UA disrespected again

[madDOG]

RPI, Skidmore, Union rank in top 50

 

By MARC PARRY, Staff writer

Click byline for more stories by writer.

Last updated: 11:09 a.m., Friday, August 17, 2007

 

U.S. News & World Report's annual college rankings issue is officially out today. Here's how local schools placed:

 

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: 44 on the list of best national universities

 

Skidmore College: 47 on the list of best liberal arts colleges

 

Union College: 40 on best liberal arts colleges

 

Siena College: 122 on best liberal arts colleges

 

University at Albany: third tier of national universities, which are not ranked. Also, in the top 10 of national universities with the least debt for its students.

 

College of Saint Rose: 75 on list of best universities -- master's (North). These are schools that offer few of no doctoral programs and are ranked by region because they generally tend to draw students from surrounding states.

 

Russell Sage College: third tier of liberal arts colleges

 

Other key State University of New York schools:

 

Stony Brook: 96 on best national universities (45th among public national universities)

 

Binghamton: 82 on best national universities (37th among public national universities)

 

Buffalo: 118 on best national universities

 

Some other New York schools:

 

Cornell University: 12 on best national universities

 

Columbia University: 9 on best national universities

 

Syracuse University: 50 on best national universities

 

University of Rochester: 35 on best national universities

 

Hamilton College: 17 on best liberal arts colleges

 

 

makes me sick. I dont even care so much about being 3rd tier. What kills me the most if how the other 3 SUNY's are ranked ahead of us.

[purplehaze]

Siena?!? ranked?!? are you kidding?!? is this a joke? The place is a Country Club.

[scrabbleship]

makes me sick. I dont even care so much about being 3rd tier. What kills me the most if how the other 3 SUNY's are ranked ahead of us.

 

Makes me sick too, but where could we be going wrong? Something is obviously wrong and with no leadership who knows when it will be fixed...

[UA_MA_2000]

I still wouldn't compare Siena and UAlbany academically: It's not fair to either school. Siena's ranking is for best liberal arts colleges. UAlbany is in with a whole different species of schools --- large, national, research-based institutions.

 

Liberal arts colleges have different goals and provide a different kind of education as compared to, for example, UAlbany, Buffalo, Stonybrook, or Texas.

[ATL_DANE]

For what it's worth, I think we're improving. Apllicactions are up and the Nano College is a great draw for us. I think the improved athletics programs also add to university quality of life, which students really like. If we want to do better we may need to accept a few less students next year. I've said it a million times... the university centers are flagships and should be very selective (even if it means a temporary drop in accepted students). If you don't have the grades, go to a community college or a 'starter school'. You don't have the right to be accpeted into a university center.

 

Still we are getting better. Back away from the cliff hah, ha.

[UA_MA_2000]

For what it's worth, I think we're improving. Apllicactions are up and the Nano College is a great draw for us. I think the improved athletics programs also add to university quality of life, which students really like. If we want to do better we may need to accept a few less students next year. I've said it a million times... the university centers are flagships and should be very selective (even if it means a temporary drop in accepted students). If you don't have the grades, go to a community college or a 'starter school'. You don't have the right to be accpeted into a university center.

 

Still we are getting better. Back away from the cliff hah, ha.

 

ATL_DANE, excellent points -- I agree. I would only add that other graduate programs are also nationally ranked and great draws. Criminal justice, for example, has traditionally been ranked #1 in the nation since 1966, at which time UAlbany became the first school in the nation to offer a Ph.D. in criminal justice. I believe the program is currently ranked #2. I think Maryland might be #1 in criminal justice (or at least they were two years ago when they supplanted us) because of the $12 million grant (to span and fund 3 years' worth of research) from the Department of Homeland Security. Funny how a program previously not close to #1 gets around $12 million in grant money from the Dep't Homeland Security, which is in Univ. Maryland's backyard, and the school's CJ program vaults to #1 in the rankings!*

 

Here are some other top 25 rankings that UA fans can take pride in, as noted by UAlbany's Wikipedia webpage:

 

Criminal Justice - #2 (US News 2006)

Educational Administration - #7 (Academic Analytics 2006)

Social Welfare - #5 (Academic Analytics 2006)

Public Policy - #10 (US News 2005)

Information Technology and Management - #4 (US News 2006)

