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Peer Institutions

CU-Boulder considers the AAU (Association of American Universities) public institutions as its peer group for comparisons of faculty salaries, instruction, and many other activities.

Comparisons on tuition, funding, and more

Map of all AAU institutions:

We usually exclude Toronto and McGill (in Canada) from the list of public AAUs; all US public AAU's are listed below.  For peer comparisons we sometimes exclude Rutgers, which has unionized faculty; sometimes excluded schools using FASB rather than GASB financial reporting rules (Rutgers, Penn State, Pitt through at least FY08, maybe 09, but changed to GASB FY10); sometimes exclude all those with medical activity. 

Public AAU's, United States only, N = 34.  * No medical school, N = 15.  

University of Arizona
University of California - Berkeley *
University of California - Davis
University of California - Irvine
University of California - Los Angeles
University of California - San Diego
University of California - Santa Barbara *
University of Colorado Boulder *
University of Florida
Georgia Institute of Technology * (added 2010)
University of Illinois - Urbana *
Indiana University *
Iowa State University *
University of Iowa
University of Kansas * (reporting may/may not exclude medical campus in KC)
University of Maryland - College Park *
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Michigan State University
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
University of Missouri - Columbia
State University of New York - Buffalo
State University of New York - Stony Brook
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Ohio State University
University of Oregon *
Pennsylvania State University *
University of Pittsburgh
Purdue University *
Rutgers, State University of New Jersey * (sometimes excluded; unionized)
University of Texas - Austin *
Texas A&M University *
University of Virginia
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin - Madison

Note: University of Nebraska - Lincoln's AAU membership ended April 2011.

The AAU is a group of over 60 Research I universities; membership is by invitation only. Visit the AAU website for more information on the AAU, a list of all institutions (including privates) with their membership date, and a link to their homepage.

Most public and private AAU members belong to the "AAU Data Exchange" (AAUDE), a group not officially part of the AAU.  Former AAU members may also belong to AAUDE.  AAUDE members exchange data on a number of topics. See our faculty-salary comparisons for an example of one way in which we've used these comparative data.

The AAUDE also sponsors an electronic-based mechanism for exchanging ad hoc queries.

CDHE peer institutions for CU-Boulder -- all (then-)AAU US public without medical activity, excluding Rutgers, Georgia Tech, Penn State, and Purdue.  Includes Nebraska.  N=11 without CU-Boulder.   Some are land grant.

Last revision 02/21/12