Important Developments at UA
First the good news
1)UA enrolled more National Merit Scholars this Fall than any other year. 256! That is likely the most of any school in the nation.
https://talk.collegeconfidential.com...rs.html#latest
For next five data points, see
https://talk.collegeconfidential.com...er.html#latest
2) Highest percentage in UA history of freshman in top 10% of high school class
3) More than 10% increase in in-state freshman enrollment
4) UA total enrollment down slightly, but still above 38,000
5) Approximately 40% have an ACT score of 30 or more for the third consecutive year
7) An increase of about 100, in freshman class, relative to last Fall
Also, UA Engineering's Grad program enrolled 504 students this Fall, a big increase from the 431 in last Fall's class. That is VERY important for the school's goal of improving productivity in research.
http://oira.ua.edu/new/reports/#Tabl...%20by%20Campus
Now, the bad news.
UA continues to drop in the USNW rankings of all major colleges, public and private.
https://talk.collegeconfidential.com...at-now-p1.html
UA is now at 153 in the rankings, way down from its high of 75 in 2012. Does anyone believe UA's quality has dropped that much or at all in such a short amount of time? Of course, a big part of the reason is the set of changes USNWR made to its criteria. UA and FSU essentially changed places in as little as eight years according to this nonsense.
Anyway, perception can be reality, so here is hoping UA admin takes steps to reverse the trend. The irony is that UA has never enrolled so many top students (ACT of 32 or higher, plus the positive stats I cited above). So maybe the rankings don't matter that much. But hard to believe that they won't have a corrosive effect in terms of faculty recruitment, rep, in the long run.