Educational and Counseling Psychology - #13 (US News 2006)

Africana Studies - #3 (Black Issues in Higher Education July 2004)

Public Administration and Management - #6 (US News 2006)

Public Finance and Budgeting - #9 (US News 2006)

Public Policy Analysis - #25 (US News 2006)

Library Science - #15 (US News 2006)

Nanoscience and Engineering - #1 overall, ahead of Cornell (#2), Michigan-Ann Arbor (#3), Rice (#4), University of Pennsylvania (#5), and Virginia (#6).[4]

Atmospheric Sciences: ranked in the first quartile of NSF rankings in total federal R&D expenditures.

 

 

* See University of Maryland, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, CCJS Research Activity, at http://www.ccjs.umd.edu/research/ (last visited August 17, 2007) ("In recent reviews of the research productivity of faculty in criminal justice and criminology, faculty in our department have been rated the most productive in this field. These ratings reflect the fact that research and teaching are integrally related in our curriculum and in the life of the department. We are especially proud of the extent to which our students participate in and provide leadership to our research efforts. Over the past few years the following research efforts have been supported with $13.7M in external funding: click here to view a list of research activity." (emphasis supplied)).

[madDOG]

For what it's worth, I think we're improving. Apllicactions are up and the Nano College is a great draw for us. I think the improved athletics programs also add to university quality of life, which students really like. If we want to do better we may need to accept a few less students next year. I've said it a million times... the university centers are flagships and should be very selective (even if it means a temporary drop in accepted students). If you don't have the grades, go to a community college or a 'starter school'. You don't have the right to be accpeted into a university center.

 

Still we are getting better. Back away from the cliff hah, ha.

 

ATL_DANE, excellent points -- I agree. I would only add that other graduate programs are also nationally ranked and great draws. Criminal justice, for example, has traditionally been ranked #1 in the nation since 1966, at which time UAlbany became the first school in the nation to offer a Ph.D. in criminal justice. I believe the program is currently ranked #2. I think Maryland might be #1 in criminal justice (or at least they were two years ago when they supplanted us) because of the $12 million grant (to span and fund 3 years' worth of research) from the Department of Homeland Security. Funny how a program previously not close to #1 gets around $12 million in grant money from the Dep't Homeland Security, which is in Univ. Maryland's backyard, and the school's CJ program vaults to #1 in the rankings!*

 

Here are some other top 25 rankings that UA fans can take pride in, as noted by UAlbany's Wikipedia webpage:

 

Criminal Justice - #2 (US News 2006)

Educational Administration - #7 (Academic Analytics 2006)

Social Welfare - #5 (Academic Analytics 2006)

Public Policy - #10 (US News 2005)

Information Technology and Management - #4 (US News 2006)

Educational and Counseling Psychology - #13 (US News 2006)

Africana Studies - #3 (Black Issues in Higher Education July 2004)

Public Administration and Management - #6 (US News 2006)

Public Finance and Budgeting - #9 (US News 2006)

Public Policy Analysis - #25 (US News 2006)

Library Science - #15 (US News 2006)

Nanoscience and Engineering - #1 overall, ahead of Cornell (#2), Michigan-Ann Arbor (#3), Rice (#4), University of Pennsylvania (#5), and Virginia (#6).[4]

Atmospheric Sciences: ranked in the first quartile of NSF rankings in total federal R&D expenditures.

 

All good points, which makes our current undergraduate status of "third tier" all the more frustrating. We are a better school than US News gives us credit for, and not being among our SUNY peers makes it all the worse. The next president really needs to confront this issue because while we can all argue the flaws in US News' system, the term "third tier" rings very poorly in the minds of good high school students and their parents.

[UA_MA_2000]

For what it's worth, I think we're improving. Apllicactions are up and the Nano College is a great draw for us. I think the improved athletics programs also add to university quality of life, which students really like. If we want to do better we may need to accept a few less students next year. I've said it a million times... the university centers are flagships and should be very selective (even if it means a temporary drop in accepted students). If you don't have the grades, go to a community college or a 'starter school'. You don't have the right to be accpeted into a university center.

 

Still we are getting better. Back away from the cliff hah, ha.

