This is the like incredible repeating story, but it seems to have reached a critical mass this year... U.S. News and World Report comes out with its 2007 issue, America's Best Colleges, and some of America's best colleges cry foul. That doesn't stop students from lining up to buy the issue. It's even been called U.S. News' "swimsuit issue." Now, schools know they can't stop the rankings, but they are hoping to convince other colleges to boycott them... not turn over data, no filling out review forms of other schools, no more marketing schools as number XX on the U.S. News rankings, etc, etc, etc. And administrators are making their case in letters to other campuses, on their blogs, and in the media. Their argument is that the rankings are misleading, and that it's not their job to help promote a magazine. But people love their lists, especially top "whatever" lists, and frankly, when I considered grad school, you bet I looked up all sorts of rankings. So, do you use rankings even if they're not necessarily scientific (for anything... schools, cars, radio shows, blogs), or are the numbers just another case of information overload?

categories: Cutting Room Floor

9:14 - May 22, 2007

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