<p>I don’t see a huge disconnect between the “actual needs of students” and the areas in which USNews has encouraged schools to make progress.</p>
<p>For the most part (with the significant exception of whatever has been done to foster the insideous spread of Early Decision programs) I think most “improvements” aimed at raising the USNews ranking also make any school better. (Higher SAT medians, better graduation rate, better faculty/student ratio, higher faculty salaries, smaller class sizes, etc.)</p>
<p>Many people don’t remember the “bad old days” before USNews forced schools to reveal information about themselves that was previously viewed as proprietary and “sensitive” - and kept secret. USNews has not only made much important data directly available, but it was the driving force behind the project to get schools to submit information in a common format via the Common Data Set.</p>
<p>Colleges, for generations, were used to “controlling the message” they were putting out, and making it as difficult as possible for potential applicants to make comparisons between schools.</p>