http://www.math.columbia.edu/~thaddeus/ranking/investigation.html
I read the paper, and it’s rather damning, particularly since it came from a Columbia mathematics professor. I wonder if Columbia will respond to this.
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It’s damning not only of USNWR but of Columbia itself. According to the paper’s author, Michael Thaddeus, Columbia was outright misrepresenting the numbers that they reported to US News, inflating numbers that were reported elsewhere at lower figures so that they could gain a higher place in the rankings. It reminds me of the scams Donald Trump pulled, for which he’s now being criminally investigated in NY, in which he reported one set of figures for assets when he wanted to obtain financing and a different set of figures for the exact same assets when he wanted to determine his tax liability. In both cases it’s fraud. We’ve seen other cases where universities have gamed the system to gain a higher ranking but I don’t think we have another instance with a university at this level of prominence nor a case where the manipulation was done so blatantly.
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Does anybody actually think not publishing CDS is just a benign neglect?
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The professor’s points are interesting and seemingly show that Columbia is reporting verifiably incorrect data to USNWR. I wonder if Columbia will respond, or even USNWR.
I do think schools should publish CDS. But, just because a school publishes a CDS doesn’t mean the data are correct…there’s no penalty for reporting incorrect or incomplete data on the CDS, or even for not publishing a CDS at all. There are a lot of incorrect and incomplete CDS out there!
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Best post ever!
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Then again, his expertise might be in Mathematics, but not Administration. He could have posted conclusions based on assumptions, without first seeking to clarify the source of/facts behind some figures.
If he did pull information from a system that counts registrations, then it would explain why his numbers could be substantially higher than the actual course attendance as recorded by the registrar.
As I know from my daughter, most students will register a significant percentage of more classes than they eventually end up taking for a semester. Once they figure out which professors/classes are “keepers”, which unexpectedly classes come off wait-lists, etc., they’ll have to resolve any scheduling conflicts, or drop classes for other reasons.
But, yes, I can’t help but think that US News is virtually required to produce different rankings every year, as one can hardly “market” the same “old” rankings all over again. So they’ll have to shuffle around factors/weightings every year, until a different top 50 arises. Similarly, leaving some ambiguity in what numbers are precisely asked, will only help – which then allows/encourages schools to choose the most advantageous interpretation.
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Columbia seems to be run as one big profit at any cost factory. The way they relentlessly market high school programs to minors is shameful. They way they have a bunch of graduate degrees that have been shown to almost never end up paying for themselves. Etc. Now this. Leadership is clearly not constrained by an ethical or moral compass.
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Taken as a whole the report is pretty damning. It’s hard to get around attributing all of its billion in patient care at their hospital as “instruction” or that they are conspicuous among their peers in avoiding publishing public CDS.
Here’s a decent excerpt: " Columbia’s strong showing in the Financial Resources category, however, appears to be chiefly attributable to the amount it claims to spend on instruction. It reported to the government that its instructional spending in 2019–20 was slightly over $3.1 billion. This is a truly colossal amount of money. It works out to over $100,000 annually per student, graduates and undergraduates alike. It is by far the largest such figure among those filed with the government by more than 6,000 institutions of higher learning.23 It is larger than the corresponding figures for Harvard, Yale, and Princeton combined."
We’re to believe that Columbia spends more on educational instruction (which does not include real estate or capital costs) than any other college in the country and more than Harvard, Yale and Princeton combined.
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Fraud, plain and simple.
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Ouch. That article is gonna leave a bruise…
Not until it is proven. There is a lot of data out there and students register for many courses at once, then after two weeks into the term final selections are made.
Maybe what Columbia is reporting is correct.
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You know, Columbia has a very strong office for making sure research misconduct is scrutinized. It would seem very bizarre for anyone there deliberately to submit or publish false or misleading data when in a neighboring office in the same hallway or university building housing the Office of Research Misconduct that misleading data would be released to the public.
