U.S. News to Collect More Data From Colleges

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Families should also take advantage of the new net price calculator tool, which all higher education institutions are federally-mandated to offer online. With accurate financial data entered by families, these calculators can estimate how much aid a student will receive from a school and what the real out-of-pocket cost will be.
Check out more about financial aid by reading what the VP of Financial Aid from Union College had to say about affording the right education.
http://www.unioncollegeguidance.com/

Anna of MA 6:22PM March 15, 2012

Take Malcolm Gladwell's suggestion and consider cost as one of the factors in the rankings. This will lead to colleges competing with one another to lower costs. My college spent so much money on unneeded luxuries like a blockbuster on campus to rent movies. Rewarding colleges for spending more money will only lead to more out of control spending by colleges. YOU, US News, need to give them the incentive to cut costs. Take tuition price into consideration for future rankings.

Lulu of IL 4:26PM March 09, 2012

Robert Morse:
I have a suggestion: stop putting so much emphasis on what college presidents think of other schools, when it's obvious they're gaming the system and/or purposely elevating their schools undeservedly. Also, college presidents and their secretaries have NO IDEA how good or bad other schools are. This is what makes your analysis so flawed and so skewed. Find something more objective and maybe some of us in the know will actually respect your rankings.

Michael C. of CA 7:26PM March 03, 2012

Excerpts from an essay by Lloyd Thacker in the March 2 2012 edition of "Inside Higher Ed":
Recent circumstances indicate that the U.S. News rankings enterprise is struggling, and it is increasingly relying on colleges to prop it up. The precipitous drop in reputational survey response among colleges has contributed to increasing skepticism about the rankings.
Troublingly, more than 70 percent of college admission representatives recently surveyed reported that their colleges use their U.S. News rank for marketing purposes despite an 80 percent agreement that rankings are misleading! Colleges that have instead decided to say no to U.S. News report that taking the educational high road is improving their educational stature: their stance on the rankings matters more than their standing in the rankings.
The high level of public cynicism about higher education can and should be addressed by college presidents acting together to move beyond the influence of commercial rankings. Here is an opportunity for college presidents to demonstrate the kind of leadership many colleges purport to instill in their students.
Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/03/02/essay-calls-presidents-take-stand-rankings#ixzz1o61nBZuO
Inside Higher Ed

Tom Benghauser of CO 5:43PM March 03, 2012

Robert Morse has stated elsewhere that "In a few cases, schools are unranked if too few respondents to the peer assessment survey gave them a rating."
Would he kindly tell us what that "too few respondents" threshold is?

Susan Chardon of CO 5:23PM March 03, 2012

How about collecting information on student attainment of learning objectives?

Eric Ditwiler of CA 1:21PM March 02, 2012

Bob: In your sincere efforts to legitimize your work and sustain what is likely the most profitable cost center for your publisher, how about removing the most specious criterion of all? College presidents are hardly in a position to make informed judgments about their peer institutions. This has led to 'campaigning' comparable to the film industry's promotion of Oscar nominations and diminishes both themselves and the entire educational enterprise.

Alan Haas of CT 5:59AM March 02, 2012