Colleges >> Browse Articles >> Inside Dean Flagel's Office
Exposing the Hypocrisy of the College Rankings System
Exposing the hypocrisy of the college rankings system will help you make a better college choice.
Featured Author:
Andrew Flagel, PhD
Andrew Flagel is the Dean of Admissions and Associate Vice President for Enrollment Development for George Mason University, where he also teaches in the Department of Communication.
Dean Flagel has an undergraduate degree in Philosophy and Psychology and a Master of Arts in Education from GW, and his Ph.D. in Education from Michigan State University. He has been a featured guest on C-Span’s Washington Journal, and his quotes have appeared in recent educational stories in Newsweek, US News and World Report, The Washington Post, and even Teen Vogue.
By Andrew Flagel, George Mason University
In the world of admissions officers, August is an incredibly stressful time. The source of this anxiety isn’t the students moving in, the recruitment travel restarting, or the summer ending—it’s THE RANKINGS.
Most of my colleagues describe their feelings towards THE RANKINGS as ambivalent. “Ambivalent” means they hate them, they really hate them. Unless their college or university is blessed by THE RANKINGS—then they still hate them, even as they brag about them.
Shameless (clearly hypocritical!) plug: Mason again ranked in the top “Schools to Watch” in U.S. News and World Report. Last year we were number one in this category, also called, “Up and Coming National Universities." This year we are number two. My boss remarked that this makes us the, “Up and Second-Coming” institution, but as a public institution we have to steer clear of such religious overtones.
This passionate distaste for THE RANKINGS, in between bragging opportunities, always seems bizarre to me since students, parents and most of society find them at least moderately useful, as judged by massive internet traffic and magazine sales. On the other hand, I think it’s really important to put THE RANKINGS into some reasonable context.
With all due respect to Bob Morse, my longtime acquaintance that runs the U.S. News rankings, the rankings are, for the most part, hooey. That’s a technical term meaning, “a lot of statistical data that doesn’t actually mean a thing if you’re trying to determine the quality of a school.”
U.S. News, of course, starts with a massive survey of experts on college and university quality with no vested in interested in manipulating the survey results, and by that, of course, I mean exactly the opposite. In reality, university presidents, provosts, and admissions deans (that’s who fills out the survey) don’t have all that much time to brush up on everything going on at the several hundred other colleges and universities in the survey, and, as has been reported in recent articles, they have pretty strong motivations to adjust their responses to favor their own institutions. Fortunately, I genuinely feel that Mason is the best university – ever – so I have no ethical risk in how I respond…which should give you some idea of how these things work.
Find out what other FastWeb users are saying about THE RANKINGS.
DeanFlagel
about 1 month ago
You all bring up some great points. I will say that Bob Morse (the guru behind the US News rankings) does a GREAT job explaining his ranking systems in detail (he also has a terrific blog). I agree that the rankings can be of some use, but need to be used in a reasonable context. I don't agree that money makes sense as a measure - schools have and spend money for all kinds of reasons - many tied in no way to the success or satisfaction of students. If the study was on HOW schools spent money, I could see that making a bit more sense.
JosephK380
2 months ago
I think people should be told the bases of rankings each time it is conducted, for example interms of sports,academics,finance etc
JulioD21
2 months ago
You can't rank a school thats absurd. A good college and so-forth depends on the eye of the beholder. It accommodates to your specific needs, financially, socially, and educationally. The school of my dreams doesn't need a rank to tell me it's good.
ChengHanL2
2 months ago
I think it's all right to use how much a school earns and spends as an indicator of quality of the school. Just need to find a balance. A school that turns out successful students should logically receive much donations in return (like Harvard). If schools have noteworthy projects/research that deserve government or private funding, that also speak to the prowess of that school. If a school spends much money, it's more likely that they're spending money to improve their quality of education (infrastructure, new curriculum, facilities, faculty, etc.) Better faculty usually go to places that pay well too. Well, I think they should try to weigh more heavily how much research is produced from each school into the academia as indicator of the school's quality. I mean Berkeley is ranked really high (like 3rd or 4th) in foreign ranking agencies, but US News don't. It's a wonder when Berkeley is ranked around 3rd almost all across the board in sciences (esp engineering).
GaniyuA4
2 months ago
In my opinion, these college rankings rank the academic aspect of colleges/universities pretty accurately. However, a college-bound individual needs to understand that the "best" school isn't necessarily the best for him or her. For example, I myself will prefer a well-rounded school that is known for academics, sports, research, etc; some of the schools that top these lists do not meet my criteria.
OlivierF
2 months ago
And we all know that this ranking practically only ranks on the basis of academics at that school.
If you're looking for a great sports school, don't look at US Rank. Duh
OlivierF
2 months ago
Actually i really dissagree with this article. Even though the rankings ARE biased (and i admit and understand it completely) they do have some value.
As a high school senior, i have looked at the past three US news rankings and as a great student, i found that they were actually really usefull. Even though "ranking a school" in itself is impossible because you have to encompass so many different factors, it is useful to see how high the schools ranks.
For example, going to a top 20 school obviously is harder than getting into a 20-40 school, and also offers a lot of employment opportunities. Many of the college interns at Microsoft for example come from those schools (Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Columbia, Tufts etc...) They DO have a certain value.
AkeemT5
2 months ago
There is more to the rankings than meets the eye. They're very useful if one knows how to use them. They cannot be looked upon by a group, but only by an individual.