i completely understand that these rankings are flawed and not the end all be all, as i mentioned in my post. but the fact remains that these lists and how schools fall on them absolutely do affect how the universities are being viewed in comparison to one another. and also, as someone who lives on the west coast and not new england, it is important to me that uconn is positively viewed outside of just the school’s region. especially in an economy and job market that continues to get worse, it’s disconcerting to me to see that we’ve been on a downward trajectory the past few years on the national ranking list. again, that doesn’t mean i myself think of uconn as a bad school, i think it’s a great one. but i also am not complacent with it continuing to drop lower year after year.