Again, I ranked by salary..
Every individual is different. I don’t have access issues and coming from a wealthy area, I “assumed” both my kids will graduate.
Of course, every major is different. I assumed my engineer would be ok but I did have strain when he chose Alabama over Purdue. That bias was wrong.
I had strain with my daughter - not for choosing her school although she got into “higher ranked”. My strain was her majors but she showed me wrong. She always had a strong work ethic and determination and perhaps that was most important.
I didn’t use the WM rankings - but of course, if a particular ranking was of interest to a school and I suppose most start with US News, as we’ve seen - any school can game the system - whether or not it’s by practicing to the criteria…or cheating to get there. In my industry, every company rates “best dealers.” Are all best - or do they practice to the test? Are all NMFs the best students - or do they master a test?
The easiest thing to do is simply cheat - and while it’s potentially more than this, we know that:
- Berkeley
- Claremont McKenna
- Columbia
- Emory
- GW
- Oklahoma
- Southern Cal
- Temple
- Villanova
We know that some schools have had phantom classes - UNC, for example. Are they really deserving of a graduation rate, etc.
People will do anything to get to the top - literally.
I once heard (but have never read so maybe it’s unlikely) that a large, public football school once had all its grads give $1 as they walked across the stage - so they could claim a high giving percentage. Whether it’s true or not, I don’t know - but it does seem like the thing a college would do to boost itself in a category.
It’s sort of sad that top names have blatantly cheated - but it shows the power of a certain magazine I suppose.
Now, Northeastern didn’t cheat (that I’m aware of) but it is interesting the strategy their leader enacted - again to US News (not WM or Forbes or Niche):
Freeland swept into Northeastern with a brand-new mantra: recalibrate the school to climb up the ranks. “There’s no question that the system invites gaming,” Freeland tells me. “We made a systematic effort to influence [the outcome].” He directed university researchers to break the U.S. News code and replicate its formulas. He spoke about the rankings all the time—in hallways and at board meetings, illustrating his points with charts. He spent his days trying to figure out how to get the biggest bump up the charts for his buck. He worked the goal into the school’s strategic plan. “We had to get into the top 100,” Freeland says. “That was a life-or-death matter for Northeastern.”
They performed to the test….just like car dealers in my industry do. And like many students do.
