college/university rankings scandal: are the rankings legit?
A recent article in the New York Times highlighted a very important question: are the college rankings that we know and trust so much actually legit?
We all know that people (read: anyone who’s applied to and anyone who’s graduated from college) give a lot of credence to the rankings that are posted in major publicatioons – whether that’s college, graduate school, or even high schools. The most famous and trusted of these rankings is the US News & World Report rankings that come out once a year – but Fortune, Bloomberg, Forbes, and other periodicals have gained ground for the ranking they publish.
In fact, rankings are considered such an important indicator of a school’s “educational quality”, that have even grown to impact which students a school accepts. Especially when I began working at a very well-known MBA consultancy here in Manhattan, admissions consultants were trained to advise clients not to say they wanted to be entrepreneurs – simply because admissions committees would be less likely to admit students who would not be employed at graduation; thus depressing the school’s rankings (i.e. see the ranking section for “percentage of graduates employed at graduation”). The lesson for any applicant: schools are so vulnerable when it comes to rankings…and potential students need to factor this tendency into their decision-making process.
Rankings have grown to such an outsized importance in the minds of applicants, staff and administrators, that many in a position of power have stooped to manipulating and in some cases, outright fraudulent behavior to boost their school’s profile.
Case in point, former Temple Business School dean, Moshe Porat, received a 14-month jail sentence and $250,000 fine for using false data in order to increase the school’s standings in the rankings. (You can read the WSJ article here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/former-temple-business-school-dean-gets-prison-term-in-rankings-scandal-11647053211)
Can you imagine behavior less worthy of an institution meant to portray honor, integrity and leadership?
Furthermore, Professor Michael Thaddeus, a mathematics professor at Columbia University, recently presented a statistical analysis of the rankings that indicated that, in particular for his own institution, some manipulations have been conducted that catapulted the school to a much higher ranking than it, perhaps deserved. Particularly with regard to student-teacher ratios and other key statistics.
For example, according to an editorial written by Thaddeus himself (you can find it here: https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/22/opinions/columbia-ranking-inaccurate-data-thaddeus), the red flags started piling up when Thaddeus read that Columbia was claiming that 83% of its classes had 20 or fewer students…something that he hadn’t witnessed in real-life (since he was, you know, a *professor* at Columbia).
Well, things took on a new tack recently as Columbia finally *admitted* to manipulating figures in order to boost their US News and World report ranking. It turns out that not only does Columbia not have one of the smallest class sizes in the Ivy League, they have one of the worst! Also, while Columbia had claimed to having an overwhelming majority of full-time faculty, it turns out they’re about 50-50 full-time and part-time…this affects quality of education, as full-time faculty as more likely to be deeply immersed and knowledgeable (not to mention published) in their field. All things that students (and parents) consider when deciding whether to shell out major dollars (or take on debt) to invest in a college/university education at a particular school.
#awkward
Now the Ivy League school has fallen to #18 in US News’ ranking (which you can find here: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities)
And while Columbia is still an excellent school, this series of events brings a major take-away: if you’re considering colleges, universities, undergraduate or graduate programs, you cannot simply accept rankings at face value. You must visit, kick the tires, talk to current students and alumni if possible…do your research. Because now you know that you cant depend on the rankings people to do that work for you. It’s your money, time, life…so you have to do the work yourself.
#caveatemptor #bigtime
This issue is certainly still developing…I’ll keep you posted.