Forbes Ranking

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Has anyone seen Forbes Rankings? I am actually angry at them.
Its yellow journalism at its ****ing worse. How? Well when you see college rankings they are generally the same to some marginal degree. In order to appear to be “another angle,” Forbes decided to make the most mixed up list ever.
Let me put it in financial business terms. When a magazine says boring stuff like invest in mutual funds or long term investments, they dont sell. When they “EXTRA EXTRA WE KNOW THE SUPER UNKnOWN FINANCIAL SECRET ANSWER TO LIFE.” They are doing the educational equivalent. I pray to god that no one’s kids accidentally believes this and I wonder if Forbes will give his son this or US News.
Here is its ranking system.

  1. Listing of Alumni in the 2008 Who’s Who in America (25%)</p>

<li><p>Student Evaluations of Professors from Ratemyprofessors.com (25%)</p></li>
<li><p>Four- Year Graduation Rates (16 2/3%)</p></li>
<li><p>Enrollment-adjusted numbers of students and faculty receiving nationally competitive awards (16 2/3%)</p></li>
<li><p>Average four year accumulated student debt of those borrowing money (16 2/3%)</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Okay lets go step by step with why this is wrong.

  1. Anyone want to submit their own profile to who’s who? Your submission to what has now become another aspect of social networking will influence how good a college is.</p>

<li><p>Ratemyprofessors? Seriously you guys, Visit this website and you will realize what I am saying. There “hottest professor” section has more reviews than their best professor. Really Forbes?</p></li>
<li><p>No wonder the military schools had so many graduates, they want to crank of the best. Easy to graduate does not mean good.</p></li>
<li><p>Nationally competitive awards? You have a point system.
lets look at the awards you count
The Nobel Prize (1997-2007)</p></li>
</ol>

<p>The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2005-2008)</p>

<p>The National Academy of Sciences (2005-2008)</p>

<p>The National Academy of Engineering (2004-2008)</p>

<p>The Guggenheim Fellowship (2007-2008)</p>

<p>The John D. and Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation (1998-2007)
Are you kidding me… Really? No Pulitzer prize or award that has actually been heard of…</p>

<p>And their awards for students? How about some nationally recognized competitions.</p>

<li>Average four year accumulated student debt of those borrowing money (16 2/3%)
I have an idea, lets look at how “in debt” people are look 10 years after they graduate. All those kids from Harvard will be signing the happy song. And no wonder the military scored high here, They obviously didn’t consider the REQUIRED YEARS OF ENLISTMENT and literally have the Army own you forever.</li>
</ol>

<p>But army aside, the rankings in general are absurd with Georgetown and John Hopkins in the low 80s,</p>

<p>The reason I get so angry about it is that it is not a game. You can do this for “top 20 biggest celebrity opps!” But for college? I know it seems trendy and progressive to have horribly mixed results, but its not responsible journalism.</p>

2

<p>You should forward this directly to Forbes.</p>

<p>Yes, I know their rankings well; not in the college world, but on places like UrbanOhio.com and other sites where I post under a different name. They typically lambast the rust-belt for no particular reason, and have rankings for such things as “the ten most-dying cities in America” and other BS like that. Then, the whole city gets riled up, businesses and jobs leave, and they spiral it worse. Fortunately, people are getting wise about their monthly rust-belt bashing, so maybe they will lose all of their business and die soon.</p>

<p>I hate Forbes, too.</p>

3

<p>the replies to their rankings are kinda harsh</p>