THE STUDY FEBRUARY 1, 2012
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Earlier this week, officials at Claremont McKenna College admitted that a senior administrator had, since 2005, been reporting inflated SAT scores to publications like U.S. News & World Report in order to boost the school’s ranking. That admission has brought new scrutiny to college rankings, which many say are too influential. Do colleges and universities have any good reason to care what U.S. News thinks?
Research suggests that whatever flaws the rankings may have, schools would be foolish to ignore them. That’s because, according to two studies, a higher rank attracts more elite students. A 2004 study examined the impact of the U.S. News rankings, which (during the time of much of the study’s data set) ranked the top 25 schools and assigned the others to quartiles. The study found that when schools moved to higher quartiles in the ranks, they increased the number of incoming students from the top 10 percent of their high school class and lowered their acceptance rate. And a 2005 study reports that the U.S. News ranking significantly affects the yield rate of accepted students. What’s more, the study noted, “these preferences for the USNWR rank are independent of other measures of quality (student-faculty ratio and expenditures per student).” Of course, as the authors note, the U.S. News rank is not a universally-accepted measure of quality, but that doesn’t seem to matter to elite students trying to choose a college. Apparently, for many of the college administrators trying to attract those students, it doesn’t matter either.
2 comments
This comment is a little off topic but does relate directly to choice of colleges by students. After Georgia adopted the Hope Scholarship Program (which provides for scholarships for Georgia residents who excelled (3.0 GPA) in high school), the number of top high school students applying to the University of Georgia spiked, so much so that admission into UGA has become very difficult. I would say that the Program has been good for both the students and UGA, lifting UGA's academic reputation (last year UGA was ranked 23rd among public universities in the US News rankings). My point is that colleges outside the top tier can improve their ranking by bringing in a higher quality freshman class, and they can bring in a higher quality freshman class not so much by jiggering their ranking in a questionable rankings survey (such as by US News) but by giving top students an economic reason for attending; and by doing so, the rankings take care of themselves (not the other way round).
- rayward
February 1, 2012 at 2:49pm
Ray, increasing your ranking starts with getting the best students you can get in the door. If you get a better crop of incoming freshman, you will see more successful graduates go out the door even if you don't change anything you are doing. And if you can get a better crop of students, then you can also challenge them more and see even better results. But if you start with weaker students, it is really hard to raise them to an elite level. All of this is on average -- there will also be individuals who show little promise upon admission, but grow up or become inspired and go on to excel. Although I said ranking above, if we choose any measure of quality that would realistically be used, you could substitute the word. I have heard of other schools working to increase the number of applicants so that they could reject a higher percentage -- this measure of selectivity raises you in the rankings. I am disappointed but not entirely surprised that some weenie administrator took a further step and crossed over the line to outright fraud.
- JEFF FREY
February 1, 2012 at 3:53pm