We are #10 of 16, the B12 has its work cut out for its self compared to other P4s.
USNEWS isn’t the best metric though.
TCU, which is R2, is ranked above AAU schools like Kansas, Colorado, Zona, ASU, and R1 schools like Houston.
Sorry….ain’t buyin’ it!
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Doesn’t that US News ranking have a lot to do with how much schools or their marketing agencies are willing to pay US News?
Remember that being a thing among the Big 12 trolls during the CUSA days
Its rankings criteria for undergraduate colleges (which is what is being quoted here) is heavily based on admission standards, and alumni giving rates.
Little regard is given to research, career outcomes, upward mobility, etc.
Kansas comes in 13th in USNEWS simply because its admission standards and average SAT scores are not as high as, let’s say, Baylor, BYU, or TCU.
BUT…OTOH…Kansas absolutely BURIES Baylor, TCU, and probably at least 2/3 of the other Big 12 schools in RESEARCH!!! It’s an AAU school.
Remember, the goal at UH is to be AAU. The Big 12 AAU members are Colorado, Zona, Arizona State, Kansas, and Utah.
Yet by the USNEWS rankings, we are supposed to accept the notion that Baylor (R1, non-AAU), BYU (R2) and TCU (R2) are better than Zona, ASU, Kansas, and Utah, all of whom are AAU members (which, to me, is a far more prestigious distinction than USNEWS ranking)?
Sorry, but no. NOT BUYIN’ IT!!!
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We’ve seemed to have plateaued as a University
As we stand today, we should be comprable to a 90s version of UT or TAMU which should have allowed us to leap frog 80% of lesser state’s #1 flagship University yet, we still remain behind them.
This seems more about perceived reputation than reality.
If its about graduation rates, then we knowingly accept to remain down in the rankings because we still cater to the primarly Non traditional student which will forever hold us back
I understand that sentiment, but moving up more in various rankings gets even harder the more you rise. Getting AAU membership is not a checklist item; it could be many years out.
I don’t think we are at all near the overall wealth of a 90s version of UT and aTm.
Or equal them in other metrics like research budgets, funded chairs, institutes, etc of that time period.
On graduation rates, it’s a long term game. Retention metrics show constant but slow improvement.
One year retention is 84.9%, 84.8%, 86%, 85.1%(covid), 84.5% (covid ?), 86.4%, 87%.
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The slippery slope is here.
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This thing passes and you can expect a brain drain from all Texas universities over time. Dumbing down curriculum by non-expert regents and stifling ideas on a university is a really bad law.
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Houston has almost zero chance of ever getting into the AAU. It takes a combination of prestige, research dollars, and metrics to get in. Having a med school helps, which is increasingly becoming a de facto requirement for newer elected schools, but Houston’s research expenditures are paltry. Ranking 126 in the nation.
I wouldn’t say that.
Our research budget already exceeds AAU schools like Oregon and Brandeis and nearly equals Rice.
With the new Med School and a large biomedical research building set to be built in a few years, it’ll only go up!
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Do you realize what you wrote? Are you a UH alum or visiting this site from another school? Do you realize you insulted every UH alum and students?
Dr. Renu Khator has one goal. That goal is to get us to AAU. It is not going to happen next year or for maybe another ten years. We will get to AAU status.
He’s an ISU fan. I agree that you shouldn’t visit other schools boards and post stuff like that.
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Why? Just asking why? I gave him some chance to correct himself since he posted yesterday.
You are citing exceptions, not the norms. There have been talks for years Oregon is at risk of losing AAU status. They were admitted when OHSU and it’s research dollars were part of U of O but that changed some time in the 1970s. As for Brandeis, well…I have no idea what got them invited (from what I can tell they don’t have a grad school) but their research dollars are high for the size of the institution. 100 million for 5 thousands students is a good ratio. I guess that has something to do with it.
