Hey guys! So I was just wonder who are the people who actually determine the best college from the not so good? And like what do they base it on and what gives them the authority to place colleges? Like what credentials do they have in order to even give out a ranking? Just curious.
Thanks
This article explains a lot of it
Look at the methodology of each ranking. it explains what criteria they use, both objective and subjective.
USNWR undergraduate rankings are largely driven by a popularity poll among college administrators & HS guidance counsellors-- kinda like voting for Homecoming Queen.
Graduate school rankings are largely driven by the number of citations of papers published by faculty at the school.
Here is a description of the US News ranking methodology:
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/ranking-criteria-and-weights
Here is a description of the Forbes ranking methodology:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinehoward/2015/07/29/ranking-americas-top-colleges-2015/
If you ranked by average test scores alone, you’d come fairly close to generating the same set of top ~25 colleges in the US News rankings (though not exactly in the same order), which would be similar to the set of top ~25 in the Forbes ranking:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/schifrin/2014/08/04/top-100-sat-scores-ranking-which-colleges-have-the-brightest-kids/
A ranking solely by endowment per student also would generate roughly the same set of top ~25 schools in the Forbes or US News rankings (in yet another order):
http://www.reachhighscholars.org/college_endowments.html
The “peer assessment” part of the US News ranking identifies a similar set of “top” colleges (but includes more public universities among the top schools):
http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-rankings-blog/2013/02/28/which-universities-are-ranked-highest-by-college-officials
If the reader is neutral about rankings, then they can be seen simply as an ordering of multi-factorial data for the reader’s convenience. Few, however, are neutral about rankings. The publications themselves are then often blamed for what the public has projected onto them. If the publications are actually complicit in this relationship – as they may be – that’s only one more aspect of rankings for readers of them to be aware of and weigh accordingly.
Within CC, the usage of rankings rarely reflects the skill set that should be acquired in college. It’s common in the forum, for example, to say “top 20 school,” without a reference to either a publication or a category. Even more problematically, graduate school rankings are often used indiscriminately, and beyond their intended purpose, to rank undergraduate departments. Others cite somewhat bizarre “world” and “global” rankings as if they have relevance to American colleges that would, because of their undergraduate focus, not even be included in them.