A number of challenges to rankings by USN&WR have been reported over many years. One of the problems with that ranking is they rely on self-reporting by universities.

The Temple article is one more proof that rankings by USN&WR cannot be trusted.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/201...okers.html
"Temple University blows the whistle on its own book-cookers"

22.5% of USN&WR rank is based on peer review. This allows non-objective data. That should be enough for anyone to disregard USN&WR. The fact that one non-AAU school claims peer relationships with 28 AAU schools should discredit the USN&WR ranking entirely.

Fans of many universities tout rankings by USN&WR as showing their schools have high standing. This is particularly true of private schools which limit public reporting. Many achieve high rankings by limiting education. No, you can't study that subject here. No, you can't be involved in research here. That is achieving high rankings by not providing education.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/ar...gs/279103/
Your Annual Reminder to Ignore the U.S. News & World Report College Rankings

By the way, Temple is handling this very well.

The rankings especially USNWR are tilted towards alumni giving which skews towards schools with wealthier attendees which continues the cycle. The actual percentage difference between #30 and #130 is statistically insignificant. Additionally, with 4,000 schools of higher education in the US, top 200 is top 5%. Using the rankings to select a college should only be a small part of the college selection process; however too many parents use it as a dick measuring contest. For myself Temple was a great fit and if I had to do over again wouldn’t change a thing.

This stuff has been around for years, and we're hardly alone: http://www.gainesville.com/article/LK/20...151713/GS/

(07-15-2018 12:08 PM)vick mike Wrote:  The rankings especially USNWR are tilted towards alumni giving which skews towards schools with wealthier attendees which continues the cycle. The actual percentage difference between #30 and #130 is statistically insignificant. Additionally, with 4,000 schools of higher education in the US, top 200 is top 5%. Using the rankings to select a college should only be a small part of the college selection process; however too many parents use it as a dick measuring contest. For myself Temple was a great fit and if I had to do over again wouldn’t change a thing.

Not to mention a large component of their rankings for a considerable amount of time was 4-year graduation rate, which skews heavily toward Liberal Arts institutions and damaged the reputation of those schools which have required work studies (hell, almost half of Cincinnati's student body has literally no chance of graduating in four years due to their mandatory co-ops).

Not everything in this world is conducive to rankings. Something like a university, which can only be "ranked" by a number of mostly subjective factors, is definitely one of them.

Just goes to show, you can't judge a college by how many stars are next to their name. You gotta go by the product on the field, baby!

(07-16-2018 03:42 PM)Hurricane Drummer Wrote:  Just goes to show, you can't judge a college by how many stars are next to their name. You gotta go by the product on the field, baby!

That being said, it's nice to have so many stars next to our name!