I guess that this will come as quite a shock to the faculty and students at Lake Forest College, Hope College, and Sweet Briar. It seems that some people are so obsessed with ranking that they believe that USANews rankings are enough to determine the designation of a college.
"Hello, are you the president of XYZ College? This is George from The Council of Independent Colleges. It has come to my notice that your ranking in USANews has fallen to #101 in National Liberal Arts Colleges. Because of this, you may no longer describe yourselves as a Liberal Arts College.
Yes, you are correct. You must now get rid of your Liberal Arts curriculum, change your mission statement, change the teaching duties of the faculty. I know that this is difficult, but this is how it has to be. A few anonymous posters on College Confidential have made this decision, and we are all bound by their opinions. Yes, if you submit a written request to delay this change in designation for a year we may consider it, so long as the request includes a detailed plan as to how you intend to raise your USANews rankings.
No, I’m sorry, but blowing up a higher ranking college is not an acceptable plan, and neither is kidnapping the family of one of the USANews editors."