Anonymous wrote:Colleges like UC Berkeley, Emory, and others actually got caught 'gaminig/cheating' rankings, but never heard of Northeastern.
Looks like the penelty is pretty big if you get caught.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherrim/2019/07/26/uc-berkeley-removed-from-us-news-college-rankings-for-misreporting-statistics/?sh=4dea36b17578

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2012/08/emory-intentionally.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/poetsandquants/2021/04/17/a-warning-shot-for-deans-who-game-college-rankings/?sh=256e580926c5

Fascinating...THIS is actually deceptive stuff. To my knowledge, nobody has accused Northeastern of doing anything deceptive...in fact, the criticism has always been how openly they made decisions based on the USNews ranking factors. (e.g., okay, U.S. News cares about % of classes under 20 students....let's push most of our classes to be just under 20 students.)

To be clear, I don't think that's a great way to make decisions, but it's not criminal. It is really interesting that nobody talks about these cases re: Berkeley/Emory...

Colleges like UC Berkeley, Emory, and others actually got caught 'gaminig/cheating' rankings, but never heard of Northeastern.
Looks like the penelty is pretty big if you get caught.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherrim/2019/07/26/uc-berkeley-removed-from-us-news-college-rankings-for-misreporting-statistics/?sh=4dea36b17578

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2012/08/emory-intentionally.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/poetsandquants/2021/04/17/a-warning-shot-for-deans-who-game-college-rankings/?sh=256e580926c5

Anonymous wrote:NP. It’s hard not to be a bit creeped out by NE’s naked gaming of the rankings system. And my senior and friends at her big 3 are well aware of that. That being said, they don’t think it’s a joke at all.

All of DC is creeped out by the fact that you refer to your kid's school as one of the "big 3".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How did they game the rankings?

Google. It is no secret. Other schools have been guilty of doing so in the past, but it was not made as public.

There's an article out there (probably 8-10 years old) about how a (then) new president of NU made deliberate decisions based on USNews ranking model...things like class size, acceptance rates, etc. And, it worked...NU climbed the rankings very quickly, which has a positive feedback effect...the higher you are ranked, the more people apply, etc.

So, people latch on to this very old article as evidence that the school is a "joke" blah blah blah....but the fact is that USNews doesn't use many of those metrics anymore (or barely uses them) so the fact that NU continues to climb must be based on something else....but, to the PP's point, almost all colleges are, to some extent, guilty of trying to gin up applications/increase yield/etc because of the USNews rankings...because too many people (like the ones on this listserve) care too much about the rankings. Until the fever breaks, it's going to continue to happen.

Anonymous wrote:How did they game the rankings?

Google. It is no secret. Other schools have been guilty of doing so in the past, but it was not made as public.

How did they game the rankings?

I don't understand posters like PP who come on to a thread to try to tear down OP's choices. I have seen it in the travel section, too. Such a petulant child! I truly feel bad for your kids.

Anonymous wrote:NP. It’s hard not to be a bit creeped out by NE’s naked gaming of the rankings system. And my senior and friends at her big 3 are well aware of that. That being said, they don’t think it’s a joke at all.

+1. NEU is widely known among DC and friends as the school that gamed/games the rankings. I don't think that reputation's going anywhere anytime soon.

NP. It’s hard not to be a bit creeped out by NE’s naked gaming of the rankings system. And my senior and friends at her big 3 are well aware of that. That being said, they don’t think it’s a joke at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of boosters in denial in this thread... huh. Who knew NEU had such a dedicated fan club?

Pur your energy into finding a right school for your kid.

+1

No kidding. Such a deranged parent! I feel sorry for their kid, how sad to be subject to that!

+1


I'm just a casual observer here--my kid didn't end up applying b/c he decided the co-op model wasn't for him...but the kids from his high school who have gone there (and who applied this year) are very bright/motivated students who have plenty of options but just really like the whole NU package (co-op/location/vibe)...so like others have said, it may not be for everyone but clearly there's something quite compelling for a lot of kids.

Yet, every single time Northeastern comes up, this person tears it down (and pretends to not have any invested interest in doing so). Every. Single. Time. It is bizarre.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of boosters in denial in this thread... huh. Who knew NEU had such a dedicated fan club?

Pur your energy into finding a right school for your kid.

+1

No kidding. Such a deranged parent! I feel sorry for their kid, how sad to be subject to that!

Anonymous wrote:A lot of boosters in denial in this thread... huh. Who knew NEU had such a dedicated fan club?

Pur your energy into finding a right school for your kid.

A lot of boosters in denial in this thread... huh. Who knew NEU had such a dedicated fan club?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NEU is widely seen as sort of a joke school at my kid’s school. The whole yield protection thing, gaming the rankings thing.

Yea like the kids would have insights to the stuff like gaming the rankings LOL
Plese put some efforts in your trolling.

Kids ABSOLUTELY talk about stuff like this. You clearly have no idea what kids are talking about!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NEU is widely seen as sort of a joke school at my kid’s school. The whole yield protection thing, gaming the rankings thing.

Yea like the kids would have insights to the stuff like gaming the rankings LOL
Plese put some efforts in your trolling.

+1

+1
This is the same person that also talks about how in their circle "parents look down upon NE"....either it's complete BS (my guess) or their "circle" is full of asses.

Looking at the comment like 'The whole yield protection thing', most likely NEU was a top choice, but got rejected, and bitter.