The original concern was if the change in 1998 would change the culture of the College - study body, atmosphere, rigorous, etc.
It is very difficult to measure a change has positive or negative or mixed impacts on broad areas. Someone uses self reported data like PayScale to measure a college alumni earning power. I would like to base on some hard fact.
The lists I threw out are some metrics which can measure the impact of change on the most accomplished alumni. Even if the lists are not very accurate but at least consistent (prior and after).
If we use those lists or others we can quantify, sort of, the impact before and after. The metrics are an aggregate which consists many small things. Although the raw data samples are very small such as prize winners or fellows of academy I believe the sum has a good sample size and is still meaningful. So we can compare the X number in the aggregate prior with the Y number in the aggregate after.
Again that is only a measurement.