USNews Peer Assessment

xiggi
Sun, 21 Aug 2005 20:48:42 +0000

Inasmuch as I do not like the “rankings”, I need to recognize that the US News provides a wealth of information. The online reports are a bargain at $14.95. The searchable columns that I-Dad would like to see expanded are indeed remarkable and effective tools. I’d also like to mention that some of the information discussed by I-Dad is actually available to students who spend the time to select schools and arrange the date with the comparative tools. In therory someone could run the selection (limited to 6) and have a superb comparison spreadsheet.

In fact, I probably should stop decrying the US News reports. The success of the magazine at selling millions of the printed version is what finances the tremendous tools offered online. I wonder what the ratio of online members to print purchasers is, but I’d think it may be in the HYPS admit rate. So, in the end, they have a product that sells because of a small dose of sensationalism and caters to America’s passion with rankings. US News rankings may not be much better than the People Most Sexy Human, but the fortunate result is that we have gained access to information that would not be as easily available without the rankings. In this regard, I believe that schools that insist in limiting the access to their admission data will earn scorn and a healthy dose of scrutiny.

In fact, US News SHOULD add a category ranking the transparency of the schools.