<p>Rhys, if the methods used by USN are explained clearly, they seem to do a particularly poor job with you.</p>
<p>The way that USN uses selectivity is far from being about admission rates. As stated earlier, it only represents 10% of the 15% allocated to selectivity. The remaining established the criteria of the students who were admitted. The level of the students who will attend does have an immediate impact on your expected experience at a school. </p>
<p>The remaining measurable statistics are all important, but under closer scrutiny, you will be hard pressed to find great differences among COMPARABLE schools. Few students end up making a decision between a third toer school and a Harvard-like school. Is there a real difference between a school that has a 6-1 student-faculty ratio and a school with a 10-1 ratio? I could on with every single elements that are used in the ranking. However, where you will find great differences is in selectivity. Just look at the wide range of acceptance number among the 8 Ivies. </p>
<p>In the end, the biggest variable is simply the peer assesssment. If you happen to like the peer assessment, you will probably love the USN rankings. If you happen to think that the peer assessment is nothing but a joke, you’ll find little reason to like the rankings. </p>
<p>I happen to like the ranking but ONLY for the fact that it does a reasonable job in compiling the numbers - despite the lunacy of pretending to be scientific. The cost of subscribing is a very good investment. However, that does not stop me for considering the end product -if the ranking is supposed to be a ranking- to be entirely misleading and lacking basic integrity. There is no science behind the methodology, and their own former director admitted that the methodology is very suspect and lacks statistiscal integrity. The information is there, but it is manipulated and massaged in order to arrive at pre-established numbers to cater to a set clientele. </p>
<p>Twelve monkeys could probably rearrange the criteria by tossing darts at a board and not change much of the final outcome.</p>