Well...maybe the requirements for AAU are not a straight relationship to academics...Call Santa Cruz is ranked bu USNWR behind Miami, FSU, Clemson, VT, UConn...among others.
Changes AAU had made in its membership criteria put more emphasis on the volume of federally sponsored science and engineering research and put particularly a premium on biomedical studies.
That limits membership...example...FSU has a medical school, but one chartered by the legislature to produce Family Practice physicians....UF and USF were chartered by the Legislature for med research. ........but FSU has a ton of research from the National High Magnetic Lab to the formulation of the anti cancer drug Taxol.
FSU receives the highest award of any Florida school from the National Science Foundation...
The
National Science Foundation (
NSF) is an
independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental
research and
education in all the non-medical fields of
science and
engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institute of Health.