Anonymous wrote:Niche's website even admits that they can't vouch for the accuracy of the rankings:

"Niche takes steps to ensure data integrity, but rankings may be inaccurate if Niche is supplied with inaccurate data from schools, data sources such as the US Department of Education or spam and automated 'bot' reviews."

This sentence clearly served as a roadmap for the BIMBots both to prop the ratings and to fill these boards with absurdity.

Anonymous wrote:It seems like the Yelp of schools.

Exactly. There's really no difference in quality or credibility.

It seems like the Yelp of schools. You can pay to be "featured," you can delete bad reviews if you pay, etc. I don't pay any attention to it.

Niche is fake. Schools pay to be part of it and if they don't pay they put fake info on there. Go to the school you are looking at specifically to gain intel, not niche.

Anonymous wrote:Curious. I don't know enough to know what's wrong with it.

Rankings are out there and no one agrees with them. Clearly you can buy your way on the list. Half of their top 25 schools are large public schools.

I’ve never looked at their rankings, but have looked at the site. Some of the information (SAT scores, acceptance rates, tuition) is flat out wrong or really outdated. I do think the reviews are somewhat helpful, though. I take them with a grain of salt, because (like DCUM) you don’t know the reviewer’s motivations or experiences. But, there definitely are themes that give you some information about the school.

Niche's website even admits that they can't vouch for the accuracy of the rankings:

"Niche takes steps to ensure data integrity, but rankings may be inaccurate if Niche is supplied with inaccurate data from schools, data sources such as the US Department of Education or spam and automated 'bot' reviews."

*Yellow should be Bullis

TLDR Version: They totally make sh*t up based on a combination of perceived reality and payments from schools. No one from BASIS can honestly say that they don’t pay Niche (perhaps laundered as a fee for the “seal” to advertise that they are top-ranked, or whatever). Bottom line is that Niche is a pay-to-play entity that uses no legit methodology.

There is no objectivity in the rankings. They claim to take in a lot of data about different areas but I dont think that data exists for most schools. For example, religious schools like TA and Sidwell dont file so hard to know what salarys are. Only way a High School ranking would work is if they had and used data about test scores, college placements, average income of graduates 10 years on etc.

They also do NOT include standardized testing results in determining their ranking which is a complete fail and how lower tier schools like yellow magically rank higher than schools with competitive scores. It also gives higher marks to schools with more diversity. So a school like Holy Cross ranks above a school such as Visitation. It literally makes no sense.

They also solicit advertising from the school they are ranking. Objectively, their stats seem to contradict. The BIMbots like to tout the Niche ranking as it’s the only context in which they’d find themselves on the same list as the DC schools. But, if you look at the actual stats, it’s paints a rather stark picture:

54%
of students agree that they like their school and feel happy there
That number is 94% at Sidwell.

63%
of students and parents agree that the teachers genuinely care about the students.

That number at Sidwell is also 94%. At Maret, 92%.

These are certainly not stats that indicate excellence…except for the whole paying to advertise on the site part.

their ranking methodology is based on non-objective criteria. It’s weighted toward schools that encourage their parents to leave positive feedback on Niche, which most people (appropriately) don’t give a sh*t about.

They give annoying people on this board fuel.

Curious. I don't know enough to know what's wrong with it.