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Ya think??!!??</p>
<p>USNWR rankings, like all rankings, are not just a flawed process, but a flawed premise. Why? Because they are trying to provide a quantitative assessment to an inherently qualitative property. Think about the title itself, America’s Best Colleges. What does that even mean? Best how? For whom? Is Harvard really the best university for a student that loves big time college sports and warm weather, and maybe is a good but not great student? They wouldn’t probably even get in, so it certainly isn’t the best for them.</p>
<p>It would be equally flawed to say “Well then, whatever the highest ranked school they could get into would be best for them”. Really? Does anyone believe that?</p>
<p>Having said that, one can certainly go down the list of methods used by USNWR and tear apart each and every one without even complaining about the weighting factors used. In many cases there is no evidence of a correlation between the parameter “measured” and the quality of the academic experience of an undergrad. I put measured in quotes because as pointed out, some of the parameters such as peer assessment have been shown to be very dubious with regard to the reporting being done.</p>
<p>It’s not worth going on further because it really could be (should be) a book. Suffice it to say that USNWR has performed a grave injustice to the entire world of higher education by playing to people’s illogical (in this case) need for a sorted (and sordid) list.</p>