It would certainly be understandable considering USNews itself does not know the difference between being “Admitted” and being “Enrolled”.
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I don’t think we are sure of anything, and the initial observation made on this page is the other way around - admitted instead of enrolled. Wes’ enrolled data is reported in their CDS, as the form requires, and admitted data (clearly labeled as such Profile of Students Offered Admission for Fall 2023 ) is provided on their admissions web page. Further down the same page, there is test data for enrolled students under Profile of First Year Students.
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I think he means that US News labels the test information on the profile page for each school with this footnote:
*These are the average scores of applications admitted to this school. Ranges represent admitted applicants who fell within the 25th and 75th percentile. (emphasis added)
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It seems important to question whether USN used inflated information (in relation to that for other colleges) in calculating Wesleyan’s rank, however.
I will leave that assignment to your capable hands.
The information is all publicly available. All USNews had to do was navigate a fairly data-rich webpage.
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You did some research on the intended topic. Thanks.
Sure, by why would they do that if they can get the schools to hand them the data already formatted in a way that minimizes their need for human intervention? Since this is a for profit enterprise, I presume their goal is to produce their product as cheaply as possible.
Again, I don’t know where they get the data from – perhaps they don’t get a feed from most of the schools. But then if the schools don’t proactively provide data, what exactly is meant by participating/cooperating versus schools like Columbia and Reed that don’t? Either way, I suspect they try not to have a human surfing college websites and manually transposing data unless they really have to because some piece of data is missing from their automated collection methods, be that the schools sending it in an agreed to formatting matter or their devs developing data collection and cleaning algorithms that mostly do the work for them.
So…we’re back to what does Wesleyan do if USNews asks for data on “admitted students” other than give them what ask for?
This represents USNs language to its readers. Its language in requesting information from colleges may be clear and explicit. There’s indirect evidence of this, actually, in that other colleges (without a named exception, as of yet) show standardized testing profiles for enrolled students (as Wesleyan itself did in prior years).
We have no idea what they may have asked in prior years.
To add another school at which the SAT and ACT figures in US News agree with those on the CDS, Kenyon’s match up.
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Thanks! That’s super helpful.
As the OP, I wanted a few CC contributors to add to the database. Only @evergreen5 (Northwestern, Virginia Tech and Wesleyan (historical)) and @apple23 (Kenyon) actually did this — so, yes, super helpful.
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This:
For quality assurance, data schools reported to U.S. News was algorithmically compared with their previous year’s submissions to detect possible inaccuracies. Respondents were required to review, possibly revise and verify any flagged data before they could submit their surveys, as well as explain in writing any large changes. https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/how-us-news-calculated-the-rankings
Query: Do we even know that the people responsible for assembling the info displayed on each school’s profile page have anything to do with the people assembling the data used in the algorithm? I still say this could just be an editorial staff goof.
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Right. That’s why I said it, although I’m quite surprised Kenyon wasn’t in your initial group of colleges you’d already covered.
Regardless, I might add that if you found one instance of potential inaccuracy then you’ve found enough for your stated purpose, which I assume is not to belabor the point gratuitously.
To me, the most useful thing you can do is call/email US News, or perhaps Wesleyan admissions. Or we can have posters, including me, jump in and post updates in this thread as we review all the ranked colleges. In that case, someone should take the job of coordinating assignments and keeping track of who is reviewing which schools. Otherwise, our efforts are going to be duplicative. For example, I’m happy to learn that I don’t need to review Kenyon or Virginia Tech, since that work is completed. You might want to share the list of the several schools you reviewed prior to making the OP. We may as well be efficient in our cause.
I believe you have inverted the principles of inductive reasoning.
I couldn’t help myself LOL:)
I think the US News and Report makes the ranking every year just to draw the eyeballs. Does anyone really care about the ranking at all? Every educational institution has its own history, mandates and missions. The schools have been evolving and continue to evolve. The US news changes the ranking methodology every year to make the ranking look quite different from the last year, but honestly, how the school can improve or deteriorate that much just over the past year?
If we rank the universities according to their academic reputation, the ranking may remain about the same for a decade:)
Hopefully every high schooler will get into their dream school.
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Deductive reasoning would be better in this case.
It’s not my mission, so it’s not mine to reason. Unnecessary pedantry aside, in this case, I believe one rotten apple really does spoil the barrel. But as I said, if you are to persist in a wholesale review, a mission for which you have my full and abiding support, it really makes sense to publish a working group list.
For my part, I have notified the authorities.