The unofficial online home for fans of the Old Dominion University Monarchs. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(09-14-2020 11:19 AM)monarx Wrote:  

(09-14-2020 10:57 AM)Monarchblue Wrote:  

(09-14-2020 10:43 AM)BigBlueMonarch Wrote:  

(09-14-2020 10:35 AM)12thmonarch Wrote:  

(09-14-2020 10:27 AM)monarx Wrote:  Good news/Bad News

ODU comes in as the 258th best college in the US. If Im reading it correctly, we are back ahead of Regent. Which makes me glad because they bragged in their press release last year that they ranked higher than us.

The bad news: ODU comes in as the 258th best school, which while still ranked, is a drop from a few years ago. We really need to crack the top 200. For comparison:

GMU: 143
UAB:153
VCU:160
UCF: 160
Towson: 196
GSU: 216
ECU: 217
UNCC: 227

We do pretty well against CUSA teams though. Ranking higher than MTSU, Marshall, La Tech, WKU and FAU.

Terrible look if its just academics being evaluated for these rankings.

Academics has almost NOTHING to do with US News Rankings. I have completed their ranking survey and ended up throwing it in the trash because that is what it is....rubbish. There is no real data in the rankings other than admission rate. The bulk of the rankings are based on perception ratings, so people like guidance counselors and college admission officers are asked to share how good they think a school is. There is ZERO correlation to how good of an education you will get at any institution in the US News Rankings.

This may all be true, and the rankings may be useless, but unfortunately perception matters. In many cases, in this short attention span world we live in now, perception is the only thing that matters, and US News is a significant driver of that perception. So we can hate it as much as we want, and ODU can claim it is a bad representation all they want, but at the end of the day, if you aren't playing that game, you are losing ground when it comes to recruiting students, so the ranking matters.

You're both exactly right. The ranking is mostly bogus, BUT, its also incredibly important. This is part of why we don't hear about as many of our own, and our friends, children choosing ODU. I know many who choose JMU, GMU, VCU, CNU... because reputation matters. As my friend's daughter (who grew up wanting to go to ODU) said in her senior year "ODU is for the C+ students who don't have many other options". She chose VCU instead, based almost entirely on perception and rankings. The university I work for spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on rankings maintenance annually, and has people whose full-time job is to monitor and game the rankings, make sure students are happy with the experience, fill out the surveys positively etc. And any adjustment to curriculum, admissions or student experience is lead with the question "how will this affect our ranking". Its a HUGE deal. The faculty, admin and staff all know it. So much so, if we rise in the rankings there are nice celebrations etc. I'm not asking for much, as once you get to a certain level its very hard to move up. But at our level, improving a few criteria, like admissions selectivity, SAT score and GPA, alumni giving percentages, and student experience can result in a big bump of 20-40 spots. The peer evaluation is a longer game, but can also be done. Our administrators get gorgeous (expensive) packages from some schools (including FIU), with the sole purpose of encouraging them to rate their school higher in the peer evaluation for USNWR. But its critical, because perception matters, and USNWR rankings are the most respected rankings. For that reason, if I were ODU, I'd have a huge billboard on I64 touting ODU as "Coastal Virginias top tier national research university. -USNWR" Plain and simple for all those tourists to see. (don't mention the #258 part. :) ) But, truly, being included in the rankings is a big deal too. Id much rather be where we are than unranked like WKU, Marshall, MTSU etc.

You have nailed it. Sadly - almost none of the people I went to school with have sent their kids to ODU. They all have chosen elsewhere. Some brought their kids for tours only to experience horrible campus tours led by students speaking with poor grammar and negative attitudes about the school. One friend stated - they literally gave the group no reason to attend ODU. I believe Runte did a fantastic job of elevating the school by elevating academic standards for admission-subsequently enrollment soared. Broderick chose to focus on PC initiatives at the expense of academic excellence and now we have a student body barely recognizable. The emphasis of ODU's marketing is the "cheapest 4 year school in the state / diversity / 1st time graduates" - that's almost there entire pitch to prospective students. Great talking points for a community college - not for a University focused on academic excellence. We might be better than JMU/VCU/GMU/VT/UVA on these points but those points don't add to institutional prestige. Those schools only give it lip service while focus on what will actually enhance their school. And they are leaving us behind as a result. This will impact our alumni giving / ODAF Contributions / and donations across the board. I hope Hemphill returns our focus to academic excellence or our future is grim. There is no reason not to. It just depends on what the goal of the university is and that will determine the success and growth or the stagnation of the school. We have everything we need to be a destination school - we just have to want to be that. Let Community Colleges be Community Colleges. Let Old Dominion University be an excellent university.