It never ceases to amaze me that the third horse afterthought in a two magazine race when magazines mattered (TIME, Newsweek and oh yeah, US News) somehow became the most influential arbiter of college selection among students, parents and the university academicians who sell sheepskin for a living (and BTW, US News does the same for hospitals and health care facilities as well.)
No one really knows why this happened but in this climate where algorithms rule the earth and dark web metrics mete out advantage and social currency in the inscrutable language of ones and zeros, US News seems to have the "best and the brightest" waiting with baited breath to see if their very expensive mortar boards mean anything beyond the rankings - especially since the US News methodology is anything but open kimono.
For elite institutions such as the community college in my neck of the woods, Princeton University, there's really nothing to worry about as their perennial top three finish helps drive even more futile applications and makes their acceptance rate even more exclusive and expensive. For second-tier colleges a decent ranking can literally help keep the doors open as college eligible demographics continue to dwindle.
Basically, for all of their complaining, the schools are highly complicit in this process, supplying US News with tranches of data but never knowing exactly how it's tumbled and what weight is given to subjective factors like reputation and faculty quality. Maybe, these cloud minders in academia are not nearly as smart as we give them credit.
A few schools have now begun to push back against this lack of transparency but maybe they bristle at these statistical interlopers simply because they no longer control the narrative and good, bad or ugly, these rankings give students and their soon to be bankrupt parents a readily accessible "objective" resource to help narrow their choices.
I have been on enough college visits over the years to realize that most talking points out of the admissions office are virtually identical pablum making the presence of US News essential reading. God forbid your precious progeny risks a life of destitution and poverty by becoming a plumber. My plumber happens to drive a Range Rover... go figure.
Like I said, this is quite an achievement for a magazine that was always an also-ran among newsweeklies. They carved out a niche where they can thrive. Good for them. Whatever their shortcomings, I give "US Schools" a five star PhD for their sheer audacity. read more