What's holding Tulane back in the rankings?

[fallenchemist]

@northwesty

Would it be fair to say that the graduation rate is even more than the 18% you indicated? According to the USNWR metrics page http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2014/09/08/how-us-news-calculated-the-2015-best-colleges-rankings?page=4

Graduation rate performance (7.5 percent): For the second year in a row, the graduation rate performance indicator has been used in all of the Best Colleges ranking categories. This indicator of added value shows the effect of the college’s programs and policies on the graduation rate of students after controlling for spending and student characteristics, such as test scores and the proportion receiving Pell Grants. We measure the difference between a school’s six-year graduation rate for the class that entered in 2007 and the rate we predicted for the class.

If the school’s actual graduation rate for the 2007 entering class is higher than the rate U.S. News predicted for that same class, then the college is enhancing achievement, or overperforming. If a school’s actual graduation rate is lower than the U.S. News prediction, then it is underperforming.

I find this to be the most laughable of all the things that USNWR does, because it takes an arbitrary formula completely invented by USNWR and uses it to say that a school should be graduating students at a certain rate. What’s the formula? How are they so omniscient? The arrogance is overwhelming. But as it pertains to this useless annual exercise, Tulane is being punished yet again for the Katrina related shortfall in graduation rate. Presumably this will be less of an issue this year since they will be looking at the 2008 cohort, which improved to 83% as I mentioned. Still, this looks to me like another “magic ingredient” USNWR uses to cook the rankings to meet their preconceived notions of what they should look like. It certainly is hard to understand and entirely invented.