(03-18-2020 07:52 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(03-18-2020 05:44 PM)bullet Wrote:  But they are a pretty weak rating system. They heavily favor private schools with some of their criteria.

Thing is, though, that's not controversial in academia. E.g., the current US News top 5 are Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, MIT, and Yale. All private, and all would get no argument from anyone as being in the academic top 10.

Really, the only weird case is Texas at #48. Being in academia, I can assure you that from a faculty POV, an appointment at Texas is as desirable a posting as any public school in the country. Even places like Rice and Notre Dame would be regarded as lateral moves from there, the only places that would be regarded as promotions would be to the Ivies and a few peers like Cal-Tech and Stanford.

Quo, I suspect you are correct when you note "from a faculty POV, an appointment at Texas is as desirable a posting as any public school in the country." However, I would think some of that desirability is due to the city of Austin (i.e., the appeal is not limited to working at UT). Liberal academics love that city. I do, too, and I'm neither an academician nor a full-fledged liberal.

Still, your point is a good one overall.