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Broken ranks review4/5/2023 ![]() ![]() The percentage of alumni donors can be distorted by striking from the rolls any alum whom the institution hasn’t heard from for a while. Universities manipulate the faculty-to-student ratio to include scholars who seldom see the inside of a classroom. A college’s reputation among administrators at peer institutions affects its rank, so an institution can undermine its competitors by giving them low “prestige” scores. ![]() Likewise, a school may wait-list its top applicants if it believes they have no intention of enrolling, on the premise that if these students really wanted to attend, they would make their intentions plain. News formula favors schools that reject most of their applicants, some universities, in order to look more selective, recruit students who have no chance of admission. As the former president of Northeastern University put it, “There’s no question that the system invites gaming.” As I noted in Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line, many institutions use insidious, unethical-and entirely legal-strategies to improve their position. It isn’t necessary, however, to engage in larceny to get ahead. Because rankings are a zero-sum game, an institution that doesn’t do as well slips in the charts, and all hell breaks loose on the campus. It’s a perpetual cycle: A college that admits more well-credentialed students, has a growing endowment, and boasts a more highly regarded faculty receives a higher ranking, which in turn generates greater selectivity, bigger donations, happier trustees, and more-pedigreed professors. News pecking order affects the number and credentials of its applicants, whose decisions are heavily influenced by a school’s prestige the generosity of its donors, who like to give to the winners the bragging rights of its trustees and its appeal to the professoriate. The rankings game is a high-stakes affair. Were it otherwise, would all of the top 20 universities be wealthy private schools? It’s a fine, if imperfectly executed, idea, but there is scant evidence that the magazine has much of an impact on students’ choices.) Thus, it’s apparent from the results that what counts most in these calculations is the wealth of the institution and, indirectly, the wealth of its students. (The Washington Monthly’s formula emphasizes a college’s contribution to the public good, focusing on social mobility, research, and promoting public service. News and its ilk, weigh competing values-selectivity versus affordability, reputation versus higher-than-predicted graduation rates-they are making an ideological judgment about what really matters in a college education. But, as Diver points out, there is no right answer when it comes to choosing a college-for all the fancy formulas the rankings companies trot out, they offer faux science. If you are buying a car or a refrigerator, a Consumer Reports–style rankings system works just fine. News & World Report-powers this unvirtuous cycle. In Breaking Ranks, Colin Diver, a former president of Reed College, details how the rankings industry-most notoriously, U.S. ![]()
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