The latest USNWR rankings. What happened?

Of course, it’s a given people can focus and make choices in what ever ways they choose. I learned from another post that Davidson has ranked as high as 7 and as low as 21 since USNWR began LAC rankings. As others said, there are other rankings that put Davidson higher or lower.

We all know these rankings are aggregations of data points that attempt to capture quality. There’s subjectivity in determining what those data points are and how to weight them for a composite number. As they adjust methodology, those decisions are going to push some colleges higher and some lower. We also also know some colleges mis-report their data:

https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2018/08/27/eight-more-colleges-identified-submitting-incorrect-data-us-news

And some work very hard to change policies to game the system, etc. – looking at you Northeastern

https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2014/08/26/how-northeastern-gamed-the-college-rankings/

Whatever you think of rankings, anyway you slice it, Davidson does very well and has done so for 30 years, The drop this year is not because of a decline in quality of teaching or learning at the college nor less prepared students, fewer resources, etc. It’s because they didn’t do quite as well on a couple of measures and/or other LACs did slightly better. People can use this information to make college decisions however they want, but those choices don’t negate the reality of what a change in ranking – up or down – actually means in terms of what a college offers to a student and their experience. – which is nothing. Choosing college fit based on highest ranked college is one way to do it, I suppose, but seems ill-advised.

Finally, all that that said, I personally think focusing on improving Pell student graduation rates (one of the two measures that Davidson identified as hurting them this year) is a positive thing so if the college does more on this front, that’s a positive outcome from this year’s change in methodology.