The Rankings Game
Love them or hate them, they are here out there. To be clear, I am not a fan. The Rankings (most notably the US News & World Report College Rankings) are built on a methodology that greatly favor richer, private schools. They "measure" almost nothing that most anyone attending would agree is an important factor to their actual positive experience, and they are often used to manipulate, so much so that schools frequently lie in the reporting of data. Media blows these annual numbers way out of proportion, causing hysteria in the public. But rather than pretend they do not exist, I am looking to capture the information in one place and bring it to light so people can make their own decisions.
The US & World ReportThis is the one they are all talking about. It is US-only, measures little about what should matter, favors wealthy schools, and is steeped in controversy.
MisrepresentationA number of schools over the years have been implicated in accusations of lying or misreporting data. Columbia University is the latest. Having gone from 18th in 1988 to 2nd in 2021 (a rise unprecedented by the "top" schools), Columbia is not under fire for its inaccuracy. In fact, the list of schools to report less-than-accurate data is so long that you would be crazy not to question the validity of any of it.
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Times Higher EducationAnother well-known rankings systems looks at the world at-large and tries to measure performance in areas like teaching, knowledge transfer, and international outlook.
The Prestige RacketWant to make your school seem like it is better than it is? Charge more. It's been done. Read about George Washington's rise here.
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The sad truth is that colleges and universities have a powerful incentive to game the system. The U.S. News rankings remain enormously popular—and surprisingly influential—despite widespread skepticism within the educational community. Just 2% of college admission directors think ranking systems are very effective at helping prospective students find a good fit, and 91% believe that institutions are cheating the system. In a similar vein, 89% of high school counselors and college admission officers reckon that the U.S. News rankings offer misleading conclusions about institutional quality; 83% think the rankings create confusion for prospective students and their families; and only 3% believe that the title “America’s Best Colleges” is accurate. -Reed College
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Journalist Malcolm Gladwell has long been a voice of challenge in this process. His video is an excellent example of how students can even be better off not attending the highest ranked schools. His article in the New Yorker is foundational in creating the argument that not only do the rankings measure topics that might not determine the quality of an education, they compare schools, which is as arbitrary as comparing cars, or even athletes across different sports. Anyone who has anything to say about the rankings needs to have read this article.
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Breaking NewsIt has happened!!! Everyone knows the rankings are flawed, but little do anything about it. Those with the most power benefit the most from these systems. And yet we have a major step in the right direction - Yale and Harvard Law will not contribute to the rankings any longer!! This is what it will take to shake a system that no one trusts yet everyone seems to want to believe in. Read about the unraveling here. The dominos begin to fall. How long until the undergrad level from these schools join? That is the question.
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Reed College is a highly intellectual institution, cranking out one of the highest percentages of students who will earn a PhD in the nation. By these accounts, it must be ranked well. However, you wont find it on the list, because Reed does not submit data to for-profit developers. Why? Reed doesn't believe these methodologies capture what their institution is about, and that what Reed has to offer is not capture in a book or number. What do you think would happen if, for just one year, Harvard did the same? Would people still apply in record numbers? It is the ultimate experiment (that may never happen).
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There are many sort tools out there that do the same thing, but when you combine the words "Rankings" and "New York Times," it becomes news! Try out this "new" tool in order to prioritise your values and find the best school....for you.
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