Educational Rankings

Critics say system encourages deception, doesn't focus on value (8/17/2010).

Criticisms of rankings and the various methodologies used.

A 2014 repot by the American Council on Education contends that college rankings often have detrimental effects on institutions and that students—particularly low-income students—do not use them when choosing among their higher education options.

"Unfortunately, those "one size fits all" rankings, which are influential to both students and institutions, are often poorly designed and untrustworthy. . . . ."

"Northeastern University executed one of the most dramatic turnarounds in higher education. Its recipe for success? A single-minded focus on just one list."

The President of Sarah Lawrence College contends that if her college refuses to supply data to The U.S. News & World Report: ". . . we will be harmed because many students will assume that Sarah Lawrence is much less selective than it actually is." (11 March, 2007)

A short article critiquing two major methodologies of ranking universities and their academic output. (27 January, 2009)

Argues that the U.S. News college rankings are deeply flawed.

A November 2005 article in The Atlantic Monthly by Colin Diver, President of Reed College. Reed College "now shuns the U.S. News ranking system—and has not only survived but thrived."

September 10, 2013 article in The Atlantic arguing that "The list's real purpose is to 'exacerbate the status anxiety' of prospective students and parents."

June 1, 2014 article in the New York Times.

"The usual critique of rankings is that they're meaningless. But the problem is actually much worse. The rankings encourage a rogue's gallery of unethical behavior. Well-intentioned changes to the methodology won't fix them."

Contends that college rankings contribute to a national college affordability problem that has seen student debt soar.

In this New Yorker article Malcolm Gladwell criticizes the extremely heavy subjective element in college rankings.

The authors argue that the U.S. News & World Report's rankings overwhelmingly favor private institutions. (25 May, 2007)

An article in The Washington Monthly Online (September 2000).

A statement by the President of Amherst College, co-signed by a number of other college presidents, warning of the "false sense that educational success or fit can be ranked in a single numerical list." (7 September, 2007)

The author of this article in The Washington Post calls the rankings "nonsense".

Criticizes the methodology used in rankings.

". . .I suggest it is important to probe beneath the media hype to gauge the utility of these increasingly popular surveys to parents and students. Two questions are in order: What data supports these assessments of relative superiority? More important than institutional bragging rights aside, what is their utility in helping parents and students in making their university choice?" (6/16/2010)

"What if they created a college rankings system and nobody participated? That question is growing increasingly relevant as a burgeoning number of college presidents say they are fed up with U.S. News & World Report's popular annual feature . . . ." (4 September, 2007)

A 2000 analysis of the US News & World Report's methodology in developing its annual rankings.

This report critically reviews the methodology used by the U.S. News & World Report to rate American colleges and universities and suggests ways in which it can be improved.

"Merely adding more detail . . . obscures the underlying problem, which is that rankings depend on inherently unreliable proxy measures to assess the things they purport to be measuring . . ." (9/15/2010)

A new survey seeks to get behind the well-publicized—and much criticized—college rankings and measure schools by how good a job they do of actually educating their students (Atlantic Monthly , November 2003).