Clemson--Gaming US News Ranking

ctyankee
Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:52:30 +0000

Improving your selectivity score is easier. Two obvious methods: 1) Go SAT-optional. Only the top SAT-scorers will report their scores. The school’s reported 25th-75th percentile SAT scores will go up, even if they’re admitting exactly the same applicants. 2) Reduce the size of the entering freshman class so as to actually increase selectivity (and derivatively, reported selectivity stats) for the entering freshman class, and make up for the lost revenue by filling the empty chairs with transfer students whose SAT scores and other stats will go unreported on US News (because it measures only enrolled freshman stats). Reported selectivity will rise; the actual selectivity of the freshman class will rise; but the selectivity of the school as a whole—and the strength of its student body—will remain constant or possibly even decline a little. It’s a “costless” move in the sense that it’s revenue-neutral. It will make the school look better in US News. But it won’t make it a better school.



Thanks for bringing these up as these may occur to people that study these things but for the rest of us, valuable info to consider.



If a school offered just two classes, one with 10 students and one with 90 students, it could say that 50% of its CLASSES had under 20 students. But in fact only 10% of the STUDENTS (NOT 50%) would have had a class with under 20 students.



So you’re saying that the current system of reporting class sizes is unweighted (i.e., that 90 kids took the large class is not factored in)? That’s outrageous.