N.Y. school sparks debate on accuracy of U.S. News's annual college rankings

By: Aleksey Shats

Posted: 4/11/07

When choosing which college to attend, high-school students often consider the school's competitiveness and rank. But recent criticism of U.S. News & World Report's college ranking system by Sarah Lawrence College President Michele Myers may give students a different perspective about the rankings.

"U.S. News benefits from our appetite for shortcuts, sound bites and top 10 lists," Myers said in a column published in The Washington Post. "The magazine has parlayed the appearance of unbiased measurements into a profitable bottom line."

After Sarah Lawrence decided to stop using students' SAT scores to evaluate their candidacy, it couldn't provide the SAT data of its applicants, which U.S. News required, said Judith Schwartzstein, director of media and community relations at Sarah Lawrence.

"What they have said is that when there is data missing, whether it is SAT scores or other data, they take the calculated value and deduct on standard deviation from the average score," she said. "In another sense, what President Myers was saying is that they are making up scores for data that is missing."

Syracuse University also believes the U.S. News rankings do not provide a solid guide for students in the college decision process, said Kevin Morrow, director of SU News Services.

"U.S. News rankings are not a perfect science that's involved in collecting information, and they are highly subjective," Morrow said. "We recognize that the U.S. News rankings are not perfect, and U.S. News themselves say that they should not be the only source for students."

Just like other schools' criticism of U.S. News, SU believes some of the important factors that U.S. News doesn't consider in its school evaluations include schools' social environments, academic environments and availability of financial aid, Morrow said.

"In Syracuse," he said, "we have a strong financial aid system and our student affairs provide for any special needs for students."

Sarah Lawrence is not the only school that has expressed discontent of the current U.S. News college ranking system. Completely independent from Myers' recent disapproval of the rankings, a dozen other presidents from private colleges have been putting together a statement that they are planning to send to the more than 500 colleges that participate in the rankings system, Schwartzstein said

The letter will encourage colleges to stop supplying the magazine with data, Schwartzstein said. The colleges hope others will join them in a mission to reform the ranking system.

"A few colleges explore this option each year, but most don't follow through because, like unilateral disarmament, unilateral withdrawal from the U.S. News ranking system is dangerous," said Myers, in her column. She listed Reed College as one of the few exceptions.

When Reed College stopped supplying the magazine with data in 1995, it was punished by a drastic drop in the school's ranking. This punishment resulted in a lower number of qualified applicants every year, according to the school's Web site.

While Reed College still participates in college guides that don't decide on how schools rank in relation to each other, it still refuses to send any data to U.S. News.

Just like the dozen colleges that are planning to petition for schools to conceal their data from U.S. News, administrators at Reed College believe there are many other measurements that make it fit for particular types of candidates, according to the school's Web site.

Sarah Lawrence fears that the same situation may result in a drop in its ranking, causing applicants to deem them as a less competitive school than it is, Schwartzstein said.

According to Schwartzstein, if U.S. News will use an estimate in place of the missing SAT data for next year's rankings, the school's rank will drop and potential applicants may get the wrong impression that Sarah Lawrence is less competitive than it really is.

"We're not saying that we have the solution to the problem," Schwartzstein said. "What President Myers was saying is that we don't think it's a sound methodology, and they shouldn't use this against our school. They shouldn't make up data in order to punish our school's reputation,"

Robert Morse, director data research for U.S. News, however, stated the magazine will not necessarily estimate the average SAT score of the school's applicants.

"We didn't say definitely that we're going to estimate their SAT data," he said. "We're studying different ways in dealing with their unique situation."

But just because U.S. News is exploring other ways to deal with the missing SAT data doesn't necessarily mean it is not going to produce an estimated figure next time the rankings are done.

"We think SAT data provides a sound, quantitative way in judging criterions," Morse said.

"They themselves have chosen not to be quantitative and analysis can be made by estimating values," said Morse, of Sarah Lawrence administrators. "It's standard practice to make estimates."

"Ten college presidents are a small number," he said, "that's less than 1 percent of all the schools we rank. That's not going to make us change the way we rank - these people probably weren't in favor of the rankings before anyway."

It's undetermined whether the controversy surrounding the U.S. News rankings will influence students' reliance on them.

Sophomore Lee Meltzer said he made his decision because of Syracuse's rank.

"I looked mostly at U.S. News Magazine's 2005 College Rankings when deciding which college to go to," said Meltzer, a sophomore public relations major. "It was important to go to a college with a good rank for me."

Jennifer Tamblin, sophomore architecture major, based her decision to come to SU on talking to people familiar with the school and reading college guides, such as U.S. News. In the magazine, she read that Syracuse's architecture school was one of the top programs in the nation, which influenced her decision.

Even with the flaws that are prevalent in the U.S. News ranking system, SU supports any kind of system that would help students make an informed decision, SU's Morrow said.

"What U.S. News can provide is some basic info to get people started," Morrow said. "But you need to make families do campus visits and find people who will tell about the programs."