 

ATL_DANE, excellent points -- I agree. I would only add that other graduate programs are also nationally ranked and great draws. Criminal justice, for example, has traditionally been ranked #1 in the nation since 1966, at which time UAlbany became the first school in the nation to offer a Ph.D. in criminal justice. I believe the program is currently ranked #2. I think Maryland might be #1 in criminal justice (or at least they were two years ago when they supplanted us) because of the $12 million grant (to span and fund 3 years' worth of research) from the Department of Homeland Security. Funny how a program previously not close to #1 gets around $12 million in grant money from the Dep't Homeland Security, which is in Univ. Maryland's backyard, and the school's CJ program vaults to #1 in the rankings!*

 

Here are some other top 25 rankings that UA fans can take pride in, as noted by UAlbany's Wikipedia webpage:

 

Criminal Justice - #2 (US News 2006)

Educational Administration - #7 (Academic Analytics 2006)

Social Welfare - #5 (Academic Analytics 2006)

Public Policy - #10 (US News 2005)

Information Technology and Management - #4 (US News 2006)

Educational and Counseling Psychology - #13 (US News 2006)

Africana Studies - #3 (Black Issues in Higher Education July 2004)

Public Administration and Management - #6 (US News 2006)

Public Finance and Budgeting - #9 (US News 2006)

Public Policy Analysis - #25 (US News 2006)

Library Science - #15 (US News 2006)

Nanoscience and Engineering - #1 overall, ahead of Cornell (#2), Michigan-Ann Arbor (#3), Rice (#4), University of Pennsylvania (#5), and Virginia (#6).[4]

Atmospheric Sciences: ranked in the first quartile of NSF rankings in total federal R&D expenditures.

 

All good points, which makes our current undergraduate status of "third tier" all the more frustrating. We are a better school than US News gives us credit for, and not being among our SUNY peers makes it all the worse. The next president really needs to confront this issue because while we can all argue the flaws in US News' system, the term "third tier" rings very poorly in the minds of good high school students and their parents.

 

 

Not to ruffle anyone's feathers here, but I remind myself that the US News rankings, flawed as they may be, represent undergraduate rankings. There is no question our graduate programs are solid, and that is great! I think some of the variables that US News uses hurt us -- i.e., attrition rate and endowment. I'll have to check and see what other variables are used and see what we can improve upon and then re-post.

[JonUA97]

For what it's worth, I think we're improving. Apllicactions are up and the Nano College is a great draw for us. I think the improved athletics programs also add to university quality of life, which students really like. If we want to do better we may need to accept a few less students next year. I've said it a million times... the university centers are flagships and should be very selective (even if it means a temporary drop in accepted students). If you don't have the grades, go to a community college or a 'starter school'. You don't have the right to be accpeted into a university center.

 

Still we are getting better. Back away from the cliff hah, ha.

 

ATL_DANE, excellent points -- I agree. I would only add that other graduate programs are also nationally ranked and great draws. Criminal justice, for example, has traditionally been ranked #1 in the nation since 1966, at which time UAlbany became the first school in the nation to offer a Ph.D. in criminal justice. I believe the program is currently ranked #2. I think Maryland might be #1 in criminal justice (or at least they were two years ago when they supplanted us) because of the $12 million grant (to span and fund 3 years' worth of research) from the Department of Homeland Security. Funny how a program previously not close to #1 gets around $12 million in grant money from the Dep't Homeland Security, which is in Univ. Maryland's backyard, and the school's CJ program vaults to #1 in the rankings!*

 

Here are some other top 25 rankings that UA fans can take pride in, as noted by UAlbany's Wikipedia webpage:

 

Criminal Justice - #2 (US News 2006)

Educational Administration - #7 (Academic Analytics 2006)

Social Welfare - #5 (Academic Analytics 2006)

Public Policy - #10 (US News 2005)

Information Technology and Management - #4 (US News 2006)

Educational and Counseling Psychology - #13 (US News 2006)

Africana Studies - #3 (Black Issues in Higher Education July 2004)

Public Administration and Management - #6 (US News 2006)

Public Finance and Budgeting - #9 (US News 2006)

Public Policy Analysis - #25 (US News 2006)

Library Science - #15 (US News 2006)

Nanoscience and Engineering - #1 overall, ahead of Cornell (#2), Michigan-Ann Arbor (#3), Rice (#4), University of Pennsylvania (#5), and Virginia (#6).[4]

Atmospheric Sciences: ranked in the first quartile of NSF rankings in total federal R&D expenditures.

