In the metric driven world universities live in the USNWR is still the top dog. Their rankings are driven by wealth and prestige. Most of which were generated 100+ years ago. There is a strong correlation between wealth and USNWR rank and with 7B in the bank Emory should be ranked in the 8-15 range. Emory is like a kid with a 2350 SAT and a 2.2 GPA…underachieving but has great potential and great resources to work with.
While U’s hate playing the game they all need to play, and do play it as it brings money, faculty and students in the door. The money, top students, top faculty, and infrastructure allow them to continue their mission.
Moving up is going to be a challenge:
- The 8 ivy schools have too much wealth and prestige to fall outside the top 20.
- UC, CU, MIT, Stanford, and Northwestern aren’t going anywhere.
- Duke, Vanderbilt, Rice, Wash St-L, and NDU are all red hot right now and “moving on up”.
- JHU is a bit long-in-the-tooth, having trouble recruiting students and faculty, and stuck in Baltimore. It should be in the 17-20 range, but still top 20. Georgetown is a 19-23 U.
- CMU and USC are working very hard to move into the top 20 as well.