University of Minnesota Dead Last in Self-Selected Comparison Group In
Latest US News Rankings of National Universities (2008)


Addendum (bonzo/12 November):

Although I found these numbers only yesterday, a friend has pointed out that they have apparently been available since August 16th. Sorry.


This post may look eerily familiar. Mr. B. has recently posted on BigU's less than outstanding performance in the latest rankings of world universities by the Times Higher Education Supplement. Unfortunately, the latest results from US News are remarkably similar. In fact if you compare the two rankings directly, about the only serious discrepancy is the interchange in ranking of Illinois and Texas. The U of M is clearly dead last, by a fair margin, in both rankings. For those who have not seen the earlier post, the institutions below are the ones self selected by the University of Minnesota as our targeted peer group.

21. University of California—Berkeley	1
25. University of California—Los Angeles	2
25. University of Michigan—Ann Arbor	2
38. University of Wisconsin—Madison	4
38. University of Illinois—Urbana - Champaign	4
42. University of Washington	6
44. University of Texas—Austin	7
48. Pennsylvania State University	8
49. University of Florida	9
57. Ohio State University—Columbus	10
71. University of Minnesota—Twin Cities	11

We are tied for #71 with Virginia Tech, the University of Delaware, and Michigan State [sic]. These results should be truly embarrassing to OurLeader and OurProvost. They are fair warning of an impending train wreck.

Once again it should be obvious that the administration's chest-pounding about "ambitious aspirations" to be one of the top three public research universities in the world [sic] is a smokescreen. The longer we keep this up, in the face of the facts, the more foolish we look.

It is long past time to have an honest discussion about where we stand at the University and what we can do to be the best institution possible for the citizens of the state given our resources. Oh, and if the administration wants an ambitious aspiration, how about moving into the middle of the BigTen? Given the current sorry state of affairs, this will be difficult enough. Let's put some serious distance between Minnesota and Michigan State before worrying about catching up to Michigan and Berkeley.

Ciao,

Bonzo