aca0260

Can someone post it please.

Alexandre

1. Harvard University 4.9
1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 4.9
1. Princeton University 4.9
1. Stanford University 4.9
1. Yale University 4.9

6. California Institute of Technology 4.7
6. University of California-Berkeley 4.7
6. University of Chicago 4.7

9. Columbia University 4.6
9. Cornell University 4.6
9. Johns Hopkins University 4.6

12. Duke University 4.5
12. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 4.5
12. University of Pennsylvania 4.5

15. Brown University 4.4
15. Dartmouth College 4.4
15. Northwestern University 4.4

18. University of California-Los Angeles 4.3
18. University of Virginia 4.3

20. Carnegie Mellon University 4.2
20. University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill 4.2
20. University of Wisconsin-Madison 4.2

23. Georgetown University 4.1
23. Rice University 4.1
23. University of Texas-Austin 4.1
23. Vanderbilt University 4.1
23. Washington University-St Louis 4.1

aca0260

Hey Alexandre can you go as far down as Emory? And would you be able to tell me what Miami's (FL) peer assessment score is? Thanks in advance.

Alexandre

Emory has a peer assessment score of 4.0 and Miami (FL) a peer assessment score of 3.2.

topofthegame

How does this peer assesment score work?
How is a peer defined and how do they come up with the number?

Alexandre

The peer assessment score is the average rating assigned to a university by the deans of admissions and presidents of similar universities. So you wont have the dean of admisions or president of a LAC (like Davidson or Haverford) or a regional university (like Santa Clara or Trinity) rating a national research university (like Northwestern or UCLA). There are roughly 200 LACs, 250 national universities and between 120 and 160 regional universities depending on the region.

From the USNWR:

"Peer assessment (weighting: 25 percent). The U.S. News ranking formula gives greatest weight to the opinions of those in a position to judge a school's undergraduate academic excellence. The peer assessment survey allows the top academics we consult—presidents, provosts, and deans of admissions—to account for intangibles such as faculty dedication to teaching. Each individual is asked to rate peer schools' academic programs on a scale from 1 (marginal) to 5 (distinguished). Those who don't know enough about a school to evaluate it fairly are asked to mark "don't know." Synovate, an opinion-research firm based near Chicago, collected the data; of the 4,089 people who were sent questionnaires, 58 percent responded."

swish14

peer assessment is really reflective more of a schools grad prestige than undergrad. Rice,Georgetown, Tufts, William & Mary, Wake Forest are all underrated compared to some of the larger State U's that focus mainly on Grad students.

thethoughtprocess

It assumes that the deans of a 100 colleges are familiar with every other undergrad college...naturally, they aren't that informed.

Note that the Peer Assessment score is the only non-empirical value on the US News survey.

xiggi

Peer assesssment is supposed to be a reliable yardstick. Of course, there is theory and there is practice.

Add the self-reported dishonesty of colleges that give negative scores to their competitors and foes but reward their friends and ... sisters with abandon, and you end up with a completely unreliable and biased testament to cronyism and silliness.

Had USNews an ounce of integrity,they would separate the Peer Assessment in an individual listing. This would allow the fans (read fans of schools that have a MUCH better PA than their "numerical ranking would support) to have a list similar to what Alexandre posted, and the rest of the world could have a list or ranking based on objective criteria.

Will that happen? Hell no, because it would mean another drop in the completion of the survey, even lower than the sinking 58% of today. Eliminating one venue for manipulation might not be a very good idea for USNews!

thethoughtprocess

There is only a 58% response to Peer Assessment?

hoedown

Yes, which is why I've been jumping up and down like a madwoman noting that the decision of Sarah Lawrence et al to no longer participate may not actually be that big of a deal.

I must be on the ignore list of about half this board, because I'm been jabbering on about the response rate with little effect. LOL

I'll also add this--it would appear that a lot of people don't read anything about the USNews methodology before diving in. I'm vlad people ask questions here so they can find out more. But it raises questions (for me) about the accuracy of people who claim that they use the rankings very judicously, and that they're certain most other people do the same. How many people really do read the fine print? Maybe less than we hope.

barrons

Some schools have a much better PA than their ranking would suggest because they have an outstanding faculty by most measurables. If it is important for the students to score higher on the SAT (which studies indicate has little to do with actual college performance), or alumni giving rates, it should be equally important to have a faculty respected by its peers. This can be measured in several ways--research funding and publishing, membership in scholarly academies, winning competitive awards/grants, etc.
When you look at the top major universities using these critera you get basically the same ranking as with the PA. So the collective "ignorance" and even dishonesty still does a pretty good job of putting the schools in rank order. Now for LAC's it gets tougher as there are fewer common measurables out there but I believe the top ranked LAC's also have the best facultly using the indicators for research schools.

kluge

The thing is, most of the factors included in the ranking aren't directly related to the quality of eduction at respective colleges anyway. At least peer assessment, while subjective, is directly related to the purpose of the rankings. I'd argue that student selectivity is a valid predictor of academic quality (although I'd quibble with "acceptance rate.") But "Alumni giving?" "Class sizes?" Just how directly related to academic quality are those things? And are things like graduation rate and retention even remotely valid distinctions between top 20, or even top 50 schools? "Financial resources" includes money spent on research, which may or may not be relevant to undergraduate education, etc. A lot of the factors included are present based on the assumption that they will - indirectly - affect overall academic quality. But peer assessment is a direct opinion of the success of the school in actually achieving academic quality. Imperfect, but valuable in its own right.

huskem55

peer assessment is one of the main reasons why schools are now resisting the usnews surveys. to have it as such a heavy weight in their rankings is ridiculous.

thethoughtprocess

Hoedown:

Haha, I can't believe I missed all your comments. Everything you've said makes much more sense now. F

lol, OK, so that front page news article means that the % of respondents will go from 58 percent to...like 56%. Such a non-issue IMO.