UT Begins Push to Improve Ranking Among U.S. Colleges
Posted on: Sunday, 23 March 2008, 15:00 CDT
By Jc Reindl, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio
Mar. 23--Back when she was applying to colleges, Laura Bockbrader, like many high school seniors, spent time scrutinizing just where certain schools measured up in that de facto bible of annual ranking lists -- the "America's Best Colleges" edition of U.S. News & World Report.
She recalled being particularly impressed by Ohio State University. Not only was its Columbus campus ranked among the top public universities in the nation, but many of the campus's specialized colleges also appeared to be standouts.
"It didn't matter what program you were in, it was going to be a high-ranked program," said Miss Bockbrader, a 2005 Eastwood High School graduate. She is now 21 and a junior at OSU majoring in vocal music education.
The University of Toledo has begun a formal initiative to raise its U.S. News rankings from the "fourth tier" to the "third tier" of national universities when the next edition hits newstands in August. It will be the first batch of rankings to reflect the school's 2006 merger with the Medical College of Ohio.
A move into the third tier would place UT among 65 other universities, including Bowling Green State University, the University of Cincinnati, and Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich.
But fulfilling these ambitions for greater recognition will prove challenging if UT continues to offer acceptance letters to almost anyone who applies, according to college admissions and ranking experts.
A minor backlash against the U.S. News college lists has been brewing in recent years among some guidance counselors, parents, and college officials, with critics regularly knocking the rankings' scoring system while blaming them for contributing to an admissions process that's seen as stressful and cutthroat.
Despite these perceived faults, university officials believe the magazine's rankings continue to hold sway with college applicants and their families.
"Rankings make a difference in the eyes of parents and prospective students. And as that is the case, it would be inappropriate for us to ignore them," said Lawrence Burns, UT vice president for enrollment, marketing, and communications. "The first goal is to get into the third tier. Then we want to move into the second tier in a reasonable amount of time."
Higher-ranked schools such as Case Western Reserve University can restrict admission to students with certain grade point averages and standardized test scores. But UT, with its open admissions, admits students with 2.0 grade-point averages as well as those with 4.0 averages. UT's 95 percent acceptance rate in 2006 was among the highest of all the 262 ranked national universities.
Accepting lower-performing students decreases a school's selectivity ranking with the magazine and ultimately may lower that school's graduation rate, as these students are more likely to drop out.
"It certainly is a big roadblock to rise up in the rankings if you're going to have open admissions," said Robert Morse, director of data research for the U.S. News rankings.
The magazine measures schools by seven "key measures of quality," such as graduation rate, academic reputation, and a student selectivity index that factors in grades, test scores, and class rank of incoming freshmen. A review by The Blade found that schools with true open-admissions policies such as UT seldom rise into the third-tier, much less above it.
"As long as student selectivity is part of the formula, I think there is only so far you can climb in the rankings" with open admissions, said Melissa Clinedinst, assistant director of research for the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
Few schools have improved their academic profile in recent years like OSU's Columbus campus. Once viewed as the mother of all "safety schools" in Ohio, OSU is now the second highest-ranked university in the state -- 57th place -- after Case Western Reserve at number 41.
The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, is listed 25th in the report's list, tied with the University of California, Los Angeles.
OSU is ahead of 67th-place Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, which once was dubbed a "Public Ivy" for offering an Ivy League-caliber education at a public-school price.
While 43 percent of OSU's class of 6,162 incoming freshmen in fall of 2006 hailed from the top 10 percent of their high school class, 38 percent of Miami's 3,649 freshmen did, according to the latest U.S. News rankings. It is also statistically harder to get into OSU than Miami.
In 1997, just slightly more than a quarter of incoming OSU freshmen were in the top 10 percent of their high schools.
"Miami has fallen off here recently," said Rick Rettig, a guidance counselor at Perrysburg High School. "They don't get nearly as many students [from Perrysburg] as they used to, and I think it's because Ohio State has increased their standards for who they admit."
Mabel Freeman, assistant vice president for undergraduate admissions at OSU, traced the turnaround to 1987, when the Columbus campus switched from open to selective admissions.
High school graduates who did not meet the higher criteria were still accepted into the OSU system but instead would attend one of the school's five branch campuses and could later transfer to Columbus. The university has since slowly raised its admissions criteria, and its U.S. News rankings gradually have followed suit.
