In July 2022, we provided a deep dive into college rankings and the investigation into the accuracy of Columbia’s self-reported data for U.S. News and World Report (USNWR). We get many questions about how both USNWR and The Forbes rankings are calculated. Last year’s controversy over accusations from a Columbia professor led the university to initially withdraw from the rankings before being officially pulled by USNWR.
THE TABLES HAVE TURNED
It appears Columbia is now officially done with USNWR. Inside Higher Ed recently reported that Columbia has dropped out of the rankings altogether, joining Colorado College, the Rhode Island School of Design, and Stillman College, which have also withdrawn. Will the college rankings shake-up continue? We foresee other colleges likely following suit, considering how misleading the rankings can be (Remember last year, when Harvard dropped out of the Top 10 on the Forbes college rankings?) and the fact that mostly all college data can be found on each college’s respective annual Common Data Sets.
Columbia’s official announcement, makes their position clear:
“We remain concerned with the role that rankings have assumed in the undergraduate application process, both in the outsized influence they may play with prospective students, and in how they distill a university’s profile into a composite of data categories. Much is lost in this approach. The combined population of our three schools, along with the presence of students from affiliate institutions, in classrooms and across many aspects of student life, is intrinsic to the undergraduate experience at Columbia. We are convinced that synthesizing data into a single U.S. News submission for its Best Colleges rankings does not adequately account for all of the factors that make our undergraduate programs exceptional.”
Remember that college rankings are merely one metric by which to “measure” a college or university. At Top Tier Admissions, we look beyond this easily manipulated data to help students identify which factors matter most to them and prioritize personal “fit,” the most important metric of all.
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3 replies on “The End of College Rankings?”
So Columbia submitted false data to rise in the rankings and now when forced to show honest data, they say ‘we quit’? What a shocker. When someone refuses a lie detector test, watch out, folks. But nice head fake for 30 years, Columbia. You got a lot of mileage out of those lies, and in the end, it seemed worth it. Now that you have been caught, you say you are quitting out of ‘concern’. Concern for us or for you? Give us a break, Columbia. The truth is the #18 ranking is probably a generous one in light of you STILL refusing to show honest data. We never saw true data before and now Columbia promises we never EVER shall see it. The word ENRON comes to mind. Rely on public data for ALL schools, US News, because the biggest cheaters are not the Varsity Blues applicants, but the Universities themselves. The irony of life!
Why would a company, USNWR, put their cash cow, ‘americas best colleges’, in the trash just because schools refuse to submit data? They won’t. They will just give colleges a ranking anyway (most likely worse) based on public data. And this is not really news that Columbia is refusing to participate in the rankings- because when did they participate? Columbia only wanted to ‘participate’ when they cheated. Now they are talking gibberish about ethics when they have none. Let’s not forget that Columbia was the biggest cheater in the game so now they’re trying to confuse us by talking about their ‘values’, as if they ever had any. That’s rich and very dumb. Prediction: When the biggest cheater decides to play pied paper and begin a mutiny on the ship, it’s highly probable you won’t be welcome at the captain’s table for a very, very, very long time. Like forget about being ranked in the top 10 ever again. It makes its previous ranking look like a ‘make-a-wish’ type ranking. But wasn’t that all it ever was?
The rankings aren’t going anywhere, Everyone is going to get a rank like always. This is akin to telling your teacher you quit class- guess what, you get an F. And this was when Columbia was ranked #3 and applications flowed like wine:,”We love the rankings! Long live the rankings!”
This was Columbia ranked #18: “We hate the rankings, let’s quit!”
Columbia wants to quit because their #18 rank will be confirmed by their lousy stats they plagiarized forever and don’t want to reveal.