When They Zig, We Zag

As I write this column, William & Mary is closing out an impressive year. Despite national headwinds in higher education, we earned R1 designation from the Carnegie Foundation; received historic gifts for coastal & marine sciences education; cheered W&M Women’s Basketball in the Big Dance. And we were ranked by Forbes in the top 20 U.S. schools employers love. This weekend, we will celebrate the Class of 2025 and close out our 332nd academic year.

Next year, in 2026, we will mark the country’s 250th anniversary and conclude our current strategic plan. Even as we hit milestones in Vision 2026, we are looking ahead. It’s clear that higher education must address some tough realities head-on.

Yet as we look at William & Mary’s context and data, we also see opportunities. In general, William & Mary tacks against the wind. When they zig, we zag.

Here are a few examples of how William & Mary tacks against the dominant trends:

In the higher education landscape, according to multiple polls, national confidence is low. Yet Virginia’s polling shows that confidence is high in public higher education. Across the political spectrum, majorities of Virginians take pride in our higher education system. They believe that Commonwealth funding for higher education is the “most important investment our state can make.”
William & Mary is an outlier in NCAA athletics as well: the top university in the country for federal graduation rate among Division I athletes. We have adopted a “hybrid” approach to current NCAA disruptions, bringing W&M Football into the Patriot League so we can continue our centuries-long rivalry with Richmond.
We stand out in public undergraduate education, involving undergraduates in cutting-edge research at the same rate as MIT.
We are an outstanding arts and sciences university, and are also known as a top university for internships.

Our outlier status distinguishes William & Mary from the crowd. Yet tacking upwind can be heavy going. As readers may recall, William & Mary’s mission requires us to pursue “national preeminence”: to be known for excellence, nationwide.

So, as we scan our strategic landscape, university leadership and the Board of Visitors are reflecting on the kinds of excellence we should seek to advance. We have begun to develop metrics to showcase what we value most. In a future column, I’ll talk more about those internal measures. For the rest of this column, I want to speak to external measures.

TURBULENT RANKINGS

By definition, preeminence is externally conferred, not internally defined. Historically, national rankings have served higher education as a reliable measure of comparison. In recent years, though, the rankings landscape has changed as dramatically as Division I athletics. Two primary factors are in play.

New metrics: U.S. News & World Report eliminated key criteria for academic excellence (small class sizes, high school class rank) and alumni engagement. At the same time, USNWR added new criteria: social mobility, borrower debt, research and alumni salaries. Across the board, selective liberal arts universities dropped while large publics climbed up the rankings.
More competition at the top: Alumni are surprised when I tell them that William & Mary’s overall USNWR score has increased by 10 points, rising from 64 in 2010 to 74 in 2025. However, the rankings are more compressed than ever. Even a small score change produces a significant impact.

Meanwhile, new rankings have emerged. And inevitably, AI is changing how prospective students and their families hunt for colleges. They can now ask ChatGPT what schools suit them best and get a list in seconds.

Given this turbulence, I am often asked, “Are the rankings still relevant?” For William & Mary, the answer remains yes. Rankings matter to alumni who feel pride when their institution prevails. And for a few more years, they will guide prospective students and families. Yet, as the Great One (Wayne Gretzky) famously advised: We must skate to where the puck is going.

WHERE IS THE PUCK GOING?

When we survey prospective students and families, their interests are clear. They seek affordability, stability and belonging. They want strong preparation for a purposeful career. William & Mary has a clear path to deliver on these hopes. First, invest in our core strengths: academic excellence, student success, broad arts and sciences with strong digital foundations. Second, innovate: continue to weave applied learning into all that we do. You will hear both refrains next year, as we lay the groundwork for future strategic planning.