Ben O’Brien
Managing Editor
EARLIER THIS MONTH a shiny new version of the U.S. News and World Report “America’s Best Colleges” hit news stands once again. The eagerly awaited issue packed with articles about higher education sells an enormous number of copies each year. U.S. News even offers a accompanying book which is also a hot seller. Although there are loads of content in this hefty issue, most people buy the magazine for one reason: the college rankings.
Originally intended as a guide for prospective college students and their parents, the rankings have been accepted as the authoritative measure of excellence and prestige among universities, changing the way admissions offices and administrators operate.
In this year’s ranking most of the top colleges remained the same as last year with Princeton, Harvard and Yale taking the top three spots. Notre Dame climbed one spot to number nineteen in a tie with Vanderbilt. What was different this year, however, was that a record number of other colleges opted out of the rankings or the U.S. News voluntary survey. General discontent with the rankings which has been gradually mounting since the ranking began in the 1980’s has finally years has finally been galvanized into an organized campaign to undermine what many college professors and administrators see as the inordinate amount of influence that rankings have on the universities.
The critics of the rankings say that regarding quantitative factors used in the ranking as the ultimate standard by which for universities are measured cheapens our idea of education. Some have accused colleges of manipulating their statistics in order to boost their ranking. Other claim that the criteria are too focused on money or that its peer evaluations are too subjective.
Others simply see the rankings as a useful and necessary guide to through the vast array of different colleges across the country.
In August the New York Times reported on various practices of colleges use desperately trying to improve their ranking. The president of Arizona State University has a clause in his contract which guarantees him $10,000 if he improves the school’s ranking. Other colleges have sought to increase their appearance of selectivity by hawking their applications like a credit card company looking for new clients. By making it easier to apply with quick online applications, eliminating application fees or just sending applications indiscriminately to as many high schools as possible, colleges are able to vastly increase the number of applications they receive—and therefore the number of applications they deny.
In the 1990’s Washington University in St. Louis showed how to play the rankings game when it made an unprecedented push which catapulted it from obscurity into the top ten. Washington U. administrators staged a series of enormously successful fundraising campaigns and used the money to finance various improvements as well as merit scholarships to improve the quality of its students.
Despite criticism of U.S. News and the abuses of colleges who manipulate their statistics, the rankings have become a mainstay of academia and do not seem likely to go away any time soon. The critics clearly have their work cut out for them.
A non-profit group called the Education Conservancy dedicated to “ending the college admissions frenzy” has planned a meeting of college leaders at Yale later this month to discuss possible alternatives to the rankings.
Earlier this year the leader of the Conservancy, Lloyd Thacker, circulated a letter to university presidents asking them to abstain from the U.S. News survey and stop bragging about rankings in their websites. Sixty university presidents signed on, a fairly significant number, but none were from top 25 colleges.
Another similar campaign led by the Annapolis Group, a coalition of small liberal arts colleges, is considering compiling its own ranking to compete with U.S. News. Washington Monthly Magazine has been criticizing the rankings for years and releases its own measure emphasizing community service and financial aid.
While many people criticize the controversial rankings, most people doubt that a real alternative will ever be posed. Perhaps, as some university president have suggested, what is needed is a serious discussion of contemporary education and whether and how it can be measured.
Contact Ben at bobrien5@nd.edu
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