Gladwell Video on an HBCU and What U.S. News Rankings Measure

College Search & Lists Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU)
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Thanks to @AustenNut for posting this elsewhere. Thought it was compelling.

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For those who prefer reading to watching (though I’d recommend listening), here is a link to a transcript:

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Here is a very abbreviated set of notes on the podcast.

First Half(ish): Talks about USNWR rankings and how Dillard could improve in the rankings

Topics discussed: Peer assessment scores, size of endowment, size of school and selectivity, amenities, etc.

  1. Increasing the endowment to such a size to substantially improve student amenities would attract students from wealthier families, which would increase graduation rates (because the students’ families have sufficient money), and would have higher alumni giving rates from the wealthy, and then college peers will be viewing the endowment (which strongly ties to peer assessment), and with those changes (none of which discusses the quality of the education), then the rankings would change from: 161 to 103.
  2. Send the lowest half of performing students home (i.e. not trying to educate a large swath of students)…instead just skim the cream. And if wealthier students are attending, then they likely also have higher test scores. The ranking goes from: 103 to 43.
  3. Look at the other USNWR factors: Teacher:student ratio (it’s already tiny at 9:1 and they sent home half their students), faculty resources are enormous with the new endowment, and the resulting rank goes from: 43 to 3.

Gladwell suggests that Dillard and its ilk will never rise through the rankings because, as Mark 8:36 says, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (NIV).

Next Third: Talks about Dillard’s strength in physics and the differing mindset of colleges in terms of supporting students vs. skimming for the top performers.

  • Dillard & Harvard have about the same size of entering black students (i.e. about 300).

  • Physics: In 2019 Dillard was #2 in the country for producing black physics grads (currently #3, but #1 per capita for a while)

  • In 2019 Dillard produced 13 black physics grads, Harvard produced 1.

  • In the past 10 years, Dillard graduated 35 black physics grads, Harvard 5.

Many highly selective colleges will continue to pull the cream of their crop in terms of who continues in a field (i.e. weeding folks out), while many HBCUs focus on developing the individuals they have who are interested in the field, no matter their starting point. So it’s not that Dillard’s black students are smarter than Harvard’s, but that they got better support and/or less discouragement to continue on in the field. (For those familiar with Gladwell’s episodes on why it’s better to be a big fish in a small pond…or his “Don’t Go to Harvard” bit…it hits on some of the same themes.)

Remainder of Episode

The episode continues to go on about the supportiveness of the school (kids calling the President have him actually pick up the phone rather than sending to voicemail), a kid’s biggest concern of freshman year (i.e. where they were going to stay during winter break…illustrating the students’ financial issues), and then relays an exchange with USNWR and a fellow audience member that USNWR rankings essentially measure privilege.

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