It is interesting to note how well it works to “game” the rankings.
The most remarkable case is Northeastern.
Most people will never know or care about the details of their dramatic rise in the rankings.
But there it is…and it is getting more applications than ever…selects the best ones, thus raising test scores…
Many families around here live and die by those rankings and just assume the sacred validity of the methodology.
Is Northeastern actually substantially “better” than it was ten years ago? It might be now…
It would be interesting to fake a rise in the rankings with a somewhat random school over a few years and watch the results.