<p>Seems to be two big issues. Largest is the endowment or lack there of. Financial aid is quite poor. Something like $900M vs ~ $1.5B for a small LAC like Williams. Also, they just spent a lot of money on new MSB building and now a lot on new science building. Compared with Ivy’s, they are much poorer.</p>
<p>Second issue is the past lack of focus on science. They are not highly regarded in this area. Guess they are trying to address this (and draw better profs) with a snazzy new science center supposed to open next year.</p>
<p>Looks like they are trying to increase undergrad class size by a lot to try and bring in money. They submitted a 10 year plan that stirred up a lot of neighborhood ire by offering a “voluntary” cap of 20,000 students for undergrad without any new housing. Heard they want 2500 more students within a couple years. One attraction of GU is the liberal arts feel but bigger scale than a LAC (7K undergrads vs 2K typical for small LACs). If they push above 10K undergrad, will it feel like the same GU environment? In addition, will it move up the ranks as selectivity drops based upon numbers? </p>
<p>In the end, rankings are very loose guideposts anyway. So much is subjective. Seems like people focus way to much on it. You could tweak the formula used by USN and come up with very different rankings. Then consider what you want to study; a school may be highly ranked but mediocre in a specific area you end up loving. Then did the school ranking really buy you much and is it meaningful to you specifically?</p>