http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/article/2014/08/26/how-northeastern-gamed-the-college-rankings/3/
This article in Boston Magazine tells how their very own Northeastern gamed the US News and World Report Rankings - their words not mine. I do not have any interest to speak ill ill of any institution of high education but this article is very enlightening of how rankings can be influenced.
Interesting article.
The problem is that Lehigh has done all of the same things: encouraging less qualified applicants in order to decrease acceptance rates, encourage international applicants in order to avoid SAT reporting and accepting less qualified students as “spring admits” yet is has continued to plummet in the rankings. This is because Lehigh’s YIELD is plummeting. Students are passing on Lehigh because of its diminished reputation as a fraternity dominated, drug and alcohol fueled, party school in a terrible location. Lehigh can save its reputation by taking bold, brave steps. Lehigh needs to end it’s Greek system. The Fraternities (and sororites to a lesser extent) at Lehigh have compromised the primary educational purposes of the College.
Here are some excerpts from an article in Inside Higher Ed that I think many of you will find interesting.
Beer Me, Esteemed Colleague by Nate Kreuter
How being in grad school is like being in a frat. Nov 20, 2013
“I wasnt a frat guy in college. I was pretty much the opposite of a frat guy. But as Ive slowly come to understand more about my own discipline, and the workings of academic life in general, Ive come to believe that most of our professional communities operate pretty much the same way that frats do.
The social forces that influence, at least in part, how disciplinary communities operate dictate that sometimes those with talent and merit and those who actually succeed are not necessarily the same groups. In order to succeed within your discipline, you must not only be a competent expert, but youre going to have to play the gamethe networking, socializing, back-scratching game.
What is less obvious is that the person who only works, and works diligently and intelligently, but to the exclusion of the social realities of disciplinary life, is also more likely to fail than otherwise. Or, perhaps, likely to meet with less success than otherwise deserved.
People at the top of the academic professions are frequently not only brilliant, hard-working researchers and teachers, but theyre also extremely well networked, entirely plugged into the social and intellectual fabric of their research communities. They are especially good navigators of the social sides of their disciplines, and at some level recognize that hard work alone is not enough to ensure professional success within our line of work.”
Admittedly, I don’t follow rankings in magazines. I’m more of a real-life, personal experience sort of person. From connections around the country, Lehigh is as solid as a rock from everything that I’ve heard.
That’s an astute and accurate article by Nate Kreuter, kikkydee. That’s pretty much what I’ve seen in the real world and heard from recruiters and hiring partners. They love Lehigh graduates that can balance rigorous academics while being part of a productive and philanthropic brotherhood experiences that fraternities at Lehigh provide.
foreal,
Have you seen the surveys posted that show Lehigh graduates have on average some of the top salaries? At little hard to believe Lehigh is so terrible when their kids do so well out in the work force.
I think it’s interesting to note that during the survey period, Lehigh had an interim president, albeit a respected member of the Lehigh Board of Trustees. But it’s not a stretch to imagine that the “interim” nature might have affected other peer reviews of Lehigh in this year. Just a theory.