few other metrics
they are looking for well above average in all metrics not a few or not just in research
Boston College does a pittance in research so they are not even in consideration....and again research matters, but it is not a factor that you can just grow to some massive size and pretend you are getting into the AAU
also the factors listed are just the factors the AAU decided to publicly list and they state nothing about how they actually evaluate those factors which again starts with weighing them against peer schools
when you compare Boston College to peer private universities they are not that spectacular they are just another really good private school same with Wake Forest, Dartmouth and many others
when you compare them to PEER universities they are not in the very upper echelon they are down in the second tier and thus are not in the AAU
you can be a high quality university and still not be in the top of your PEER group
Bold: That's my point. They're also mediocre schools.
Underlined: It's also one of the best educational institutions in the country, and very much on par with Harvard.
Italics: That's kind of my point about BC. It's an elite academic institution that is ignored because of the AAU's focus on research instead of academics.
Bold Italics: Once again, this is my point. They are really good schools that can't get in because the AAU cares about research and not academics. If it was the other way around, they would be in and schools like KU, ISU, Purdue, Oregon, SUNY Buffalo, and SUNY Stony Brook would be out.
Italics Underlined: What peer universities are you talking about? Are you saying that Harvard/MIT > Dartmouth/BC, therefore Dartmouth/BC shouldn't get an invite, but KU > KSU, therefore KU is in? If so, then I think that I'm just going to rest my point.
To clarify, research is important. As an American and a human being in general, I am very thankful and appreciative of all the high quality research that American universities do every year, and all of the advancements that they make. Furthermore, I hope those universities keep going. It's benefiting me, and it's benefiting society as a whole. Additionally, I think that the AAU is a great institution. Among other things, it is the lobbying arm of those great research institution, and helps them further their research objectives.
However, all of that said, it still doesn't really measure academics in any meaningful way. My alma mater is Penn Sate. In terms of academics, we aren't better than Dartmouth, we aren't better than Notre Dame, and we aren't better than a whole host of very elite small schools. However, we are really, really big, so we are way better at research than all of those schools combined, and our academics weren't embarrassing. Therefore, we were granted AAU membership and they weren't.
P.S. My understanding of the initial poster's comments (see below) was that he was complaining about being in a conference with ISU because their academics were terrible and that he preferred an all AAU conference. It's worth pointing out that 1. ISU is in the AAU and 2. the B1G isn't all AAU anymore. So, logically, he can't think that ISU is bad and AAU membership means that a school is good. That alone pretty much proves my point, at least in the confines of the initial discussion.
https://www.aau.edu/about/article.aspx?id=5474
(01-23-2016 02:30 PM)gopher952 Wrote: No thanks no need for Iowa state ... I would like to see the big 10 stick with good academic schools.