US News Rankings

Colleges & Universities Smith College
26

<p>“Ok, but then WHAT caused Smith’s ranking to drop from 12-13 to 19”</p>

<p>What leads you to believe anything to do with Smith caused the drop? All US News has to do is change the weighting of a stat .1 % and the effect can be dramatic. SAT manipulation by other colleges, which are now ahead of Smith, doesn’t help either.</p>

<p>Midd moved up 6 spots in 24 months. Do you really believe a college changes that drastically in such a short time span?</p>

<p>You might find this interesting. Maybe Smith should meet with US News “folks” :)</p>

<p>"It is interesting that today’s Chicago Tribune had an article about U. Chicago’s six spot rise. Turns out the U was not calculating its submitted information in the most favorable way. The U met with the USNWR folks to discuss things, and it was the USNWR folks who suggested changes. </p>

<p>Quote:
“They concluded that we were misinterpreting some of their definitions,” Behnke said.</p>

<p>In calculating the number of classes with fewer than 20 students, for example, university officials did not count the freshmen writing courses that have an average of eight students.</p>

<p>By including the writing classes, the percentage of classes under 20 increased to about 67 percent, from 60 percent, Behnke said.</p>

<p>“That was a ‘duh’ moment. Why aren’t we including these all along?” Behnke said.</p>

<p>"Officials also found a way to improve the alumni giving rank—the percentage of alumni who donate to the university—by excluding graduates who couldn’t be located.</p>

<p>The university also improved its per-student spending calculation by relabeling $15 million in annual library expenditures that had been incorrectly filed under a category other than educational expenditures—information that also is submitted to the federal government. The additional per-student spending improved the university’s position in the “financial resources” category."
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=228072[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=228072&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;