Peer Assessment Free Rankings!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Due to the recent debate about PA, I decided to see how the rankings would look without the PA. To do this I assigned 248 intervals for each part of the US News ranking criteria. One part in question was the over/under performance, where I used my own method. This required some assumptions as I figured the worst over/under (Case Western) was ranked last in the top 51, but I thought it would be ranked around there in the top 248 (maybe a bit worse). However, this was only 5% of the US News criteria. Instead of getting rid of PA, I gave all the top 51 schools full points for PA.<br>
I know my methods were crude and possibly flawed, however I know they are reasonable because my top school with full PA points (Harvard) received a 99. In the US News, it received a 100 (and this considering it received a 4.9/5.0).<br>
Also, these are merely interesting and do hold some truth. Perhaps they are better, perhaps they are worse. They are intriguing nonetheless. A trend I noticed was that Publics fared bad in my ORC (ORC is the name I decided to give my rankings. It stands for Objectively Ranked Colleges). This poses the question:
Are publics rightfully or wrongfully inflated by the PA?
Enjoy!</p>

<p>Harvard University 1
Princeton University 1
University of Pennsylvania 3
Yale University 3
Duke University 3
Stanford University 6
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology 6
Washington University in St. Louis 6
Dartmouth College 6
Northwestern University 10
Brown University 10
California Institute of Technology 10
Columbia University 10
University of Notre Dame 10
Rice University 15
Cornell University 15
University of Chicago 17
Johns Hopkins University 17
Emory University 17
Vanderbilt University 17
Tufts University 21
Georgetown University 21
Wake Forest University 23
Carnegie Mellon University 23
University of Virginia 23
Lehigh University 23
Univ. of Southern California 27
University of California-Los Angeles 28
University of Rochester 28
U of North Carolina-Chapel Hill 28
Brandeis University 28
University of California-Berkeley 28
Case Western Reserve Univ. 33
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 34
College of William and Mary 34
Boston College 34
Yeshiva University 34
New York University 38
Tulane University 38
Univ. of California-San Diego 38
Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst. 41
Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison 42
Georgia Institute of Technology 42
Univ. of California-Santa Barbara 42
Syracuse University 42
University of California-Irvine 46
U of Illinois-Urbana Champaign 47
University of Florida 48
University of Washington 49
Pennsylvania State University 50
University of California-Davis 51</p>

<p>BTW if anyone could tell me how to upload the XLS file to something so you all could dowload it, that'd be great! Thanks!</p>

2

<p>what the hell is PA</p>

3

<p>Peer Assessment.</p>

4

<p>Looks good in some cases, but inaccurate in others- WUSTL 6th and Berkeley 28th? That doesn't seem right. Though I disagree with the PA rankings, maybe there's something more to them that we're just not seeing... like perhaps something else that's closely related that is a better gauge of a university, since their addition to the rankings does seem to add a necessary factor.</p>

5

<p>UVA is the only public school to hold on to Top 25 without PA. I guess it doesnt benefit from PA as much as Michigan or Berkeley.</p>

6

<p>Or maybe we are just so stuck on names. Maybe Washington U is just that much better for undergraduate school.</p>

7

<p>"but inaccurate in others- WUSTL 6th and Berkeley 28th?"</p>

<p>that makes sense. WUSTL has a low PA score, much lower than that of Berkeley. Now everyone has the same score. WUSTL would jump on the ranking with its selectivity and not be dragged by low PA, and Berkeley would pale because it just lost its super high PA effect.</p>

8

<p>Yes, well what I'm saying is that I don't believe Berkeley deserves to be ranked 28th and WUSTL to be ranked 6th. Berkeley is undeniably one of the best institutions in the country, and while that may be true as well for WUSTL, it is certainly not a top 6 school.</p>

9

<p>But maybe, Berekeley gets too much credit for its Grad programs when talking about Undergrad school. Washington U have more money, is smaller, better alumni giving rate, and it also gets more kids through than expected (over/under performance). I think that partially people just here UCB and gasp at its greatness. Many of the people who are polled for the PA might not be able to keep the awesome grad schools out of the equation.</p>

10

<p>Peer assessment doesn't give publics boosts though, so your research has no basis.</p>

