Lakesbison wrote:what's Murray st Omaha milwaukee academics like? or doesnt that matter. must curious
Murray State is a solid regional university. Omaha and Milwaukee are both national universities, but are in the "rank not published" portion of US News and World Report. That means they're identified as moving beyond "regional" to national schools, but there's not enough to separate them above the rest of the schools that make them the country's 310 "best" schools.
What might separate them, at least a little bit, is their research ranking according to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Omaha is an R3 school, which would put them in line with Indiana State and behind R2 schools Illinois State, Loyola and SIU. Milwaukee is an R1 school. There are no MVC schools at the R1 level.
The list of R1 schools is almost entirely made up of high-majors and private schools near or at Ivy League level. Your list of R1 institutions in MVC states:
IllinoisIllinois
UIC
Northwestern
Chicago
IowaIowa State
Iowa
IndianaIndiana
Purdue
Notre Dame
MissouriMizzou
Washington University of St. Louis
I do want to make sure I mention that UT-Arlington, a school that's been mentioned here as an outside-the-footprint candidate for expansion, is also an R1 institution.