(09-13-2021 01:08 PM)Wahoowa84 Wrote:  I recognize that this is mainly a measure of reputation and a not some truly objective ranking. IMO, the impressive result is the rapid rise in rankings of public universities in Florida and Texas…UF at #28, UT at #38, FSU at #55 and TAMU at #68. UGA at #48 is also a program on the rise. A few decades ago, the lower sun-belt schools where generally perceived as being meh in terms of academic heft.

Actually the biggest chunk of their metric involves the gpa and sat scores of the admitted students as well the percentage admitted. Then they talk to various biased folk.

All you need to do to move up aggressively is gin up applications and to have entering students retake SAT's in the summer before matriculation. How do you gin up applications? You can send them out for free, you can have your state high school counselors encourage applications even though you have no chance in hell of admission. You can stay small relative to demand in your state. You can raise your profile through advertising or athletics.

Play for a national title in football or basketball and that will net you an additional 3-5K applications for a couple of years. It can have a large effect the smaller you are.

Long term it's a smart play to highlight undergraduate education and to make it enjoyable so as to generate alumni contributions. However there are still a few who refuse to do that and their philosophy is that undergrads need to suffer.