Colleges that Went Down in Prestige

[Erin_s_Dad]

<p>

Today, it’s hard to imagine there ever was a void of information to help people make direct comparisons between colleges, but such was the case in 1983 when we first ventured into the field. The editors back then, led by Marvin L. Stone, thought the project was worth attempting because a college education is one of the most important—and most costly—investments that people ever make. (Of course, that perspective is even more relevant today when the price of an undergraduate education at some private universities hovers in the $200,000 range.) So the magazine designed a survey and sent it out to 1,308 college presidents to get their opinions of which schools offered the best education. The winners: Stanford (National Universities) and Amherst (National Liberal Arts Colleges).</p>

<p>That academic-reputation-only method was repeated in 1985 and 1987. In 1988, we started to use statistical data as part of the ranking methodology, evaluating those numbers along with the results of the survey

</p>

<p>[The</a> Birth of the College Rankings - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/news/national/articles/2008/05/16/the-birth-of-college-rankings]The”>http://www.usnews.com/news/national/articles/2008/05/16/the-birth-of-college-rankings)</p>

<p>The change in 1988 methodology would have shown up in the 1989 rankings.</p>