USNews Peer Assessment

interesteddad
Sun, 21 Aug 2005 12:41:05 +0000

My ideal data-driven college guide system would have no overall rank whatsoever. Instead it would expand the good part of the USNEWS On-line edition approach – sortable columns for individual data points such as median SATs, graduation rate, etc.

I would signficantly add to the number of sortable columns to include relevant datapoints like:

Per student endowment

Number of undergrads

% of classes in each of the 7 sizes on the Common Data Set

% of white/US students

% of students in each non-white category

% Pell Grant

% qualifying for financial aid

% of grads getting PhDs

% of grads in law, biz, and MD prof schools

Binge drinking rates

% frats

% varsity athletes

% public versus private high school

Provide the data in as many areas as possible (inc. the name brand recognition survey currently known as Peer Assessment), let people see where colleges lie and how to prioritize the various datapoints.

All colleges will be high on some of the sortable lists, low on others. It forces the consumer to confront the real choice – what “style” of college am I looking for? These lists would cut through a LOT of the glossy viewbook BS and cut down on the extreme lack of self-selection that occurs when students pick their colleges from some arbitrary overall ranking.

For example, it is just ridiculous that nearly half of Harvard’s applications come from students with SATs below 1400 and that more than 85% of Harvard’s apps come from students who weren’t even ranked #1 in their high school class. This is de facto proof that large numbers students aren’t even bothering to research their college choices. The overall ranking systems a huge culprit in this.