<p>Besides the other problems noted with the data in the OP, one issue is that not all of these schools were added as CC sub-forums at the same time (the list has been growing over many years which makes the data in the OP highly questionable). Since I did post the same data about 20 months ago, it is possible to compute the posts since July 2011 - this changes the order of the list considerably:</p>
<p>NYU/Tisch 644
University of Michigan 483
Ithaca College 417
Pace University 407
Carnegie Mellon University 331
Point Park University 269
Ball State University 268
Northwestern University 232
Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music 224
Coastal Carolina University 212
Boston Conservatory 190
Elon University 172
Otterbein University 152
University of Hartford - Hartt School 137
Texas State - San Marcos 122
Syracuse University 116
Ohio Northern University 111
Montclair State University 104
University of the Arts 104
James Madison University 102
Shenandoah Conservatory 96
Indiana University Bloomington 88
Webster University 88
Oklahoma City University 85
Pennsylvania State University 85
NYU/Steinhardt 81
California State University, Fullerton 74
American University 68
University of Miami - Florida 65
Baldwin-Wallace College 63
Florida State University 62
Westminster College of the Arts - Rider - 50
Muhlenberg College 44
Northern Colorado University 44
Roosevelt University 41
Wagner College 40
Millikin University 39
University of California - Irvine 35
Marymount Manhattan College 31
University of Arizona 27
Emerson College 23
Viterbo University 22
Wright State - 20
University of California - Los Angeles 18
SUNY at Buffalo 14
University of Southern California 14
Texas Christian University 13
SUNY at Fredonia 12
Temple University 11
Sam Houston State University 9
University of Oklahoma 9
Illinois Wesleyan - 6
University of Central Florida 5
Western Michigan University 4
Santa Fe University of Art and Design 3
Catholic University 1</p>
<p>If you look at it on a percentage basis, you get a possible indication of “recent growth in interest in various schools on CC” and the order of the list changes further:</p>
<p>Northern Colorado University 220%
Texas State - San Marcos 182%
Ball State University 175%
Coastal Carolina University 101%
American University 67%
Westminster College of the Arts - Rider - 60%
James Madison University 59%
Pace University 56%
Northwestern University 52%
Millikin University 44%
Ithaca College 41%
University of Miami - Florida 35%
Point Park University 34%
NYU/Steinhardt 32%
Indiana University Bloomington 28%
Shenandoah Conservatory 26%
University of Michigan 24%
SUNY at Buffalo 23%
University of Hartford - Hartt School 23%
Montclair State University 22%
University of California - Irvine 20%
Viterbo University 20%
Texas Christian University 20%
Sam Houston State University 19%
Wagner College 18%
Florida State University 17%
Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music 17%
California State University, Fullerton 17%
Boston Conservatory 15%
Pennsylvania State University 13%
Carnegie Mellon University 13%
Wright State - 13%
Otterbein University 13%
Elon University 13%
SUNY at Fredonia 11%
University of California - Los Angeles 11%
University of Southern California 11%
NYU/Tisch 11%
Muhlenberg College 10%
Syracuse University 9%
Santa Fe University of Art and Design 8%
Baldwin-Wallace College 8%
Roosevelt University 8%
Webster University 8%
University of Arizona 8%
Western Michigan University 8%
Marymount Manhattan College 7%
University of the Arts 7%
Temple University 6%
University of Oklahoma 6%
University of Central Florida 5%
Oklahoma City University 5%
Emerson College 5%
Illinois Wesleyan - 4%
Catholic University 1%</p>
<p>I think that all this tells you is explicitly what the data measures, the recent growth in interest in CC among various schools, which may or may not be of interest, to each his own. And now all we are measuring is 20 or so months of data, which may not mean much. Of course, CC is likely to be plagued with various biases that skew the data from much use, including geographic bias (probably more East-coasters), socio-economic bias (probably skewed toward higher income), gender bias (probably more moms than dads), personality bias (maybe only certain types of people bother with message boards), etc. Also, some schools are very effective CC marketers while others are not.</p>