Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even respectable colleges have been caught misreporting data to USNEWS:

Claremont McKenna
Emory
GWU
Bucknell
Tulane
Wisconsin
Providence

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/five-colleges-misreported-data-to-us-news-raising-concerns-about-rankings-reputation/2013/02/06/cb437876-6b17-11e2-af53-7b2b2a7510a8_story.html

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-01/after-misreporting-data-u-dot-s-dot-news-lets-wisconsin-b-school-keep-its-ranking

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/07/providence-college-us-news-rankings-sat_n_4057294.html

Misreport, rise in the rankings, get an asterisk, and move on. Worked for these nothing burger schools.

Nothing burger?

If you think US News makes anything clearer, I guarantee you've never had to fill out their crazy report.

Yes, colleges misreport purposely. But it's also very, very easy to misreport because of their byzantine method of reporting and their completely unclear instructions.

Don't put so much faith into their rankings. The whole process is suspect.

Not only do colleges misreport, they play games with the numbers like admitting students for the January semester and sending them abroad for the first semester so they don't count against the numbers. Thanks US News for making everything clear.

Anonymous wrote:Even respectable colleges have been caught misreporting data to USNEWS:

Claremont McKenna
Emory
GWU
Bucknell
Tulane
Wisconsin
Providence

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/five-colleges-misreported-data-to-us-news-raising-concerns-about-rankings-reputation/2013/02/06/cb437876-6b17-11e2-af53-7b2b2a7510a8_story.html

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-01/after-misreporting-data-u-dot-s-dot-news-lets-wisconsin-b-school-keep-its-ranking

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/07/providence-college-us-news-rankings-sat_n_4057294.html

Misreport, rise in the rankings, get an asterisk, and move on. Worked for these nothing burger schools.

Yep, schools misreport data and take steps to improve the rankings because they just don't matter. Makes sense to me.

BTW one of the linked articles reports that a 1 slot change in rankings has about a 1% influence on number of applications.

Agree. I don't know who annointed US News as the national arbiter of educational quality, but their system is flawed and can't possibly account accurately for the diversity amongst the country's colleges and universities.

Yawn.

Even respectable colleges have been caught misreporting data to USNEWS:

Claremont McKenna
Emory
GWU
Bucknell
Tulane
Wisconsin
Providence

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/five-colleges-misreported-data-to-us-news-raising-concerns-about-rankings-reputation/2013/02/06/cb437876-6b17-11e2-af53-7b2b2a7510a8_story.html

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-01/after-misreporting-data-u-dot-s-dot-news-lets-wisconsin-b-school-keep-its-ranking

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/07/providence-college-us-news-rankings-sat_n_4057294.html

They all misrepresent their data, OP. It's part of the arms race, unless you want to drop down in the rankings. Until international university rankings gain more traction here, US News and their little fiefdom (with HYP obligatorily at the top, regardless of data) will continue to prosper.

The best thing to do is to ignore them.