I actually don't really agree with your "barometer" as a measure of the actual quality of the schools. The problem is, the schools are completely different from one another, and since neither of these schools is going to be mistaken for Harvard or Stanford anytime soon, intelligent students will choose based on what they want to study, not based on perceived differences in prestige or overall quality.wbtfg wrote:I think a good barometer is to see where the top students in the state of Montana are chosing to go.
The Montana University System awards 285 in-state tuition waivers to the top graduating seniors in the state of Montana based on GPA and class rank. This tuition waiver is good at any state school in Montana.
Of the 285 recipients in 2004, 146 are attending MSU, UM has 89, 16 at Tech, 16 in Billings, Western 4, Northern 4, Miles CC 3, Billings COT 1, Great Falls COT 1. (5 were undecided when data was gathered)
Also, the academic profile of an incoming freshman is quite a bit higher at MSU than at UM (UM doesn't even post the pofile of incoming freshman class).
MSU is rightfully known as the best place to receive an undergraduate education in the state. (Aside from journalism, forestry, pharmacy, and probably foreign languages)
The fact that more top students are currently choosing MSU reflects the fact that MSU is stronger in hard sciences and tech fields, which are the hot fields to go into right now. Thus, more top students are choosing those fields, and thus choosing MSU.
The last sentence of your post says it all: (paraphrasing for clarity): "MSU is better...except for the fields where UM is better (although you left out a few)."
Also, regarding the average academic profiles of the two schools: I stopped paying attention to this a few years ago, so maybe it is true in very recent years, but historically, I know it is not. When I was in school (1995-2001), I know that the two schools were comparable in that regard (and frankly, neither was particularly impressive); there may have been swings from year to year, but they were not significant. I doubt that there is a huge difference now, but if there is this year, I'm sure it will correct itself over time.
The bottom line is, no matter what anyone from either school says, UM and MSU are of equal status. Montana is not like, say, Michigan, where UMich is decisively better than MSU, and most MSU students would have gone to Ann Arbor had they gotten in. UM and MSU are both decent, albeit not great, state schools, and they are strong in different areas. If anyone seriously thinks that, *overall*, either one is significantly better than the other, they are deluding themselves.
That'd be like counting their series record against Western 
Kind of embarrassing on their part and makes you pretty proud of the old time Cats that would take them on, and evidently win more than a few times 
](./images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
I might take in one game (besides the all-important one) just to see how the bottom dwellers are doing.