College Discussion - View Single Post - USNEWS 2008 Engineering Ranking Compilation

aibarr · 02-07-2008, 02:23 PM

Deloar just posted this on the "Elitism within CC, US News" thread. I think everyone should read it.

In January 1997, then-president of Alma College, Alan Stone, asked 480 colleges to boycott the U.S. News and World Report Rankings due to the peer assessment survey which counts for 25% of a college's ranking. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, in 1996, Alma College surveyed 158 colleges about the rankings. The result of the survey indicated that "84 per cent of the respondents admitted that they were unfamiliar with some of the institutions they had been asked to rank. Almost 44 per cent indicated that they 'tended to leave responses for unfamiliar schools blank.' " Stone stated, "this makes me wonder just how many votes are being considered for each school's academic-reputation ranking."
from # ^ "Alma College's President Urges Boycott of "U.S. News" Rankings", Chronicle of Higher Education, 1997-01-31. Retrieved on 2007-06-22. http://snipurl.com/1z7hs
# ^ "Alma College's President Urges Boycott of "U.S. News" Rankings", Rice University, 1997-01-31. Retrieved on 2007-06-22. http://snipurl.com/1z7ho

In other words, peer assessment means that people in academia are asked what they think of school X. Imagine you're a peer assessor, who is, for example, a chemistry professor who's on the admissions committee at Princeton. Someone asks you what you think of Harvard. You say Harvard's very good. Someone asks you what you think of Flagler College. You leave it blank.

Now, maybe Flagler is the greatest college in the world for underwater basketweaving, but the peer assessor is never going to know that, unfortunately. These peer assessors don't know everything... Nobody can. So with rankings, the rich keep getting richer (everyone knows that HYPSM rock and the majority are going to say so, unless they're argumentative) and the poor keep getting poorer ("You go to Rider? That's nice! Where's that?").

So delve a little deeper. Use rankings as a starting point, but don't put so much stock in them. You may find your dream college in a corner of the country that's been unexplored by chemistry professors from Princeton.

02-07-2008, 02:23 PM	#45
aibarr Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Houston, Texas Gender: Female Threads: 10 Posts: 1,938	Deloar just posted this on the "Elitism within CC, US News" thread. I think everyone should read it. In January 1997, then-president of Alma College, Alan Stone, asked 480 colleges to boycott the U.S. News and World Report Rankings due to the peer assessment survey which counts for 25% of a college's ranking. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, in 1996, Alma College surveyed 158 colleges about the rankings. The result of the survey indicated that "84 per cent of the respondents admitted that they were unfamiliar with some of the institutions they had been asked to rank. Almost 44 per cent indicated that they 'tended to leave responses for unfamiliar schools blank.' " Stone stated, "this makes me wonder just how many votes are being considered for each school's academic-reputation ranking." from # ^ "Alma College's President Urges Boycott of "U.S. News" Rankings", Chronicle of Higher Education, 1997-01-31. Retrieved on 2007-06-22. http://snipurl.com/1z7hs # ^ "Alma College's President Urges Boycott of "U.S. News" Rankings", Rice University, 1997-01-31. Retrieved on 2007-06-22. http://snipurl.com/1z7ho In other words, peer assessment means that people in academia are asked what they think of school X. Imagine you're a peer assessor, who is, for example, a chemistry professor who's on the admissions committee at Princeton. Someone asks you what you think of Harvard. You say Harvard's very good. Someone asks you what you think of Flagler College. You leave it blank. Now, maybe Flagler is the greatest college in the world for underwater basketweaving, but the peer assessor is never going to know that, unfortunately. These peer assessors don't know everything... Nobody can. So with rankings, the rich keep getting richer (everyone knows that HYPSM rock and the majority are going to say so, unless they're argumentative) and the poor keep getting poorer ("You go to Rider? That's nice! Where's that?"). So delve a little deeper. Use rankings as a starting point, but don't put so much stock in them. You may find your dream college in a corner of the country that's been unexplored by chemistry professors from Princeton.