Rankings, everyone loves them. While Black Enterprise Magazine ranked FAMU No. 1 in its most recent ranking, U.S. News and World Report recently ranked FAMU No. 13 in its first-ever ranking of Black colleges. FAMU finished behind the usual suspects --- Spelman, Howard, Hampton, Morehouse and Fisk which rounded out the top five in that order.
If there's any consolation, FAMU finished ahead of that tiny collegel in Daytona Beach and the other two HBCUs in Florida. Don't expect a news release on this from the FAMU Public Relations Office.
Read more and see the list here.
Ammons will have us #1 in no time.
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. News' HBCU rankings are inevitably flawed. How do you compare small liberal arts colleges (Morehouse, Spelman, and Fisk) with a large private comprehensive university (Howard) with large public research/land grant institution (Florida A&M)?
ReplyDeleteWith that being said, there is some good that will come out of the U.S. News' decision to rank HBCUs in a category all by themselves. For one, it recognizes that HBCUs have a fundamentally different market and mission than majority colleges. And second, it gives FAMU another national platform on which it is likely to do well.
Those two things are important since the U.S. News rankings - despite the growing numbers of universities that refuse to dignify them - are still the talk of the higher education world.
They are looking at the hard numbers. Ammons can get us to be the highest rated of all, but FAMUans will need to ditch this mindset of accepting just anybody into the school. We'll need to be much more selective, and send the charity cases to a community college. Are you prepared for that?
ReplyDeleteHa...those rankings are hilarious.
ReplyDelete4:47, you know you're right. I teach at the university, so I know firsthand that more than a few students are severely underprepared for collegiate-level work. But you know, moms and pops want to be able to say that their son or daughter is "in college," whether or not the kid is prepared. I certainly don't understand the mindset of parents who would prefer to have their child at a four-year institution--when they absolutely know more than perhaps the child her/himself--that they are not prepared for the level of scholarship that a university demands and should begin their collegiate rise at a two-year institution. It's so unfair to the child, because in the long run they suffer terribly and are unable to keep up with the demands of the courses in which they are enrolled. At the end of the first semester of school, the university loses so many students because they have failed miserably. But we, the university, keep recruiting these underprepared students regardless of the high school scores, grades and preparation. Everything these days are about numbers: we gotta get (and keep) those numbers up no matter what. When we continue to do this, then we fail in other respects and in other areas.
ReplyDeleteGrammatical correction on my above post! "Everything these days is about numbers..." Wow! That was a serious grammatical faux paus! My bad (but my correction)!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the PR department. Isn't it great?! Hey but all this talk about students going to 2 year institutions first .... Isn't that what the previous CB and Gainous tried to get all to understand? Come on people. We have got to accept change. It is in FAMU's best interest to get into the stream of students coming prepared from our community colleges. Even UF has a 2 + 2 program to ensure the seamless move for Santa Fe CC students.
ReplyDeleteFAMU has a 33 percent 6 year graduation rate according to US News.
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. News published FAMU's four-year graduation rate. Most students in America take at least six-years to graduate.
ReplyDeleteFAMU's six-year graduation rate is 41.4%. Seven of Florida's ten public universities have six-year graduation rates under 50%.
Our graduation rate is an embarrassment. We need to quit accepting students just to increase enrollment.
ReplyDeleteOur four graduation rate is 33 percent. This is unacceptable
Our graduation rate is an embarrassment. We need to quit accepting students just to increase enrollment.
ReplyDeleteYou're not one of us. You're just the same person who's been posting half-baked attacks against FAMU without having all the facts.
Most college students in America take at least six years to graduation. That is a fact.
Most of Florida's public universities have six-year graduation rates that are below 50%. FAMU is no exception. That is also a fact.
The quote below comes from "Region trails in college graduation rates," by Scott Travis, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, February 13, 2007:
"As a statewide system, the graduation rate for Florida's public universities compares favorably with the nation's. About 63 percent of students finish in six years, compared with about 53 percent nationally. But seven of the 10 largest public universities in the state have six-year graduation rates below 50 percent."
Yes, FAMU's six-year graduation rate is in the 40s just like most of Florida's public universities. FAMU should not be singled out when there are six other state universities that have six-year graduation rates that are also in the 40s.
"You're not one of us. You're just the same person who's been posting half-baked attacks against FAMU without having all the facts."
ReplyDeleteAccording to the US News and World Report FAMU's four year graduation rate is 33 percent. FACT!
If we want to be the premier institute that we say we our we need to be better than the national average and I mean much better.