There are too many smart people there for that.
https://research.columbia.edu/research-misconduct
‘Columbia University is committed to ensuring the integrity of research conducted under its auspices and has put in place policies and procedures that define misconduct, outline the process for investigating allegations, and explain the consequences of committing misconduct… involving any act of fabrication, falsification or plagiarism.’
Did you not read the article? What proof are you looking for?
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Based on the quote below from the article, it seems as though the enrollment of the class is documented throughout the semester, and at the end of the semester is taken down and archived. Thus, it would appear as though the enrollment figure is at the end of the semester, not at the beginning when students may be “shopping” classes.
there is a source, open to the public, containing extensive information about Columbia’s class sizes. Columbia makes a great deal of raw course information available online through its Directory of Classes, a comprehensive listing of all courses offered throughout the university. Besides the names of courses and instructors, class meeting times, and so on, this website states the enrollment of each course section. Course listings are taken down at the end of each semester but remain available from the Internet Archive.
Yes, the article is very damning of Columbia and, unfortunately, very credible. As the author is Professor Thaddeus (rather than Asst. or Assoc.) with his PhD from '92, hopefully that means he is fully tenured. I wonder if he knows the full reaction to his article at Columbia right now since he’s currently on leave for this academic year.
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To Mr. Marsh 
The good professor did not compare and cross-check the final class numbers in the courses students registered for. There is a two week shopping period and numbers change dramatically during this two week period .
The President of Columbia himself verified several times over the past few years the accuracy of the data submitted to USNWR in several speeches and reports. Do you actually think he would misrepresent the data ? He is a world-class constitutional lawyer.
And, Chicago ?
It would not make sense to misrepresent the data in such a way. Everyone knows the risks involved and likelihood of being found out.
Why not write a letter to the President and ask for clarification.
I do think it is possible that the president of Columbia misrepresented the data. These things do happen and so I believe it is worth setting aside the (understandable) emotional desire to trust in the administration and examine the evidence. Your counter argument seems to only cover one piece - the class numbers. How do you explain the others? For example that $3 billion instructional number does not pass the sniff test to me. Does it to you?
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Yes, I agree that $ 3 billion expenditure is an issue if that point is correctly made by the professor.
However, with Columbia Journalism School on campus which trains among the best reporters and extractors of truth in the country, the New York Times 20 minutes subway ride away, and the Office of Research Misconduct probably in the same building which collates the data on campus, and its deserved reputation as one of the world’s great universities, it would be very foolish indeed for anyone to tamper with such important data before releasing it.
Someone who cares should write to the President and ask for clarification.
The President of a university and a consitutional lawyer are two completely different roles. And you’ve heard the term “shyster” before, I assume.
And if Columbia’s college data is misrepresented, then who’s going to prosecute him for providing bad info? Risks? What’s the worse that can happen? Well, Cal (UC Berkeley) was removed from the USNWR for misreporting data for like 5 minutes or so 
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With respect to counter-analysis of the paper, a few points might be added:
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The author, a mathematician, seems a bit misguided in concentrating on rank. By the more mathematically relevant overall score, Columbia, at 97, places evenly between the school ranked first in its category, which is assigned a score of 100, and the eighth ranked school, at a score of 94. For this reason, the impact of Columbia’s rank of 2 is partly illusory, and therefore somewhat less worthy of the claim of a “dizzying ascent.”
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The author indicates that a sizable percentage of students enrolled in Columbia’s School of General Studies are included in the statistical information USN uses as a foundation for Columbia’s rank. This doesn’t appear to comport with other information with which I’m familiar regarding Columbia.
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The author states that USN no longer considers “selectivity” for its ranking. The publication does consider selectivity, but defines it indirectly by “student excellence,” using high school class standing and standardized scoring profiles.
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The author ultimately asserts that USN rankings were never anything but a misguided venture, which makes his assertion of Columbia’s misrepresentation appear somewhat trivial. Along these lines, the author’s lack of respect for the rankings seems to divert him from what would have been an interesting conclusion. What would Columbia’s rank have been using data he has accessed independenty?