Yale to host conference on college rankings

Parent Cafe
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<p>Yale University’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions will host the invitation only conference “Beyond Ranking: Responding to the Call for Useful Information" to be held on Sept. 25 in New Haven, Conn. Organizers (read the EC) plan to invite college presidents, the heads of associations, and researchers, to "help ponder how a national, Web-based information system would work, what data it would include, and who should design and finance it, among other questions".</p>

<p><a href="http://chronicle.com/news/article/2723/education-conservancy-plans-forum-on-college-rankings%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://chronicle.com/news/article/2723/education-conservancy-plans-forum-on-college-rankings&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Participation of the universities can improve the ranking process but not circumvent it. Enough public information exists to generate useful linear rankings. More data comes online every day, and the tools to mine it. Everything from NSF grants to Google hits and Facebook activity is up for analysis. </p>

<p>Consensus (uniformity) among rankings is a likelier outcome than diversity. Low-ranked universities will find their placement harder to debate than in the days of US News and Gourman Report.</p>

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<p>I'm sure that whatever ranking system these august scholars come up with, their own colleges will be at or near the top of it.</p>

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Critics of commercial rankings of colleges and universities may want to mark September 25 on their calendars. That’s when the Education Conservancy plans to sponsor a daylong conference on developing alternatives for providing students and families with information about colleges. The event follows up on a meeting last month at which the presidents of a group of liberal-arts colleges asked the conservancy’s director to help develop an alternative tool for comparing colleges.

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<p>Why doesn't the EC start delivering something ... for a chance? Why not start sharing with the public what THEIR "alternatives for providing students and families with information about colleges" might entail. </p>

<p>This is another example of how tragi-comical the role of the EC truly is. The Education Conservancy is NOTHING more than a convenient "group" of hypocrites and sell-outs. </p>

<p>Lloyd Thacker is a pawn for the colleges. Thacker and his organization do not defend a single interest of students and families; only their (or his) own! He found a fertile terrain among school administrators who find the combination of bribing this loudmouth and pretending to increase transparency too irrestible to pass on. </p>

<p>What are the chances that "the conservancy’s director could develop an alternative tool for comparing colleges that IS valuable to the "customers"? Absolutely zero. </p>

<p>Yes, let's all hear what will be discussed on September 25. Oh, and is it open to the ... public? Heck no! The conference, called “Beyond Ranking: Responding to the Call for Useful Information,” is by invitation only. Nothing beats the secrecy offered by closed doors! </p>

<p>Wonder if Lloyd would accept MY application to be invited?</p>

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<p>Apparently this initiative isn't the only one, and the work is partly being driven by calls for more accountability at public colleges, from elected officials and others. That's a good thing.</p>

<p>But let's hope we don't get a "No Child Left Behind" version.</p>

<p>The New York Times has more, if you have a user login, and search for "college rankings."</p>

<p>Seems some of the ideas certainly would be more sound if they were floated to the real consumers, like the students and parents here. One article does say an association of private colleges used focus groups to determine what consumers wanted.</p>

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<p>Well xiggi--find a school that objects to the rankings and see if they have an invite to spare for one rising senior. I 'd love to have a peephole into THAT scene.</p>

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<p>Xiggi, to answer your question - no:</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/09/12/03comparison.h27.html[/url]”>http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/09/12/03comparison.h27.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>FWIW, Yale University is indeed on the list of IHEs ready to participate and share information through the U-CAN college admissions resource initiative site that is set to launch on Sept. 26.</p>

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<p>Yale Daily News: "Meeting looks past rankings -
Administrators, experts discuss alternatives to U.S. News ‘Best Colleges’ "</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/21514[/url]”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/21514&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I must have broken that choke-hold. The U.S. News rankings don’t have any stranglehold on my research on college admission. College Confidential seems to be maintaining its independent existence just fine too.</p>

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<p>I do think quite a few of us on CC either have broken the choke-hold or never experienced it in the first place which is precisely why college confidential has earned such a special and, to my mind, well-deserved niche in the college admissions game far beyond any inherent penchant to rank or “chance me” type of approach to this whole thing. That said, it is nonetheless interesting to speculate just what might the Yale conference bring to the table in the future re: the hinted at “self-assessment” tool:</p>

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<p>Heh. The academy continues to splutter with anger and frustration than an outsider – a mere commercial enterprise – has the temerity to judge their success. This is more fun than watching Notre Dame lose football games.</p>

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<p>Objective accomplished?</p>

<p>“Brenzel said the conference participants agreed that it would be helpful to develop a self-assessment tool for applicants, which would help them compare their individual needs to school characteristics.”</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nacacnet.org/MemberPortal/News/StepsNewsletter/Surviving+Your+College+Search.htm[/url]”>http://www.nacacnet.org/MemberPortal/News/StepsNewsletter/Surviving+Your+College+Search.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Xiggi: great link.</p>

<p>Business Week article: “A New Tool for the College-Bound” has this to say about the Yale conference in the context of the recent U-CAN launch:</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/sep2007/bs20070926_483463.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_b-schools[/url]”>http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/sep2007/bs20070926_483463.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_b-schools&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>[**] Fill the blank with the deal du jour. Always something else in Thacker’s quest for what serves … Lloyd Thacker. Now, he wants to create a website with information? How different will his site be from the College Board college selector or from the US News online tools? Whoops, we’re talking about the archenemies that comprise the devilish “commercial enterprises” How about using his current website for something meaningful, or helpful for the audience he purports to represent: the families. Slice and dice the EC site in every direction possible and all you find is a sea of nothingness. </p>

<p>Asteriskea, while I feel sorry for crossing swords with you on the EC, I can’t apologize for continuing to look at Thacker with the greatest skepticism and scorn for his obvious hypocrisy. </p>

<p>Shall we take bets about the involvement of Thacker’s … landlord and financial backer?</p>

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<p>Feature Q&A article on LT of the EC in the New York Times Magazine makes no specific mention of the envisioned web-site plan.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/magazine/30wwln-Q4-t.html?ref=magazine[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/magazine/30wwln-Q4-t.html?ref=magazine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Xiggi, thanks for the billet doux but just as much as I love the swashbuckling image I don’t see much sword brandishing on this issue at all. Maybe a few passes with a blunt lance aimed at tilted windmills but that’s about it. Yet, as WashDad so aptly points out, there is more than meets the eye and it is fun to watch. As for the Yale conference, I think there is a telling quote in the above posted Yale Daily made by Yale’s Dean of Admissions Brenzel:</p>

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“We all have institutional self-interest, and we all recognize that we compete strongly for students,” he said. “But what I was encouraged by, in the broad range of institutions that attended today, is that Lloyd has helped call us to our common ground as educators, and most of us would not be in these jobs if we didn’t care about students as much as or more than our particular institutions.” …

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<p>In pragmatic terms, people do want results and not a lot of PR spin and hot air so, again we will have to wait and see what comes out of this and just how it will fill in the gaps in the alphabet soup game of web-based, user-friendly college info going on now - and, frankly, we all do need friends out there when it comes to navigating the maze to find the “right fit” college etc. etc. that is the mantra of college admissions these days. So I am willing to wait and see. Since, I am not the betting type, your wager doesn’t hold much interest for me. I did get a good laugh when I took a look at the website you refer to and read the motto: “It pays to think”. Yup, it probably does.</p>

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<p>Thanks to asteriskea for the link to the New York Times Magazine college issue, including an interview with Thacker in which the reporter is annoyed at his evasiveness. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/magazine/30wwln-Q4-t.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/magazine/30wwln-Q4-t.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Thank you, Asteriskea!</p>