11

<p>This is the rankings change, as you will notice most of the publics go down when you take PA out:
Harvard University 0
Princeton University 0
University of Pennsylvania 1
Yale University 0
Duke University 2
Stanford University -1
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology 1
Washington University in St. Louis 5
Dartmouth College 3
Northwestern University 2
Brown University 5
California Institute of Technology -3
Columbia University -1
University of Notre Dame 8
Rice University 2
Cornell University -2
University of Chicago -2
Johns Hopkins University -4
Emory University 3
Vanderbilt University 1
Tufts University 6
Georgetown University 2
Wake Forest University 4
Carnegie Mellon University -1
University of Virginia 0
Lehigh University 9
Univ. of Southern California 3
University of California-Los Angeles -3
University of Rochester 6
U of North Carolina-Chapel Hill -1
Brandeis University 6
University of California-Berkeley -8
Case Western Reserve Univ. 4
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor -9
College of William and Mary -3
Boston College 6
Yeshiva University 11
New York University -1
Tulane University 5
Univ. of California-San Diego -6
Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst. 2
Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison -8
Georgia Institute of Technology -5
Univ. of California-Santa Barbara 3
Syracuse University 8
University of California-Irvine -6
U of Illinois-Urbana Champaign -5
University of Florida 2
University of Washington -4
Pennsylvania State University -2
University of California-Davis -3</p>

12

<p>umm, while this is interesting and all, peer assessment is arguably one of the best indicators of a school's reputation and standing.</p>

<p>who's better to judge the quality of a school than some of the most prominent, accomplished, and influential people in higher education?</p>

13

<p>Not when only about half respond. Peer Assessment is biased, because undoubtedly these administrators, deans, presidents are also very familiar with the grad programs. This is why ORC is interesting. It shows that UVA is truly the best public for undergrad (which I believe).</p>

14

<p>Not only is the response rate low, but why should I care what the president of the University of Utah thinks about the relative merits of Dartmouth vs Brown?</p>

15

<p>Yeah, I agree. Someone's mere opinion of a university in no way affects the quality of the school, and thus should not affect the ranking.</p>

16

<p>Alexandre? Anything to add?</p>

17

<p>Sure the President of the U of Utah know knowthing. Maybe you idiots should read up on him.</p>

<p>Michael K. Young
President, University of Utah</p>

<p>President Young began his tenure as the 14th president of the University of Utah in August 2004. Prior to his appointment at Utah, he was Dean and Lobingier Professor of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence at the George Washington University Law School (1998-2004). </p>

<p>From 1978 to 1998, he was the Fuyo Professor of Japanese Law and Legal Institutions and Director of the Center for Japanese Legal Studies, the Center for Korean Legal Studies, and the Project on Religion, Human Rights and Religious Freedom at Columbia University. Prior to joining the Columbia University faculty, President Young served as a Law Clerk to the late Chief (then Associate) Justice William H. Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court. </p>

<p>President Young served as a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom from 1998-2005 and chaired the Commission on two occasions. He was also appointed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Rehnquist to the Brown v. Board of Education 50th Anniversary Commission. He is widely recognized not only for his academic work on Japanese law and international trade, but also for his tireless advocacy on behalf of international human rights.</p>

<p>He has also served as a member of the Committee on International Judicial Relations of the Judicial Conference of the United States, as well as a member of the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Air Force Academy. He is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. </p>

<p>During the administration of President George Bush, President Young served as Ambassador for Trade and Environmental Affairs (1992-93), Deputy Under Secretary for Economic and Agricultural Affairs (1991-93) and Deputy Legal Adviser to the U.S. Department of State (1989-91).</p>

<p>He has published extensively on a broad range of topics, including the Japanese legal system, dispute resolution, mergers and acquisitions, labor relations, the legal profession, comparative law, industrial policy, international trade law, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), international environmental law and international human rights and freedom of religion.</p>

<p>President Young is a graduate of Brigham Young University (B.A., 1973) and Harvard Law School (J.D., 1976), where he served as a note Editor of the Harvard Law Review.</p>

<p>President Young and his wife, Suzan, have been married for 34 years and have three children.</p>

18

<p>Well, good for him, but that still does not make his opinion of a university worth being included in what are supposed to be "objective" national rankings.</p>

19

<p>No xiares I think he's right. I mean the President of U of Utah has been married for 34 years and knows about the Japanese legal system. This is integral for evaluating colleges.</p>

20

<p>And yours is better?? If you take those rep rankings and match against some factual data like number of NAS members, number of major faculty awards won you will get about the same answers. It is only opinion that the percent of alumni giving is an important criteria as well as many of the rest they used. Combined they give a pretty good picture.</p>