USNews 2010 College Rankings

Share the endowment a little more, attract top notch professors or the up and coming ones of the future and offer them tenure. Be less greedy with grants and monies that professors get (don't take half off the top) and don't be a pain in the *** when they need the remainder of their money. News of this **** spreads and UT is becoming a place where careers die or go into neutral, especially in the Liberal Arts.

The trend was getting bad when I worked in the CoE and I hear from past co-workers it is not getting better. See, teachers don't have money to donate to their School. Nor do Social Workers. Instead they are making it a better or tolerable place to live with little money or accolades. The Engineers, Lawyers and Computer guys donate to their School or specific College forgetting where they learned to read and round out their education.

A better disbursement or sharing of even a portion of the money would go a long, long way. But that is not going to happen. It goes further than saying, "Get better, other schools".
 
As far as public universities are ranked, Texas is tied for 15.

But wow, look at California's University system! 6 ranked in the top 14.

Where is UTSA, UT-Arlington, UTEP, UT Dallas ranked?

Texas has only two public schools ranked in the top 64? Awful.
 
In the late 60's, California's public university system was funded with tax payer dollars to create several tier one universities, which is why there are so many California public universities ranked so high.

That is not the case here in Texas, where until this past legislative session any school not named UT or A&M received very little funding. Even now, 7 schools, UTSA, UTA, UTD,UTEP, UNT, UH, and Tech, will vie for $25 million/year. A paultry sum when compared to California's system and how expensive it is to elevate schools to teir one status.

I agree that it's a shame that the state only has two public universities that are recognized nationally. The question is, do the citizens of Texas want to fully fund a top tier system (higher taxes) like California? If not, the status quo will prevail.
 
I still can't believe there are only 2 tier 1 schools in Texas. A few of the schools in the UT system are in areas where there should be a tier 1 school. UT-Arlington is a good example and where I did my undergrad; excellent engineering, nursing, architectural, sciences school. It was supposed to be the home university for the super collider fiasco. With the 10% rule in place, we need to elevate 5 or 6 schools to tier 1 status.
 
Their ranking system makes a dartboard with names on it look sophisticated. The only good thing about it is that I can needle a friend who went to Columbia that Penn is ranked higher.
 
I think the Spicewood Elementary misses the point since it is not UT and we are talking about the college endowment. Perhaps an elementary school thread will come up one day so let's save that post, just in case.

What they could possibly do is put the majority of department specific donations to that department but spread a portion of it to the ones receiving less. That way their money pool gets a little larger and maybe can attract or keep the people they are currently losing. This would help restore the ranking quite a bit.

I guess it is sort of like revenue sharing like some pro leagues have but with some differences. Nobody is getting a handout and they are not in competition with one another. It would benefit the University as a whole.

It's a quiet problem that has loud ramifications.
 
Having gone through the college process with 2 kids already, I can tell you things are different than they were back in my day. Kids that are really smart do pay attention to college rankings (even if US News is a little off), and they read the Fiske college guide. I lost 2 daughters to out-of-state schools. The oldest went because she couldn't get into the UT B-school and also wanted to see other parts of the country. The 2nd one got a full-scholarship elsewhere. I posted on her back in April on Quacks when she did not get into UT: Link
I have one more hold-out, my 13 yo son. Hopefully he will follow my wife and me to UT.

Back in my day, I applied to only one school. Thank God UT was pretty easy to get into back then, because I had no fall-back.

As it relates to the OP, everything we can do as alums to help UT on the academic front should be considered.
 
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