Is the (AAU) an accrediting body?

Is the (AAU) an accrediting body?

They state they represent 52% of all doctorates awarded in the United States.

 

The Association of American Universities (AAU) is not an accreditation agency. It's an association of 62 prominent research universities (60 in the US, plus two in Canada).

The AAU schools are, in general, the largest and most research-oriented universities in North America. It's difficult to get in; membership is by invitation only, and no new schools have been invited since 1996.

In practice, the most prestigious university degrees tend to come from AAU schools. For example, in the current US News & World Report ranking of "National Universities", 22 of the top 25 schools are AAU members (exceptions: #11 Dartmouth, #20 Notre Dame, #23 Georgetown). But AAU does not formally accredit the degrees of member schools.

 

So why do some employers use them as a filtering talent process?

 

Do they? I've never seen a "help wanted" ad that explicitly specified an AAU degree.

But as stated above, AAU schools tend to be prestigious, so if your doctorate is from an AAU school, it's generally perceived as a plus. In the same way, it's generally a plus to have a degree from an "Ivy League" school, even though the Ivy League is not an accreditation agency either.

In practice, I suspect that most tenure-track faculty positions in the US go to PhD graduates from AAU schools. This is not because there is some AAU "seal of approval" on the doctoral degree. It's because faculty positions tend to go to graduates of large, famous universities with reputations for world-class research. Most North American universities that fit that description belong to AAU.

 

Here is one for you: So why:

92% of all new hires come from that pool (Employer X)
100% active recruiting comes from that pool (Employer X)
0% from NCU
0% from UOP
0% from capella
11@ currently employed came from USC, UCLA, Cal or Stanford


Hint: Oil Company in Houston - Lost 50% of profits this quarter

 

Many employers recruit only from prestigious, top-ranked schools. This would typically include all AAU schools. Like it or not, schools like UoP, Capella, or NCU are not particularly selective or prestigious, and they do not score highly on university rankings.

Oil companies routinely recruit scientists and engineers. Schools like USC, UCLA, Cal, and Stanford are very strong in science and engineering. Schools like UoP, Capella, and NCU, on the other hand, don't even try to produce petroleum geologists or petroleum engineers.

 

So it’s a secret society with a mission

 

Maybe they should try hiring from UOP instead?

j/k I know the economy is hurting everybody!

 

Employers don't always hire just based on the education of the prospective employee.

There are many factors and all of them need to be satisfied.

Experience with leading company is at time more prestige and required then the ivy liege school degree.

In some markets yes, new graduates with MBA or Law Degree get better offers and good starting salary if they come from AAU group of schools.

I my self can attest that when I earned a graduate certificate from one of the
AAU member universities , it enhanced my resume and generated more interest from the employers, its nice to have that schools name on my resume.

But usually the prospective employers at least in my case are more impressed with the experience and training that I bring to the table.

 

The AAU's membership is listed here:

http://www.aau.edu/about/article.aspx?id=5476

It's kind of interesting to compare the AAU membership list with some of the citation rankings at

http://esi-topics.com

Six of the ten University of California campuses are AAU members. Those excluded are UCR, UCSC, UCSF and UCM.

UCSF comes up #2 in the world in prion diseases like mad cow. (Prions were discovered at UCSF, winning one of its scientists a Nobel prize.) UCSF is #3 for HIV/AIDS research. UCSC has a very strong astronomy department and comes in #7 in the world in dark matter and #9 in black holes. (UCSC has a dark thing going.) I personally know that UCSC is big in searching for exoplanets too (there wasn't any citation ranking for that). They are #17 in neutrinos.

Colorado State U. isn't an AAU member but its powerful meterology department managed to come in at #2 on the citation ranking for tropical storms, behind NOAA, the best showing for any university in the world. The U. of Miami is #3 and it isn't an AAU member either. The U. of Hawaii isn't an AAU member but it occupies a similar #2 citation position as the leading university in volcanology, behind the USGS.

I agree with Caldog (I always seem to agree with Caldog) that in general and typically, the leading American departments in most subjects are found at AAU member schools. But it isn't really a law of nature. It's just that the AAU's membership consists of the biggest research universities. I don't think that university or industrial hiring committees pay very much attention to AAU membership and in most cases they probably aren't even aware of it. They often pay attention to departmental reputation though, which probably creates some after-the-fact correlation.

The AAU seems to exist to represent the interests of the large research universities with the various funding and regulatory bodies. It's basically a lobbying group. They say:

http://www.aau.edu/about/default.aspx?id=58

 

These guy GOT power.....

 

AAU membership is not a big deal. In fact, two schools have voluntarily dropped out in recent years.

Clark University and Catholic University of America were both among the 14 founding members of AAU in 1900. But Clark left in 1999, and CUA left in 2002. These schools might have been considered large and research-oriented by 1900 standards, but not by 2000 standards.

AAU is nothing more than an organization that represents research universities and promotes their interests. There are many similar organizations for other kinds of colleges and universities, like (for example) the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (which represents Catholic schools) or the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (which represents private schools in California).