<p>“There is a limit to the extent universities will go to game the system. When I was department chair (at a large Midwestern state university) I sat through a meeting in which people were brainstorming ways to improve our US News rankings, including setting maximum sizes of some classes at 19 and compensating for this by increasing the size of other (more than 50-student) classes. I was appalled by the discussion and suggested semi-sarcastically that if we really wanted to improve our ratings, all we need to do was to become much more selective in admissions and asked if this was a nonstarter. The Deans rolled their eyes, briefly said this was politically impossible, and the silly discussion moved on…Our ratings by the way have been relatively unchanged (perhaps slightly lower) since this meeting.”</p>
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<li>some dude on ([In</a> Clemson Rankings Controversy, Most College Officials Assume Everyone Games the*System - Chronicle.com](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/news/article/6601/in-clemson-rankings-controversy-most-college-officials-assume-everyone-games-the-system]In”>http://chronicle.com/news/article/6601/in-clemson-rankings-controversy-most-college-officials-assume-everyone-games-the-system))</li>
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<p>I personally believe university administrators (with the exception of some ppl) are very conservative and do not want to have this blow over into a ranking war. There is a point where you cannot pass or else it’s unethical or illegal and they know that.</p>