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Claremont McKenna Misrepresents Test Score Data
Tweet Share on Facebook January 31, 2012 Comment (4)Claremont McKenna College announced yesterday that it had falsely inflated its SAT scores of incoming freshmen that it annually reported to U.S. News from 2005 through 2011. These scores are used in the annual Best Colleges rankings and have a weight of 7.5 percent. The school also misreported the same SAT data to the U.S. Department of Education; its regional accrediting body, Western Association of Schools and Colleges; and many other publishers, such as College Board and Peterson’s.
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Students: Rankings Aren't Main Reason in College Choice
Tweet Share on Facebook January 26, 2012 Comment (3)Once again, a large scale social research study has contradicted the belief by many in higher education that the U.S. News Best Colleges rankings are the primary factor in the average student's choice of college. That conclusion comes from UCLA's just-released "The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2011," a highly regarded annual survey. This year's data is based on the responses of 203,967 entering first-year students at 270 U.S. four-year colleges and universities.
The UCLA survey asks new students to rate which factors were "very important" in influencing their decision to attend a particular college. Incoming fall 2011 freshmen could choose as many of the 22 reasons listed as they wanted. For the second year in a row, the college rankings finished in 11th place. At least, based on this large nationwide sample of freshmen from all types of colleges, students are consulting the rankings, but not as the most powerful force in their college search process.
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Key Stats About Ranked Online Education Degree Programs
Tweet Share on Facebook January 19, 2012 Comment (5)Last week's blog post emphasized the paucity of online master's in business degree programs that reported tracking their students after graduation (25 percent). Not mentioned was that all other online graduate disciplines surveyed had rates equal or even lower, except for nursing at 56 percent. But even respondents to the nursing survey provided limited specifics on post-graduate outcomes.
[Learn more about the Top Online Programs rankings.]
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Examining Reactions to the Online Degree Rankings
Tweet Share on Facebook January 12, 2012 Comment (4)The most comprehensive and detailed listings of online education degree programs and rankings went live on January 10 on usnews.com. All the ranked bachelor's and master's online degree programs on usnews.com are regionally accredited and disclosed a significant amount of information about their offerings.
Consequently, any online degree program with a presence on U.S. News's revamped online education site has instantly distinguished itself from programs that are not truly online or do not have the most rigorous accreditation. Not surprisingly, since the release of the rankings, a flurry of schools rushed to publicize them, and some even expressed their approval via E-mails.
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U.S. News Online Degree Program Rankings Launch January 10
Tweet Share on Facebook January 3, 2012 Comment (6)U.S.News & World Report will launch its first-ever ranking of top online education degree programs. The rankings will be featured exclusively on usnews.com starting Jan. 10, 2012.
U.S. News has redesigned and expanded its online education section to not only develop top degree program ranking lists, but to also build online degree program profiles and advanced online program search functionality.
