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Just saw this on the PR Parents board

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35515-2003Jul9.html?nav=hptop_ts

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Wednesday, July 09, 2003 - 11:39 pm: Edit

Very interesting article. I wonder how dropping yield as a measure will affect the "rankings"

Best quote in this story:
"Neither selectivity or nor yield are necessarily indicative of quality in higher education. By eliminating yield, U.S. News is acknowledging this point. I hope families approaching the college admission process recognize this as well. They should not be searching for the most selective or prestigious school they can find, but the one that best serves their academic interests, ability and personality."

By Sac (Sac) on Thursday, July 10, 2003 - 12:20 am: Edit

Yeah! Thanks for the post. Wish it had happened earlier, but now maybe some schools won't feel so compelled to accept half the freshman class in November.

By O71394658 (O71394658) on Thursday, July 10, 2003 - 12:26 am: Edit

Excellent point Sac.

By Iska (Iska) on Thursday, July 10, 2003 - 12:30 am: Edit

I think the rankings will smell better if we dump acceptance rates too. That's also a Tufts/ Harvard game (first off the block sending and encouraging applications to and from the most unlikely candidates). The Ivies can now stop lying about stats not mattering much in their come-on spiels.

By Obh100 (Obh100) on Thursday, July 10, 2003 - 04:18 am: Edit

case in point, Northwestern accepts around 4,500 people, only about 1,900 enroll, except last year when they had around 2,000 enroll, so they had to cut acceptances, so thus bettering their yield, I think it would possibly hurt a school like Northwestern's ranking, but its still gonna in the top 10/15 no matter what...

By Iska (Iska) on Thursday, July 10, 2003 - 09:42 am: Edit

Check out

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/10/national/10ADMI.html

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Thursday, July 10, 2003 - 01:10 pm: Edit

The thing that has always bothered me about the US News ranking system is that they don't include any type of information about how current students perceive their school and academic experience - they only ask other college administrators who may or may not have any direct knowledge of the schools themselves. While they do include the percentage of alumni giving, that's still not a fair indication of how satisfied actual current customers (i.e., students and very recent grads) are with their experience. Until that is included as part of the rankings, they really don't tell you enough.

By Sac (Sac) on Thursday, July 10, 2003 - 01:39 pm: Edit

Yes, and the alumni giving does not measure satisfaction as much as it does the family backgrounds or career choices of the alumni. Schools that turn out wonderful social workers, teachers, musicians can't compete with those heavy with lawyers and ceo's.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, July 10, 2003 - 01:48 pm: Edit

The US News ratings are one of the most useless things contrived...and yet they dominate so much of the [shallow] thinking about college search and application. The peer review stuff is suspect any way as Carolyn notes...and people can low-ball their direct competitors while making all sorts of judgment on thin or absent evidence. "Gee, Julie that I met NACAC works at Loupdeloup College...she was really nice...hope my wife never finds out...I'll give them a 5." Everyone seems to think that these ratings are the product of informed decisions by deeply thoughtful people when in reality most of them are probably knocked out by the assistant to the President, vice-chancellor for public affairs, or the provost's secretary in 20 minutes flat.

By Me1 (Me1) on Thursday, July 10, 2003 - 02:06 pm: Edit

Um Stupid question, but what does NACAC mean?

By O71394658 (O71394658) on Thursday, July 10, 2003 - 02:07 pm: Edit

I think they should talk to graduate school adcoms and industry leaders...like NASA or Merril-Lynch...when determining rankings.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, July 10, 2003 - 02:26 pm: Edit

NACAC = National Association of College Admissions Counselors or something like that. Think of it as a trade show where college admissions people and high school college counselors get together and shmooze each other...there's a bit of narrative about it in THE GATEKEEPERS.

By Aparent (Aparent) on Thursday, July 10, 2003 - 02:32 pm: Edit

Don't know re US News, but alumni giving isn't generally measured, as far as I know, by the total dollar amounts given, but by the percentage of alumni who donate. At least, this is what I am told by the people who call to ask me to donate to my alma mater.

I guess it's inevitable that ratings like these would be popular, given the vast dollar amounts we end up spending on college. Wouldn't it be great if more thoughtful information were available? Something like the College Prowler series without the ratings, and with more quotes from students...Epinions may be the closest thing we have right now, and that's not saying much. Money magazine also runs an annual piece on the "best value" schools; not sure how they come up with their ratings, either.

Is anybody else wondering whether, now that the colleges aren't going to be rated on yield, they will be less interested in assessing students' commitment to their institution?