<p>I am pleased all of this is “gaming” information is finally coming out and I hope reaching a critical mass to once and for all bury USNWR (its only money maker are these inane lists). In addition to what’s going on at Clemson, I have maintained that any ranking system that has UC Santa Barbara, Irvine and Davis in the top 50 ranked over UT, UF, Penn State (flagship unis.), Tulane, GWU, and Miami, as does USNWR, is a joke. </p>
<p>These UC schools are gaming the system with their “artificially” high top 10 percent of high school class numbers. For example, Davis reports 96 percent, whereas Harvard reports 95 percent, Stanford reports 91 percent, Vanderbilt 80. This is juxtaposed with the UC schools’ low SAT/ACT achievement. Davis: average SAT1160/ACT24; Irvine: SAT1120/ACT24; SB: SAT1185/ACT25. By any reasonable standard these numbers are atrocious for purported top 50 schools. Ridiculous.</p>