<p>The best thing about the USNEWS online edition has always been that all of the colums are sortable.</p>
<p>They screwed it up this year. You can no longer click on any column and sort the schools.</p>
<p>Amazing how they can take what was once a pretty good product and make it worse every year.</p>
<p>However, US news did do a good job with the new video section where they interview students. It tells you a lot about what the student body is actually like. It puts some perspective behind the raw numbers in the admissions spreadsheets.</p>
<p>I've found what may be another glitch in the online edition. If not, I'm just befuddled. Hodges University in Naples, Florida (formerly International College) was listed in the Fourth Tier in the 2008 list (Masters -- South Region). This year it's being shown as tied for Number 1. Huh? And didn't make the list of "up and coming" schools in the South. I don't know how much more up and coming you can be! Something is very weird there. </p>
<p>Master's</a> Universities (South) Rankings - Best Colleges - Education - US News and World Report</p>
<p>I was shocked also as Wells College went from a Tier 1 college to a Tier 4 college in one year even though they added a science building and made many upgrades. Not sure how things like this happen but I would think many college presidents and others would be very upset about this.</p>
<p>Upon further review, USNEWS has made the online edition virtually impossible to use.</p>
<p>For example, it used to be that you could click "student body" for a college and get a long list of detailed data (diversity, etc.). Now, you have to click "student body" and then click through a half dozen sub-tabs, each with just a few of the items. </p>
<p>They have totally destroyed the utility of the product as a quick reference. Just looking up one piece of information about a school is now so time consuming as to be essentially unusable. It's faster, now, to hunt down the college's common data set.</p>
<p>I agree with interesteddad, at least with respect to the free online version. I didn't pay for the premium version as I don't need it anymore. But I still like to poke around. The new version is glitzier but much less user-friendly. Takes a lot more time to get around.</p>
<p>The new version is an unmitigated disaster and there are NO redeeming values to be found in the changes.</p>
<p>i like some of the new information provided in the ranking tables (particularly enrollment). the rest, though, is as others say: nothing short of a mess.</p>
<p>Is the "paid/premium" online version the same as it has been?</p>
<p>
[quote]
The new version is glitzier but much less user-friendly. Takes a lot more time to get around.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I agree. It's too bad that a lot of websites are still making the error of reducing their usability when they redesign. I DO NOT recommend using the U.S. News online services, free or paid, as long as the College Board website is still as it has been for the last few years.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The new version is an unmitigated disaster and there are NO redeeming values to be found in the changes.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Whoever designed the scrolling of the main ranking tables needs to be taken out at dawn and shot by firing squad. You have to scroll to the right to even see the columns, but the scroll bars are at the bottom of a scrolling window, so you have to scroll all the way down to get to them.</p>
<p>The whole thing is a total, unmitigated disaster. </p>
<p>I thought there was a saving grace in that you can save a PDF version of the ranking lists, but the PDF leaves out the most important data (like the median SAT scores) for somebody trying to put together a college list.</p>
<p>My only complaint with the College Board data is that, for a number of key categories (like financial aid and enrollment diversity), they only provide numbers for the most recent freshman class rather than the entire 4-year student body. Particularly for small colleges, this frequently results in wild year-to-year small sample fluctuations that can be misleading. IMO, this stuff really should be looked at for the entire student body to smooth out the anomolies.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Is the "paid/premium" online version the same as it has been?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>No. That's what we are talking about. They've basically destroyed it as a reference database because it is so time consuming to look stuff up. It was bad last year; this year's product is a disaster.</p>
<p>Yeah, don't waste your money. U.S. News has downgraded its service considerably, for no good reason that appears to me.</p>
<p>Wow. Thanks for saving me the $$! I'll just go buy the cheap printed copy. We don't put much stock in the rankings, etc. but it is a good place to get fast, general info. I was trying to decide whether to get the online version or not....you've made that decision for me!!!</p>
<p>I, too, was most disappointed in the Premium Online Edition, not being able to click on "Student Body" or "Campus Life" & find out instantly what I needed to know. Now I am looking all over the place. I even noticed that I kept being logged out & I had to log back in again, time & time again. I paid the $14.95 as I felt the 2008 edition was extremely informative. Who would have thought that they would mess up such a great website?</p>
<p>that is really disappointing that USNEWs is making their product less appealing rather than more user friendly.
It's not like they are the only option out there, although I subscribed last year for the extra info and found it useful.
Im glad I read this thread instead of automatically renewing.
;)
This doesn't have as many schools ( 100 private + 100 public), but you can sort the info.
Rankings</a> for 100 Best Values in Public Colleges</p>
<p>I would have automatically done the online renewal too... I can take a year off, though. Maybe the US News site will be better next year.</p>
<p>Wow did they ever screw it up this year! Any chance USN&WR will revise it if enough of us complain?</p>
<p>I love the way we used to be able to cross-reference and cross-link different stats among and between schools. It's horrible now!:mad:</p>
<p>Wow. They've taken away even more info from the free version, probably in an attempt to get more people to pay for the premium version. As opposed to last week when it first went online, now you can't even get SAT ranges for the schools unless you pay up.</p>