Searching for "Second Ten" Universities

ericatbucknell
Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:23:22 +0000

a great place for finding somewhat overlooked programs at research universities is the nrc polling data for faculty effectiveness. the data was collected via the same survey that served as the source for the typical nrc ‘faculty research quality’ ratings we often see, but sought to determine which programs actually did a good job training phds.

given the subjective nature of the survey in addition to outside variables that cloud the picture, the correlation between the two faculty ratings is quite high across the board. however, it is still very interesting to see which programs faculty feel are relatively better/worse in graduate instruction and support relative to research productivity.

for example, wisconsin and minnesota are rated very similarly (4.10 and 4.08, respectively) by nrc respondents for faculty research quality in mathematics. no complaints here, as minnesota produces a lot of scholarship. however, wisconsin rates 0.17 points higher (3.82 to 3.65) in faculty effectiveness. no complaints here, either, as minnesotas mathematics faculty is somewhat notorious for providing limited support to its graduate students.

the obvious question then becomes how well one can reasonably expect minnesota to support its undergraduate mathematics students. my guess: not so well.

note: in preparation for the release of the new nrc rankings, the 1995 data tables seem to be have taken down. however, they are still accessible via the latest archive on archive.org.