Surprise!:" How Changing Reputations Alter Demand for Selective U.S. Colleges"

[Papa_Chicken]

<p>While this seems intuitive from a marketing standpoint, this new peer-reviewed paper more specifically spells out how rankings affect applicants’ choices. Rankings do matter-- especially to the ranked.</p>

<p>source: [True</a> for Your School? How Changing Reputations Alter Demand for Selective U.S. Colleges](<a href=“American Educational Research Association > Home”>True for Your School? How Changing Reputations Alter Demand for Selective U.S. Colleges)
Abstract excerpt:

There is a comprehensive literature documenting how colleges’ tuition, financial aid packages, and academic reputations influence students’ application and enrollment decisions. Far less is known about how quality-of-life reputations and peer institutions’ reputations affect these decisions. This paper investigates these issues using data from two prominent college guidebook series to measure changes in reputations. We use information published annually by the Princeton Review—the best-selling college guidebook that formally categorizes colleges based on both academic and quality-of-life indicators—and the U.S. News and World Report—the most famous rankings of U.S. undergraduate programs. Our findings suggest that changes in academic and quality-of-life reputations affect the number of applications received by a college and the academic competitiveness and geographic diversity of the ensuing incoming freshman class.

</p>

<p>Although I could not access the full paper, it is discussed in several other articles covering the paper:
[College</a> rankings: Study finds they influence applicants | Get Schooled | <a href=“http://www.ajc.com%5B/url%5D”>www.ajc.com](<a href=“http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2014/jan/16/college-rankings-they-do-matter-says-new-study/]College”>http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2014/jan/16/college-rankings-they-do-matter-says-new-study/)</a>
[Study</a> documents impact of ‘quality of life’ rankings of colleges | Inside Higher Ed](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/01/16/study-documents-impact-quality-life-rankings-colleges]Study”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/01/16/study-documents-impact-quality-life-rankings-colleges)
[Rankings</a> really do matter to universities | ScienceBlog.com](<a href=“http://scienceblog.com/69821/rankings-really-do-matter-to-universities/]Rankings”>http://scienceblog.com/69821/rankings-really-do-matter-to-universities/)</p>

<p>Plenty of quotable quotes in those articles…heres one to whet your appetite:

Being one of the top 25 schools ranked by U.S. News is associated with an increase in applications between 6 and 10 percent. A school’s specific numerical ranking does not predict the volume of applications; simply making the list is what causes an increase. Colleges see a 2.3 percent increase in applicants when they make Princeton Review’s Top 20 list for academics.

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[momofthreeboys]

<p>It is not surprising especially once the ranking organization gains popular consumer credibility. What is also interesting are the colleges that may not be perceived as under-ranked, but remain “brand stalwarts” because of historical brand awareness. You see this great schools high in the global rankings and high in the peer perception rankings. You also see it in other consumer purchasing patterns of brand items.</p>

[sally305]

<p>^Very true.</p>

[momofthreeboys]

<p>Ugh, strange Android errors and too late to edit - that should be “colleges that MAY be perceived as under-ranked” and “you see these great schools”…</p>

[emeraldkity4]

<p>Colin Diver was the president of Ds school.
[Is</a> There Life After Rankings? - Colin Diver - The Atlantic](<a href=“Is There Life After Rankings? - The Atlantic”>Is There Life After Rankings? - The Atlantic)
He was just following in Steven Koblik footsteps.
<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_college_and_university_rankings_(North_America[/url])”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_college_and_university_rankings_(North_America)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>We developed our own criteria, usnews rationale wasn’t useful to us.</p>

[sally305]

<p>^GREAT article, and all so true.</p>

<p>

When I was a law-school dean, my mailbox would begin to fill up about a month before U.S. News’s annual “beauty contest” questionnaire arrived—with glossy admissions brochures, alumni magazines, lists of faculty publications, and breathless announcements of new buildings and academic symposia, all accompanied by bland cover letters from my counterparts expressing the thought that I might find the enclosures interesting and illuminating

</p>

<p>This is one of the dirty little secrets about rankings that include peer assessment as a factor. As with anything else, throwing money at the problem (i.e., marketing directly to peer institutions) can move the needle by increasing awareness. It’s all really dumb and I can’t believe how many smart people don’t examine the methodology before putting their faith in the results.</p>

[xiggi]

<p>The dirty little secret and the Reed Prez quotations are truly old news in the College Selection forum. About every discussion about the rankings and the peer assessment ends up addressing the manipulations by school officials. </p>

<p>The problem is that people could not care less as long as the PA makes their school look good.</p>

[mikemac]

<p>

It’s all really dumb and I can’t believe how many smart people don’t examine the methodology before putting their faith in the results.

Because its the easy way. Why bother to spend effort and time researching colleges when for a few dollars US News has done all the work for you? Or so many seem to believe.</p>

[emeraldkity4]

<p>*The dirty little secret and the Reed Prez quotations are truly old news in the College Selection forum. *</p>

<p>Yes xiggi, but just because you & I dont have anything better to do than chat about college applications for the last ten years doesnt mean that new students and families are not just learning about this information.
;)</p>

[sally305]

<p>My thoughts exactly. :)</p>

[menloparkmom]

<p>well said emerald- there are a lot of “newbies” out there who have no understanding of all the behind the scene maneuvering that goes on in the “ranking” business.</p>