While attending law school, I had an opportunity to explain to an Associate Dean exactly how I would go about improving the law school’s U.S. News and World Report ranking, an issue over which he had been obsessing. Basically, I went down the scoring criteria one by one and explained what logically could be changed and how difficult and/or costly it would be to make the change.
Today higher education institutions are light years ahead of me in scheming new ways to improve their U.S. News rankings. Three of my favorites as reported over the last few months:
- SAT Scores. Schools at which a student can avoid having his or her SAT/ACT score considered during the admissions process do not report the scores for such students and thus inflate their institutional SAT/ACT averages dramatically.
- Class Size. Because U.S. News measures the proportion of classes with fewer than 20 students, Clemson University keeps some sections at 18 or 19 while bumping others to 70.
- Reputation. Clemson University officials down-rank other institutions’ academic programs while up-ranking their own in reputational surveys.
I wonder if it’s hard to regulate student cheating at such institutions where the administrators also cheat. Fortunately, or unfortunately, few West Virginia institutions compete seriously in the world of U.S. News rankings … and as we will be reminded again very soon, some don’t even bother to participate in more meaningful ranking systems.
I hope you continue to expose the scam of college rankings. Mountain State University boasts on its website that it was selected by Princeton Review as one of the “best in the Southeast.” If you take time to click on the article, you’ll find that Princeton Review did not rate the schools – the honor was based on a survey of students, who were asked to rate “accessibility of professors to the qualify of food….” Also, in the last paragraph, you’ll learn that Princeton Review is not associated with Princeton University and is not a magazine.