Teachin'Mine Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 http://news.yahoo.com/debunking-myths-u-news-best-colleges-rankings-133000259.html According to US News, the admissions rate only accounts for 1.5 percent of the college ranking. Then again we've seen the meteoric rise of some colleges who went from essay heavy, college specific applications to using the Common Application. This combined with mass mailings helped their acceptance rate to plummet and their rankings to soar. Maybe other criteria was affected as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsuga Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 When students can apply to safeties with little effort, you get higher quality applicants as well as more applicants. Those applicants raise your average scores on many measures. The US News report affects rankings as it measures and reports them. No surprise. Also, for schools at the top, a small difference in the percentage can move them up and down. Ultimately I thought Bruni's article was great. Bit I don't blame them for defending their revenue generator. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 This is how the rankings are weighted, as per their magazine: Assessment; 22.5% - assessment by academic peers 15%; assessment by high school counselors 7.5% Retention; 22.5% - 6-yr graduation rate makes up 80% of this score, freshman retention 20% Faculty resources; 20% - the proportion of classes with fewer than 20 students makes up 30% of this score, proportion of classes with more than 50 students is 10%, faculty salary is 35%, professors with terminal degrees is 15%, faculty student ratio is 5%, proportion of full-time faculty is 5%. Student selectivity; 12.5% - admission test scores for ENROLLED students is 65% of this score, top ranked students are 25%, admit rate is 10%. Financial resources; 10% - spending per student on instruction, research, student services, related educational expenditures, does not count sports, dorms, hospitals. Graduation rate performance; 7.5% - this is related to the 6-yr graduation rate, but gives or takes points based on how the school actually did vs how they were predicted to perform Alumni giving rate; 5% - percentage of living alumni who donate to the school I did get the online subscription that gives you much more detail on how each school is ranked, and I think it was $30 well spent. When I'm comparing a group of schools, it's easy for me to give more or less weight to particular rankings if I so choose. Yes, you can probably suss out most of that information for free, but it's time-consuming. I think the faculty resources ranking is important, and that would be very challenging to compile for myself. And I can look at the sub-rankings separately, like peer assessment vs counselor assessment. I'd say they are correct that the acceptance rate has very little impact on the rankings. Increased applications might benefit a school in the rankings indirectly, if more high-scoring students not only apply but wind up at the school. That's a valid consideration, imo. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted March 30, 2015 Author Share Posted March 30, 2015 I did get the online subscription that gives you much more detail on how each school is ranked, and I think it was $30 well spent. When I'm comparing a group of schools, it's easy for me to give more or less weight to particular rankings if I so choose. Yes, you can probably suss out most of that information for free, but it's time-consuming. I think the faculty resources ranking is important, and that would be very challenging to compile for myself. And I can look at the sub-rankings separately, like peer assessment vs counselor assessment. I'd say they are correct that the acceptance rate has very little impact on the rankings. Increased applications might benefit a school in the rankings indirectly, if more high-scoring students not only apply but wind up at the school. That's a valid consideration, imo. It sounds like you're getting a lot out of the subscription. I've never heard about this feature of being able to customize the rankings. Yes it is a valid consideration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingiguana Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 One does have to wonder about myth debunking that's put out by the very organization that profits from this system. A lot of the comments hit many nails on the head about what's wrong with this little article and with the ranking system in general. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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