Macalester Falls In National College Rankings, Administration Responds

On Sept. 11, the U.S. News & World Report released its 2018 college rankings, dropping Macalester from a tie for 24th place into a tie as its 26th-best liberal arts school in the country. …

… Macalester President Brian Rosenberg wishes that wasn’t so. At a question-and-answer session for parents over orientation weekend, Rosenberg was asked about the admissions process — and gave a characteristically sharp response.

‘To be totally honest, I think the whole process at this point sort of sucks,’ he said. ‘It’s not good for anybody. It’s not good for the students, it’s not good for the colleges.’

Rosenberg’s chief contention is with the amount of money colleges spend ‘chasing applications’ – a process that, he feels, is fueled by schools competing for high rankings in the U.S. News college issue, which incorporates admission rates in its score for each school.: …

http://themacweekly.com/2017/09/macalester-falls-in-national-college-rankings-administration-responds/

24th tie is the same as 26th tie.
This year’s usnwr has increased the weight given to stusents majoring in stem. Macalester is known for science as well as social science. The new criteria ding them for being very good at something not measured by usnwr and still their result is equivalent to what it used to be.

Seems to me that Rosenberg is doing whole lot of protesting over nothing. His rank is virtually unchanged.

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks”

I don’t think he’s responding to the drop in Macalester’s rank as much as to the ranking system itself and how it influences colleges and college applicants. I appreciated his point about using alumni donations as a factor and how this pushes some colleges to court wealthy students in the hope that their families will donate large sums and push up rankings.