A different sort of ranking

interesteddad
Wed, 18 May 2005 23:25:44 +0000

Yep. Like many measures, you really have to compare only among similar colleges. It’s really unfair to compare graduatation rates among wealthy private college student body to that of a state university.

There’s also the flip-side of the argument. Do we really want academically-rigorous schools where everyone graduates in four years? As someone aptly pointed out the other day, this would be Lake Wobeegon College, where all of the students are “above average”.

The former Pres. of Stanford pointed this out in his letter to USNEWS blasting their rankings. He suggested that Caltech got killed in the rankings because of a relatively low graduation rate. But asked whether Caltech would really be a “better” school if it weren’t so demanding?