Cardona did not mention US News & World Report. It wasn’t necessary. Anyone paying attention knew the target of his review: the US News “best colleges” lists that have shaped the hierarchy of higher education since 1983. As the latest rankings were released Monday, they faced growing questions about the data behind them, the methods used to rank colleges and universities and stiff competition from other publications that highlight best-of-this and best-of-that lists in search clicks by college-bound teens and parents. This data looked particularly suspicious in July, when US News bumped Columbia University from No. 2 among national universities to the murky status of “not ranked,” after questions were raised about the accuracy of the numbers from the Ivy League school in New York. Columbia said in June it would not transmit data this year as it reviewed the issue. On Friday, the university acknowledged that it reported inflated numbers for the share of undergraduate classes with fewer than 20 students and the share of full-time faculty with terminal degrees. Columbia insisted that the “undergraduate experience is and has always been focused on small classes taught by highly qualified faculty,” but lamented the “shortcomings” of its data reporting. Columbia admits it misrepresents US News rankings In the rankings released Monday, Columbia came in 18th. US News said it used publicly available data and other information, including results from its annual school reputation survey, to rate the university. It’s been almost 20 years since Columbia missed the top 10. Colleges track a multitude of rankings, both domestic and global. While the US News publication faces a growing number of competitors, it retains enormous influence. “By far, the biggest influencer than the rankings is still US News,” said Colin Diver, former president of Reed College in Portland, Ore. He calls her the head of a “rankocracy” that rules higher education. Gary S. May, chancellor of the University of California, Davis, likes to raise his profile and likes to joke that his list of favorites “is always the one we rank highest.” UC-Davis is ranked 10th in this year’s US News ranking of public universities, tied with the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. But May pointed to another list, from Washington Monthly magazine, that focuses on social mobility, research and public service. “We just came out as the No. 2 audience,” May said, “so that’s fresh in my mind.” May said he is impressed by how different approaches to data can “really shake up the schools that end up at the top”. The university also follows rankings from The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education, Forbes, Money and elsewhere. Research shows that grades can affect students who attend college. A 2019 survey of college freshmen by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA found that 15 percent said national magazine rankings were “very important” in their school choice. That was up from about 10 percent in 2000. Many rankers pull data from a federal website, the College Scorecard, which the Obama administration launched in 2013 to promote alternatives to the way higher education is viewed in U.S. News. The site shows, for specific schools, alumni earnings, student debt levels, loan repayment rates, student diversity, graduation and retention rates, net worth per household income and other metrics. Michael Itzkowitz, who directed the College Scorecard under Obama, said the platform’s data has shed new light on outcomes for students who go to college. Itzkowitz, an analyst at the center-left think tank Third Way, himself created an economic mobility index that ranked California State University at Los Angeles at the top of the nation for the value it provides to students from low-income families. “We’ve seen a steadily increasing focus on whether students graduate, find a decent job and are able to pay off their loans,” Itzkowitz said, “rather than just exclusivity and test scores. There is a change of momentum.” However, college and university leaders are often of two minds about the ratings: Dismiss them publicly. obsess over them privately. “I see a lot of virtue in the discipline of ranking,” said the president of a highly regarded university, who spoke on condition of anonymity to give a candid assessment. That president, despite misgivings about the formulas, said the rankings help focus internal discussions about school performance. “It’s in the back of everyone’s head.” US News’ ranking formula has evolved, but one constant is a survey it sends each year to more than 4,000 college presidents, professors and deans, asking them to rate the academic quality of peer schools on a scale of 1, or “marginal,” to 5, “are distinguished.” This counts for 20 percent and ensures that prestige, or lack thereof, always weighs heavily. Type also affects faculty resources, including salaries and class size (20 percent) and per-pupil spending (10 percent), which are heavily influenced by institutional wealth. Incoming students’ SAT and ACT scores, as well as their high school GPA, are estimated at 7 percent, and graduate giving rates are estimated at 3 percent. The growing test-blind movement in college admissions is challenging the formula. Following the disruptions of the coronavirus pandemic, the University of California system has decided that it will no longer consider SAT or ACT scores for admission. That could make it increasingly difficult for US News to use test scores to rank those campuses. This year, US News used fall 2020 freshman test scores to rank schools in the UC system. (UC-Berkeley and UCLA tied for 20th nationally.) For several other universities, it used fall 2021 scores. For still others, it omitted test scores from the calculation entirely. MIT repeats the mandate for SAT or ACT scores. Many other colleges do not. In recent years, US News has placed more emphasis on outcomes, including the percentage of students who remain enrolled after their first year and the percentage who graduate within six years. There are also analyzes of graduation rates for students from low-income families. whether graduation rates are exceeding or lagging behind projections. and graduate debt levels. All of these count towards 40 percent. US News claims its formula meets the needs of college-bound students. “We’re very focused on making sure universities are doing what they say they’re going to do,” said Eric J. Gertler, executive chairman and CEO of US News. “Our mission is to make sure students make the best decision for themselves.” US News reported that about 40 million users visited its Best Colleges 2021 website. A Google search for “college rankings” on a recent day showed US News at the top. Right below that was Niche.com, a school search platform. It ranks colleges using a variety of federal data points and student and alumni reviews. Niche claims to get more social media buzz from college students than US News. “Their influence is waning, there’s no doubt about it,” said Luke Skurman, CEO of Niche. He said the ratings are helpful, but not very important. “Rankings are, in some ways, a relic of media companies,” Skurman said. “We’re a modern platform that does a lot of things, but we’re not a media company.” Cardona’s Aug. 11 speech mocked what he called “all the science behind climbing the rankings.” He mocked the competition between colleges for affluent students with high SAT scores and the efforts among elite schools to curry favor with their peers by using “expensive dinners and lavish events” to score reputation survey points. On Wednesday, Cardona confirmed that he intended to create the US News rankings and others that “prioritize prestige and exclusivity.” The federal government, he said, would rather focus on colleges with other strengths. “We are very serious about bringing attention and providing support to those universities that are taking students who are currently struggling and giving them the opportunity to succeed,” Cardona said. How rankings affect demand for selective colleges is unclear. Columbia is likely to field tens of thousands of applications this year, regardless of its ranking. The university declined to answer questions about its ranking and whether it was worth working with US News. Villanova University Professor Patrick G. Maggitti said the Catholic institution near Philadelphia has drawn much more interest from potential students since it reclassified in 2016 from a master’s to a doctoral research university. This led US News to move Villanova from a regional list to a national one. It debuted in the top 50. Applications for 2017 were up more than 20 percent, Maggitti said. The school also reaped publicity benefits from a 2016 NCAA men’s basketball championship. “We don’t play the US News rankings, but we’re not immune to seeing them,” Maggitti said. “It increases our recognition in the market.” Villanova suffered a mild embarrassment this year when it revealed to US News that it had submitted incorrect information about its financial aid. The magazine in July temporarily removed Villanova from its “best value” list. Maghiti described the error as a “year-long failure”. This year, Villanova is ranked 51st overall among national universities. Some schools are rebelling against US News. Reed, a well-regarded liberal arts school, has long been known to boycott surveys. US News ranks it anyway — now at 72nd…
