Alright, we've heard the arguments on both sides about why rankings are or aren't important, but let's just pretend for a second they are. The fact of the matter is that most public schools, and therefore most schools in the Big Ten, have been declining in national rankings in the last few years. Here is my point by point plan on how to fix it.
1. Go more out of state. The school I attend, Michigan, is roughly 1/3 out of state. This is very high for a public school, but consider this: Wisconsin, another highly regarded school in the Big Ten, is roughly 35% out of state and growing, Penn State is roughly 30% out of state, and Illinois is roughly 20% out of state and growing rapidly every year. At my school, the state contributes about 20% of the operating cost every year, and 1/3 of the applicants come from within the state, but 2/3 of the eventual students do. Actual enrollments should more accurately reflect where applications come from. This will also provide more revenue to the school in terms of tuition, and encouraging more out-of-state students to apply will increase competitiveness in admissions.
2. Look overseas. There is a rapidly growing middle class in many third-world countries that would be extremely eager to send their children to an American university. These students often pay more than out-of-state students, and do a lot to increase the diversity of schools. This is also a good way to get students for schools that don't quite have the cachet to increase out-of-state students. Many Big Ten schools offer programs in which foreign students are extremely interested, such as engineering and business. Schools should be proactive in recruiting these students, because many countries are putting a lot of money into their own education system in order to keep their best students.
3. Less is more. Many public schools are either being forced to offer less educational opportunities or hold steady, but overall student enrollment is increasing. This is generally not a good thing. This probably means that universities should try to reduce the number of people enrolling by reducing the number of people they accept. For example, Michigan over accepted by 1,000 kids this year, and Iowa over accepted by roughly 400. This creates housing issues, as well as teaching issues. The main plan to deal with this is to hope that enough kids drop out that space is cleared for everyone else. This is generally bad news, because it is generally a bad idea to hope for someone's failure so everyone else can have enough. By reducing the number of kids a school accepts, acceptance rates, a key measure of institutional quality, will go down.
4. Offer better financial aid. By accepting fewer kids, a university will have the same amount of financial aid to spread out over fewer people, meaning everyone can get more, and the school will have more full-rides to give out to the most coveted students.
In case you were interested to know, Michigan is the second most exclusive school in the Big Ten and has the fourth highest rate of international students. Further, the size of the school has been increasing at a rate of 1.5% per year.
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