"When you are a school that has the reputation of being the school that anybody can get into, it takes awhile to inform people about what's new," Mrs. Freeman said. "It doesn't happen overnight, especially if you're going to maintain the same size of the freshman class as we did."
Most students who turned down a UT acceptance letter last year for another school's enrolled at OSU instead. Ohio State's tuition of $8,406 for the current school year is slightly more than UT's $7,926.
And UT, unlike OSU, does not have a branch where it can enroll the less-prepared students it admits.
"Most of the public [universities] do have branch campuses where they put the underprepared students," said Kevin Kucera, UT's associate vice president of enrollment services. "Schools with branch campuses are only reporting their main campus numbers ... but we don't have the luxury of doing that."
UT spokesman Matt Lockwood said the university has no plans for opening a branch. But even if UT did pursue a branch campus, it could face resistance from Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhut.
Many UT administrators, including Mr. Kucera, say they are happy with the school's present role in educating a large swath of students from diverse backgrounds.
During a faculty forum in 2005 on whether UT should continue its open-admissions policy, faculty members expressed views on both sides of the issue. Yet the general belief was "that we should continue our open admissions to give students a chance to go to college," said Andrew Jorgensen, associate professor of chemistry and former faculty senate chairman.
As a public university, UT would appear bound to an open admissions policy by a state law that declares all Ohio high school graduates are "entitled to admission without examination" at state public colleges.
But as regents spokesman Mike Chaney explained, "There is some gray area." The board may allow a university to veer away from this law as long as the changes being made do not significantly alter the institution's traditional mission, he said.
Cleveland State University is an example of a public school without branch campuses that jettisoned its open admissions policy to adopt stricter acceptance criteria.
Under its president, Michael Schwartz, the university in 2004 began to phase in new standards that by this fall require incoming freshmen to have a cumulative GPA of at least 2.3 and ACT scores of 16 or higher.
The standards were tightened to ensure that incoming students had the skills needed to succeed in college, said Gitanjali Kaul, vice provost for planning, assessment, and information resource management.
"We were concerned about academic standards in general, we were concerned about retention rate, and we wanted to make sure that we are giving all students a fair chance to graduate," Ms. Kaul said.
Still, the U.S. News rankings are never far from the thoughts of college officials.
"I can tell you we pay attention to them, no question. And you're always judging yourself by them," said Michael Droney, Cleveland State's vice president for administration.
While still keeping its open admissions policy, UT last fall instituted minimum standards for unconditional admittance for freshmen from Ohio and Monroe County, Michigan. While applicants without either a 2.0 GPA or a 19 ACT score are accepted, they are "conditionally admitted" and required to take placement tests and possibly developmental course work.
Other out-of-state students do not fall under the open admissions policy, and must attain a 2.0 and a 21 ACT score to get in.
Last fall's freshman class had 3,595 members, or 427 more students than the year before. The students arrived with stronger marks, an average GPA of 3.12, and an ACT score of 21.9. UT hopes to continue an upward trend in grades and test scores this fall when it expands its freshman class to 4,000 students, Mr. Kucera said.
"It's moving in the right direction," he said.
UT also has focused on attracting many of its highest-credentialed applicants into marquee undergraduates colleges. The colleges of business administration, engineering, and nursing as well as the college of health science and human service have their own advanced admission standards.
In addition, university officials are aiming to improve UT's graduation and freshman retention rates -- a combined 20 percent of the U.S. News rankings formula -- by continuing to extend tutoring and mentoring opportunities to less-prepared students. This extra assistance helps students succeed during their first year so that they can return to campus the following year and eventually graduate.
Presently, about a quarter of each year's incoming class needs some assistance in making the transition to college, said Jennifer Rockwood, director of UT's First-Year Experience program.
UT President Lloyd Jacobs in January told the university's board of trustees it was his goal for UT to attain a second-tier U.S. News ranking before the end of his tenure. He declined an interview for this article.
Board Chairman Rick Stansley said the university can strike an important balance between gaining the prestige of a higher ranking while providing an education that's accessible for all.
"If anyone would suggest that it's an either-or, I would say certainly they are wrong," Mr. Stansley said. "We're going to find a way to do both."
For Laura Bockbrader, the Eastwood graduate who eventually chose to attend OSU, she never flipped far enough through U.S. News and World Report to check UT's rankings.
"So I never really considered UT," she said.
Contact JC Reindl at: jreindl@theblade.com or 419-724-6065.
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