<p>"This and other small changes have made the rankings better and the editors have often been praised for their willingness to listen to criticism from universities, even as they are criticized for closing decisions about the rankings off from the rest of the U.S. News staff and creating a private fiefdom isolated from the rest of the magazine. According to one former senior reporter who worked on the rankings in the early '90s: “We were roped around the neck to get us to write the serious journalistic stories in the issue, but none of us had a clue how the rankings worked.” According to another former staff writer who contributed to the “Best Colleges” issue: “The rankings are completely ridiculous. But they totally pay your salary.”</p>
<p>Sad.</p>