<p>I remembered reading an interesting article about Oberlin and college rankings in the Oberlin alumni magazine. I found the article. It doesn’t address graduation rates head on, however it does mention that if school concentrates on improving key variables, including graduation rates, it will rise in the rankings without fundamentally improving what they offer. In other words, if a colleges markets and manages solely to obtain good figures, the college will rise in the rankings. However, the article is primarily about how the rankings now are powerful enough to beget future rankings - they are self-fulfilling on their own. </p>
<p>Here’s the article - [PERSPECTIVE:</a> Should we care about rankings? / Summer 2011](<a href=“http://www.oberlin.edu/alummag/summer2011/features/rank.html]PERSPECTIVE:”>http://www.oberlin.edu/alummag/summer2011/features/rank.html)</p>