Increasingly though, new admits need a high about of NIH dollars, especially if you are a public school. Before Iowa State was basically forced out, it was one of the few public universities that had been admitted without a medical school (Purdue being one that immediately comes to mind).
If research dollars (particularly medical) skyrocket there is always a possibility, but realistic Houston is several years off from even thinking about an AAU invite. That’s not a slight on Houston, rather the realties with how the AAU operates and views itself. Also, with the current sports landscape, I guarantee you some politics could play into invites going forward.
How is that an insult? There are lots of institutions who are likely “worthy” of invites but will never get them due to exclusivity and or politics. Iowa State was in it until recently and bowed out due to criteria emphasis. Same happened with Syracuse before.
There are a lot of politics involved and the “easiest” way to get an invite, as a public school, is having a medical school, growing state/university, and a prolific research spending (often tied to NIH) profile. You can argue these all you want, but your research profile isn’t CLOSE to being AAU invite worthy.
This isn’t just my “opinion”, rather quite a bit of fact. Take a look at the current list of AAU schools and their admission dates. The public section is the most relevant, not just for Houston (as a public institution) but for the Big 12 as a whole. Over the last 20 years + years there have been FIVE public institution invites from the AAU: UC Riverside, UC Santa Cruz, Utah, U South Florida, and Arizona State. The two UC system invites join a bevy of other Cal schools (9 now), that comprise almost 25% of all public university schools. I think it’s safe to say, with the way Cal does their system schools, that they are different and shouldn’t even be looked at in the same way (often specialized with high admission standards and high research dollars/student). Arizona St. a mammoth school, as is South Florida. Utah’s research dollars and funding have gone up exponentially over the last few decades, and it is likely they will jump into the top 40 universities in research dollars.
That’s 5 public schools post 2001 (when Stony Brook and TAMU got in) that have got in and increasingly the AAU is being more snobbish. Houston has a long way to go to have a public research profile “worthy” of an invite. In this context the word worthy has more to do with the AAU’s points of emphasis than it does the quality of the university.
NIH funding (Houston at roughly 37 million)
https://report.nih.gov/award/index.cfm?ot=&fy=2024
Research per institution (Houston in the 120s at a little over 200 million)
https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/profiles/site?method=rankingbysource&ds=herd
I guess I didn’t anticipate the response to be taken in the context of Houston being an “inferior” university when it’s far from it. The AAU, especially recently, has made it somewhat clear what kind of profile they are looking for when it comes to (public) universities and there are are several current members who (still) likely wouldn’t get an invite now if they weren’t previously admitted (Oregon and Kansas might be two examples). They like exclusivity (low admissions), high research spending (per student), and increasingly schools with medical facilities that have high research spending. Houston’s medical facility, based on NIH data, gets relatively lower amounts of dollars from them (37 million).
With several other Texas system (public university) schools having medical schools, with well established research dollars, that seems like a tough road to climb.
Don’t take it personal. Iowa State isn’t high enough on the engineering totem pole to stay in on that alone (MIT), isn’t exclusive enough (high admission rates), and will never get a medical school. With that said, Houston probably has a better chance of getting in because of the medical school, despite Iowa State having been a member for decades. Just like Houston, it doesn’t denigrate ISU or it’s graduates.
Most rational posters on this site agree with this.
Re rational, I generally don’t respond to 92010Coogs (Chris) because I find banging my head against a concrete stoop is more beneficial to my psyche.
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I think the use of the word “paltry” was considered insulting by some. That’s just
the nature of message boards; somebody
always gets offended and some play with the
intent to be offensive.
Yes, UH has increased its research spending to $220 million range from what it was in 2014; but that still leaves it in the 120s ranking - same as 2014.
So AAU membership is probably years off, but it’s a good goal to aspire to. The med school, with the Texas Medical Center and NASA here, may make the journey easier.
With class of 60 admits and expectations to
grow it to 120 by 2028, it’s a long road.
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