@emorynavy : Why? Some goals aren’t just good for the rankings, some are just worthwhile goals. EmoryUP is trying to help with the graduation situation. I think most of the students Emory admits could and should graduate, but we need not compare ourselves to ND and VU because a bigger chunk of students at those schools get sorted into or choose “softer” majors. Emory’s students are highly concentrated in majors that grade lower than normal or have higher than normal attrition (mainly majors typically taken up by Big 3 pre-professional students. QTM is an exception, but is also unusually rigorous). Students on pre-prof. tracks are automatically at higher risk as they are more likely to get off at the last minute. For Emory to improve graduation outcomes, it must execute the various pillars of EmoryUP to ensure that students are successfully making progress towards a degree, no matter what it is. Students also need to be quickly assisted when they are considering switching from commonly sought after tracks. Numbers need to be put in context. If Emory wants to improve in that area, it may need to look at what Penn is doing. Penn’s breakdown/distribution of academic concentrations/interests overlaps far better with Emory’s than most schools. Again, I don’t care about the ranking. The ranking is fine. I’m sure it could eventually do better, but that is not a worthwhile focus. Improving students’ progress, outcomes, and overall satisfaction with and loyalty to Emory is a worthy goal regardless of how it would reflect in the rankings.
*I had a flop week and just got done with “throw away thursday” in my lab (I have meetings, R.I.P. seminars, and presentations ALL day). I don’t really wanna get on here and talk about some trashy old rankings. If you wanna talk about things that can legitimately help Emory improve its outcomes and student satisfaction, let us do that. I’m not gonna sit here and figure out how Emory can twist itself into a pretzel trying to enhance its already good rank. They keep changing the metrics and one school’s ranking is also dependent upon how other schools respond with respect to the metrics. Emory should look to improve certain metrics and infrastructure just because…not because it wants to game the rankings. “Admitting those qualified low income students that they know will graduate” ultimately results in: “Admit less low income students”…so that is really only a shortcut that could serve the purpose of enhancing a rank, and not actually improving the capabilities of the school to elevate students of all tax brackets to wherever the hell they wanna be.