 

All good points, which makes our current undergraduate status of "third tier" all the more frustrating. We are a better school than US News gives us credit for, and not being among our SUNY peers makes it all the worse. The next president really needs to confront this issue because while we can all argue the flaws in US News' system, the term "third tier" rings very poorly in the minds of good high school students and their parents.

 

 

Not to ruffle anyone's feathers here, but I remind myself that the US News rankings, flawed as they may be, represent undergraduate rankings. There is no question our graduate programs are solid, and that is great! I think some of the variables that US News uses hurt us -- i.e., attrition rate and endowment. I'll have to check and see what other variables are used and see what we can improve upon and then re-post.

 

Hello my furry Dane friends! I hope everyone had a great summer.

 

My 1/50th of a dollar on this debate is that I place the US News rankings slightly above the Princeton Review.

 

The fact that LCC is ranked amuses me. Liberal Arts College?!?!? I think they meant Communiy College with some residence halls....

 

Take it with a grain of salt! This from someone who came from the 25th ranked Public Policy Program.... hehehe

 

Flush Hard, It's a long way to Loudonville!

[reeder]

Not sure about the "being disrespected" part. I would think that the magazines have criteria and UA ranked where they did - it is what it is. They are reporters, they don't make the news (imo).

 

If UA wants to move up in the rankings they need to get a plan and execute. If the magazine criteria is important, they should look at the criteria and find ways to maximize their scores in that criteria. I happen to think the honors college was a great idea. I went to Grad School at University of Michigan and they had an undergrad program where the highest achieving HS kids in the state got in pretty much for free (that was a while ago and it may have changed). Georgia has a Hope Scholarship where the highest achieving HS kids get free tuition to State schools - most choose the University of Georgia (average SAT approaching 1300). It's gotten so that Georgia is one of the most selective schools around. Schools in neighboring states (South Carolina and Alabama) recruit the kids that can't get into Georgia by giving them in state tuition. My point here is that Michigan and Georgia had plans to improve rankings.

 

Albany needs a plan and to execute on that plan.

[scrabbleship]

Albany needs a plan and to execute on that plan.

 

Albany needs a President to make a plan and execute on that plan, but SUNY Central seems to like dawdling and starving the Albany campus of leadership rather than helping the school. Name me one other school who took TWO YEARS to find a new president, sudden case or no?

 

I thought the death of someone important made the search for a replacement urgent, not something to take extra long in doing. I guess SUNY and UA are proving that convention to be false. If we could only borrow Simpson from Buffalo or DeFleur from Bing and have those schools go without leadership for a while...

[ATL_DANE]

Not sure about the "being disrespected" part. I would think that the magazines have criteria and UA ranked where they did - it is what it is. They are reporters, they don't make the news (imo).

 

If UA wants to move up in the rankings they need to get a plan and execute. If the magazine criteria is important, they should look at the criteria and find ways to maximize their scores in that criteria. I happen to think the honors college was a great idea. I went to Grad School at University of Michigan and they had an undergrad program where the highest achieving HS kids in the state got in pretty much for free (that was a while ago and it may have changed). Georgia has a Hope Scholarship where the highest achieving HS kids get free tuition to State schools - most choose the University of Georgia (average SAT approaching 1300). It's gotten so that Georgia is one of the most selective schools around. Schools in neighboring states (South Carolina and Alabama) recruit the kids that can't get into Georgia by giving them in state tuition. My point here is that Michigan and Georgia had plans to improve rankings.

 

Albany needs a plan and to execute on that plan.

 

I couldn't agree more. Don't blame our score on 'disrespect', blame it on not meeting the criteria. Georgia has the 'Hope' scholarship. I believe other states like Texas and California also grant the top 10% of students admission at free or greatly discounted tuition. Only the governor can improve SUNY because SUNY is too big and too bureaucratic to fix itself.

 

I have a feeling I'm going to receive some friendly ribbing Monday morning based of our '08 rankings. I wave the UAlbany flag a lot and to not even beat Arkansas will hurt (now Arkansas is disrespected because they're actually quite good). Those Georgia fans are going to be brutal. I really thought we'd crack the top 120. ahhh, not looking forward to it.

