Essential Reading:
- Malcolm Gladwell: What College Rankings Really Tell Us.
- Further Reading: Caution and Controversy in using the rankings.
- How colleges game the rankings:
Who is number 1?
You are.
Yeah, you won. But what about colleges? Go ahead and type in who is the number 1 colleges in a search engine and you will discover many different rankings:
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The oldest and most widely used: USNEWS -
Many people like: Forbes
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Few people know about: Washington Monthly
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Ordus Lodus Quality of Life, academics, sports and costs
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For business speciality: Business Week
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For design speciality schools: Design intelligence
But before you invest in the rankings, focus on the methodology and the criticism:
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The Atlantic’s call to Ignore the Ranking
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Stanford’s famous letter to US News
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A decent analysis of USNEWS methodology, helping you better understand the factors they consider and why they may not matter so much to you.
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While not the title of the article, it should be: Discover how USNEWS Punishes colleges for not participating in the rankings.
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A stunning look at ranking changes in just a few years. Colleges are slow moving places.
International Examples
League Tables
The Guardian Complete listof Universities
The Complete University Guide Subject Tables
