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<p>Peer assessment can be very useful if it’s done right.
I think the NRC peer assessments of graduate departments are good, because they are done (as I understand it) by experts in each of those fields. For example, you’d ask professional anthropologists to assess USC’s graduate program in anthro. That works because professional scholars read the work of scholars in the same fields at other schools, collaborate together, attend conferences together, etc. They know each others’ work.</p>
<p>However, I don’t understand how one could get a very reliable peer assessment of an entire college by asking people outside that community for opinions about the school as a whole.</p>