[Husker] Views from Big 10 country

[Steve Reichenbach]

I'd quibble more with the word "comparable" than anything else.  By
most measures of the entire institution, UNL ranks on the lower rungs
of the Big 10, as would IU.  And on many or most of those measures,
IU ranks higher than UNL.  That said, although Illinois, Minnesota,
Michigan, and Wisconsin are ranked much higher than either IU and UNL
in such rankings, they are comparble institutions.  In particular, in
almost every field, the best professors and researchers at UNL and IU
are "better" (more productive, etc.) than most of the professors at
the most highly ranked institutions.  In any sense that really matters,
what is done at UNL, including teaching and research, is quite comparable
to what is done at IU and the other schools of the Big 10.

The one school that is most distinct (i.e., least comparable) in the
Big 10 probably is Northwestern and it is distinct not so much in what
it does (which is comparable to what the other universities do) than
its institutional characteristics, e.g., fewer than 10K undergrads
whereas every other Big 10 institution has more than 20K undergrads,
private whereas every other Big 10 institution is public, less than
30% acceptance rate (with the highest entrance exam average) whereas
every other Big 10 institution has a rate greater than 40% (with
Michigan the only other with a rate less than 50%).  BTW, UNL has a
slightly lower acceptance rate than IU, slightly higher average SAT
scores, and slightly lower average ACT scores, but the numbers are
very "comparable".

> Great points, thanks.  I don't disagree that the remark I quoted is 
> borderline inappropriate.  It rankled a bit with me, but the rest of 
> the articles seemed more balanced.  It was probably a mistake to 
> pull that single quote out like that.
> 
> Also, if I understand the rankings you provided, they're limited to 
> one field of study.  You probably also should factor in the local 
> view that IU has pretty good reputations in music, journalism, and 
> chemistry.  My observation has been that there's a tendency toward a 
> bit of snobbishness in this regard, so that may be at play.
> 
> Ted (Bloomington resident)
> 
> 
> 
> > In the recently released rankings of US PhD programs by the 
> > National Research Council, Nebraska's computer science program 
> > ranks well ahead of Indiana's.  The NRC released two rankings, 
> > Survey-Based and Regression- Based.  Here is the combined ranking 
> > for the 12 Big 10 computer science programs 
> > [http://graduate-school.phds.org/rankings/computer-science]:
> >
> > 11 Illinois
> > 16 Wisconsin
> > 18 Michigan
> > 20 Michigan St.
> > 29 Penn St.
> > 31 Purdue
> > 32 Nebraska
> > 36 Minnesota
> > 40 Ohio St.
> > 53 Northwestern
> > 63 Indiana
> > 85 Iowa
> >
> > Incidentally, in the Big 12, only Texas (#23) has a higher ranked 
> > computer science program.  Next in the Big 12, after Nebraska, is 
> > Texas A&M (#45).
> >
> > What is the IU Chancellor's point or purpose in making this 
> > statement? Overall, one might ask, if Nebraska is not comparable 
> > to Indiana, then is Indiana comparable to Illinois or Wisconsin or 
> > Michigan or Minnesota? It is particularly notable that this 
> > comment is from the Chancellor of what likely would be either the 
> > lowest or next to the lowest ranked university in the Big 10.  I 
> > suspect that the IU Chancellor might not like to use the same 
> > definition for "comparable" in comparing IU to other Big 10 
> > universities.  Perhaps, he really rather likes having Nebraska 
> > bump Indiana off the bottom of the Big 10 academic rankings.
> >
> >> The local Bloomington, Indiana paper had a couple of articles on 
> >> Saturday about Nebraska coming to the Big 10--mostly with a view 
> >> toward academics.  One comment was as follows:
> >>
> >> "Nebraska is not a comparable institution, academically, right 
> >> now," says Kenneth R. R. Gros Louis, university chancellor at 
> >> Indiana University and, for 15 years, the chairman of the CIC. 
> >> "But if they experience what they experienced at Penn State, this 
> >> will be very good for Nebraska."
> >>
> >> Another comment indicated that Nebraska would soon be 
> >> contributing equally.  All in all, the views seemed reasonable.
> >>
> >> If you would like a copy of the articles, let me know and I'll 
> >> send the scan.
> >
> 
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