 

We are making progress. I have to believe it. Next year!!!

[scrabbleship]

Only the governor can improve SUNY because SUNY is too big and too bureaucratic to fix itself.

 

Spitzer doesn't give a squared deuce about improving SUNY, or anything for that matter. The only reason he'll even get a second term as governor is the New York way of 1) the ruling party having complete faith in their incumbents, no matter how crappy of a job they're doing and 2) if the GOP is on the outside looking in, dawdle SUNY-style until 6 months before the election before naming a candidate and underfund him while the opposition has gotten an obscene jump start on funding and name recognition.

 

Can we borrow Sonny Purdue to fix our state? Or could any Nutmeggers reading this lend us Jodi Rell. Some days I wish there was no SUNY, or no New York, and other states would just carve us. UConn/Albany or UMass/Albany kinda has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

[gkzhukov]

Only the governor can improve SUNY because SUNY is too big and too bureaucratic to fix itself.

 

Spitzer doesn't give a squared deuce about improving SUNY, or anything for that matter. The only reason he'll even get a second term as governor is the New York way of 1) the ruling party having complete faith in their incumbents, no matter how crappy of a job they're doing and 2) if the GOP is on the outside looking in, dawdle SUNY-style until 6 months before the election before naming a candidate and underfund him while the opposition has gotten an obscene jump start on funding and name recognition.

 

Can we borrow Sonny Purdue to fix our state? Or could any Nutmeggers reading this lend us Jodi Rell. Some days I wish there was no SUNY, or no New York, and other states would just carve us. UConn/Albany or UMass/Albany kinda has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

 

I think Albany students and alumni should take these "rankings" with a grain of salt. There are other much more reputable rankings of Universities available. In 2006,University at Albany was ranked among the top 300 universities in the WORLD and 45th among world universities in Social Sciences by the Institute of Higher Education, Shanghai Jaio Tong University, Shanghai ,China ( SJSU) participant in the International Expert Group Created to Improve Higher Education Rankings. The National Science Foundation also has much more objective rankings of US Universities. UAlbany ranks 77th nationally in NSF funded research, behind Carnegie Mellon at #76. Since medical and engineering schools usually receive mucher higher total dollar amounts of grants, when the rankings exclude grant money from these schools, UAlbany is ranked 38th nationally. Therefore, using the most objective measurement NSF funded research as guide, UAlbany is 38th in the nation. I believe 38th in the nation is a much more accurate ranking . When you consider UAlbany has the number ranked Nanotechnology school in the country, and other very highly ranked programs ;How can it possibly be ranked between 200 and 300 in the nation??

All magazine rankings of educational instutional are suspect IMHO.

[madDOG]

I think Albany students and alumni should take these "rankings" with a grain of salt. There are other much more reputable rankings of Universities available. In 2006,University at Albany was ranked among the top 300 universities in the WORLD and 45th among world universities in Social Sciences by the Institute of Higher Education, Shanghai Jaio Tong University, Shanghai ,China ( SJSU) participant in the International Expert Group Created to Improve Higher Education Rankings. The National Science Foundation also has much more objective rankings of US Universities. UAlbany ranks 77th nationally in NSF funded research, behind Carnegie Mellon at #76. Since medical and engineering schools usually receive mucher higher total dollar amounts of grants, when the rankings exclude grant money from these schools, UAlbany is ranked 38th nationally. Therefore, using the most objective measurement NSF funded research as guide, UAlbany is 38th in the nation. I believe 38th in the nation is a much more accurate ranking . When you consider UAlbany has the number ranked Nanotechnology school in the country, and other very highly ranked programs ;How can it possibly be ranked between 200 and 300 in the nation??

All magazine rankings of educational instutional are suspect IMHO.

 

hence my use of the word "disrespected". We all know Albany is a MUCH better institution that US News gives us credit for, and I think UA is the poster school for why these ranking are flawed. I mean c'mon- FSU is ranked higher (ranked higher than Buffalo too)?? Arkansas? ASU?? and FWIW, I dont think SUNY faired all that great as a whole either. Binghamton is the highest ranked at 82. There are 36 other state schools ranked higher, yet a good portion of BU's student body could probably easily compete against those at the Ivies. I dont think 82 is accurate for them either.