[Husker] U of Nebraska academics

[Steve Reichenbach]

One hundred years ago, Nebraska's population was more than twice its
current size relative to the population of the United States.  In the
2010 census, Nebraska probably will have less than 1/170th of the USA's
population.  With such a small share of the population, for Nebraska to
have a university that today typically is ranked in the 70s in quality
nationally is still something of an achievement.

  Year % of US population
  2000 0.61
  1990 0.63
  1980 0.69
  1970 0.73
  1960 0.79
  1950 0.88
  1940 1.00
  1930 1.12
  1920 1.22
  1910 1.29

> A century ago in what campus historians consider the school's golden 
> age, the University of Nebraska was considered one of the nation's "Big 
> Four'' public universities, alongside the state universities in 
> Michigan, Wisconsin and California.
> 
> In 1910, the school in Lincoln was the nation's 12th-largest university 
> overall and sixth-largest public university. It became only the 18th 
> school admitted to the Association of American Universities, then and 
> now an exclusive club of the nation's top research universities.