Rank Rankings
It pays to have a sense of humor – or at least a strong stomach. Ask any college administrator who follows the rankings and ratings of US News and World Report. Whether any of this passes as news or has world-worthy impact is iffy. But, this is the week.
The ratings from the most recent academic year are based on data collected about a year or so ago. And, these ratings affect some decisions by some families about where the kids will go to college about a year from now. It’s a good deal for US News: families begin thinking about life after the senior year of high school. School is getting ready to start. Pick up a copy of this year’s rankings and ratings.
College administrators know the drill. Everyone understands rankings: football, basketball, colleges. College presidents know who the competition is. Only a few presidents get to sleep soundly through all of this. At Princeton, the question is “will we be first or tied for first?” Second is not likely. Outside the Ivy League and a few other colleges, the question is placement in the top tier, the second tier, the third tier, or those cards they stick in between the pages. Fourth tier institutions don’t really care about US News. So it goes.
This year was a little different, since US News puts gruesome details on a web site. On Friday, the magazine ranked a number of professional programs WRONG (what were they thinking?), placing a long list of college programs in a tie for first place. For a few fleeting hours, thirty or more universities were tied for first in particular programs in engineering and business (noticeably absent were the top schools in the US). Actually, all this nonsense happened on Wednesday but was “embargoed.” This timing gives colleges and universities some time to write the best story they can think of before the magazine hits the newsstands. So there. By Monday, the rankings had been corrected, the antacids consumed, and things settled down to normal. Princeton was number one.
The question is, did anyone notice? You see, US News thinks it is collecting information for the Spellman commission not selling magazines. Colleges have complained about the rankings, so US News methods are now well known (and “gamed” by some) and stable (meaning they keep collecting the same information and using it in similar ways year to year), although US News hasn’t figured out how to keep people from telling lies and no one knows (on most campuses) who actually fills out the forms. But here again, some presidents could sleep more soundly: fewer than one in five families use the rankings to pick a college.
The rankings are important to some people, but not most. US News competitor Time says rankings don’t matter. It’s fit that counts. Meaning, a good student fit into the right institution can blossom. Good fit, good education. A bad fit might get you a nice school tie from the “right” school. You can look good standing on the unemployment line. Families beware: if you can’t pick your dog food out of a magazine, what makes you think you can pick a college this way?
Head on, apply directly to the forehead.
Dick Pratt is Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences at Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY.
The ratings from the most recent academic year are based on data collected about a year or so ago. And, these ratings affect some decisions by some families about where the kids will go to college about a year from now. It’s a good deal for US News: families begin thinking about life after the senior year of high school. School is getting ready to start. Pick up a copy of this year’s rankings and ratings.
College administrators know the drill. Everyone understands rankings: football, basketball, colleges. College presidents know who the competition is. Only a few presidents get to sleep soundly through all of this. At Princeton, the question is “will we be first or tied for first?” Second is not likely. Outside the Ivy League and a few other colleges, the question is placement in the top tier, the second tier, the third tier, or those cards they stick in between the pages. Fourth tier institutions don’t really care about US News. So it goes.
This year was a little different, since US News puts gruesome details on a web site. On Friday, the magazine ranked a number of professional programs WRONG (what were they thinking?), placing a long list of college programs in a tie for first place. For a few fleeting hours, thirty or more universities were tied for first in particular programs in engineering and business (noticeably absent were the top schools in the US). Actually, all this nonsense happened on Wednesday but was “embargoed.” This timing gives colleges and universities some time to write the best story they can think of before the magazine hits the newsstands. So there. By Monday, the rankings had been corrected, the antacids consumed, and things settled down to normal. Princeton was number one.
The question is, did anyone notice? You see, US News thinks it is collecting information for the Spellman commission not selling magazines. Colleges have complained about the rankings, so US News methods are now well known (and “gamed” by some) and stable (meaning they keep collecting the same information and using it in similar ways year to year), although US News hasn’t figured out how to keep people from telling lies and no one knows (on most campuses) who actually fills out the forms. But here again, some presidents could sleep more soundly: fewer than one in five families use the rankings to pick a college.
The rankings are important to some people, but not most. US News competitor Time says rankings don’t matter. It’s fit that counts. Meaning, a good student fit into the right institution can blossom. Good fit, good education. A bad fit might get you a nice school tie from the “right” school. You can look good standing on the unemployment line. Families beware: if you can’t pick your dog food out of a magazine, what makes you think you can pick a college this way?
Head on, apply directly to the forehead.
Dick Pratt is Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences at Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY.
posted by Dick Pratt at
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