<p>To what degree are schools actually better than they were in the past, and to what degree has US News caused energy to be wasted on things that did not tangibly improve the school, but did raise its ranking. Also, has the competition increased donations from alumni? Any thoughts.</p>
<p>No, but I could make a powerful argument they made it more expensive. Nothing drives prices higher than perceptions of prestige.</p>
<p>That assumes that USNews has gotten the production function for a quality college education correct and that increase in USNews metrics results in better schools. Otherwise, it did create competition, but not constructive competition.</p>
<p>No, because they don’t measure quality.</p>
<p>If the rankings were perfect then they would.</p>
<p>Since you go to Princeton, I would expect you to be all in favour of USNEWS… I’m quite pleasantly surprised… </p>
<p>Anyways, I agree with what Baelor said pretty much.</p>
<p>The only real critera the colleges have the power to manipulate are yield and selectivity, meaning they accept fewer kids and advertise more heavily to get more kids to apply. Once you’ve reached the point where colleges are turning away X times as many qualified applicants as they accept, you’ve created a fairly arbitrary process. I hardly consider that an improvement.</p>
<p>^^Some schools also manipulate alumni giving rate. They have huge donation drives where they pressure alums to donate something, anything, even if it is only $1.00. Size of the gifts doesn’t matter in the rankings, only the percentage of alums that give - a supposed measure of their satisfaction with the education they received.</p>
<p>I think it improved advertising, making colleges more likely to build giant state-of-the-art accommodations in order to create photos to add to their brochures. They need advertising so that people will apply, and they also facilitate that with free applications online and other benefits.</p>
<p>Arguably, can’t one also argue that the moving up in spots on US News, and the “marketing” that drives perceived prestige or quality of education, also entices some professors from top schools to make shifts to other colleges (especially in this economy where some professors are being “bought” for more money or the possibility of getting tenured)?</p>
<p>Professors are barely aware of USNews in my experience. Prestige of their individual positions, prestige of that department based on the work they see coming out of it in their field, quality of graduate students they will have, pay check, and then all the other things that go along with making a job choice in mind.</p>
<p>USNews doesn’t really look at much of anything potential professors keep in mind.</p>
<p>Melody…professors SAY they dont pay attention to USNWR, but they do. Trust me. They are concerned with prestige in departments and quality of reseach and graduate students etc…very true. But they also are quite aware of an overall college reputation. Many professors are quite jealous of colleagues at higher ranking schools. Its a profession that is very, very political, which you will find out soon enough if you pursue your doctorate.</p>
<p>I’m in graduate school, I’ve sat on search committees, and I’ve sat on three university-wide decision making councils/task forces.</p>
<p>USNWR is something they’re dimly aware of until their own kids are looking for schools which is really the only time I hear it spur interest.</p>
<p>Administration is far more aware because they spend time thinking “Why?” and “Does this matter?”</p>
<p>When you’re at a high level (top 50) most professors say, “Great students is a huge benefit to being here,” but they’re not really one to care about a couple of spots here and there. Frankly, their ability to do great work is what’s most important, and to be associated with a community that’ll make their work better and where they can contribute to other work. These things have nothing to do with USNWR for undergraduate rankings.</p>
<p>I think they have actually hurt higher education since schools engage in behaviors which are not beneficial to students to increase ratings. The way schools hoard money to push up the “faculty resources” rating or employ waitlists and early decision programs to squeeze applicants and pump up the selectivity rating, has not been beneficial to students and the mission of higher education.</p>
<p>No becuase its all lies. You cant measure the success the students will have when they graduate by how much money a college has or how people are treated at schools at moments. If your a recognized school at least on the top colleges it has helped looking for colleges. When looking for a college im looking at where i can succeed not how other people rank a school. there’s always going to be bias. Anyway people at Princeton have a reputation for messing up the rankings. </p>
<p>It does not really help. It only causes colleges to forget the most important thing about hosting people at their college. The point is to educate and enrich students. Help create leaders for the future</p>
<p>Bashing USNWR is a popular pastime and plenty of the criticism is warranted. But there have also been benefits, eg, some of the comparisons that it provides make administrators more accountable. </p>
<p>For example, consider a factor like retention rates. ABC College has a 95% retention rate. Peer XYZ College has an 88% retention rate. Something look out of whack to you? It does to me and probably to most students/alums of XYZ who’d likely make some noise to the administration about improving this, not to mention the fact that the administration might want to investigate why there is such a difference. </p>
<p>Similar comparisons can be made in several USNWR categories (grad rates, class sizes, student selectivity, maybe even Alumni Giving, etc.). USNWR can make the college administrators more accountable and anything that they are influenced by that works to improving the student experience and student outcomes is, IMO, a good thing. To the extent that this happens, USNWR is a good thing for higher education.</p>
<p>Probably the worst thing that USNWR does is its PA rating. These are static comparisons that have little to nothing to do with the student experience. And all they do is perpetuate a status quo that was established a half century ago and is not reflective of the broad educational quality available on American college campuses today. Scrap the PA and publish the objective comparisons separately (unweighted) and you’ve got a useful tool for the college search process.</p>
<p>The US News rankings were the best thing to come along for consumers of higher education since the Dark Ages. Consumers can now make enlightened comparisons, rather than making decisions based on hearsay or campus visits. I think the rankings contribute by providing objective data and an algorithm for comparing colleges, not through competition.</p>
<p>BTW, the PA rating is one of the most useful pieces of data and its validity can be well documented. I happen to like the PA rating.</p>
<p>“BTW, the PA rating is one of the most useful pieces of data and its validity can be well documented. I happen to like the PA rating.”</p>
<p>Absolutely! That it counts only for 25% of the scoring is what needs to be changed.</p>
<p>The PA rating is sort of like the good old boys in the “country club” getting to vote on who can become members and play golf and smoke cigars and who can’t. </p>
<p>To suggest that its objective and factual is sheer lunacy. Its biased, subjective and designed to help the rich (Ivy League and top 10 LAC’s) get richer. </p>
<p>Most college presidents despise the USNWR rankings and would like to put that nonsense out of business.</p>
<p>"The PA rating is sort of like the good old boys in the “country club” getting to vote on who can become members and play golf and smoke cigars and who can’t. </p>
<p>To suggest that its objective and factual is sheer lunacy. Its biased, subjective and designed to help the rich (Ivy League and top 10 LAC’s) get richer."</p>
<p>I totally disagree with the above statements. It’s the PA scores that even allow public schools to ranked anywhere near the top. USNWR has their criteria slanted to make private schools look better than public.</p>
<p>“Most college presidents despise the USNWR rankings and would like to put that nonsense out of business.”</p>
<p>The above statement I agree with.</p>