By Jason Stoffer
Daily Staff Reporter
U.S. News & World Report will change its ranking processes for its 1997 college rankings issue in order to lessen discrepancies between different categories.
Unlike previous years, U.S. News will no longer rank universities by statistically minor differences in average Scholastic Aptitude Test scores, alumni donations and several other categories.
Bob Morris, U.S. News director of research for the "America's Best Colleges" issue, said the 1997 rankings will round colleges' total scores to the nearest whole point.
Last year, Yale, Harvard and Princeton Universities were separated by just decimal points, yet were ranked first, second and third, respectively. Under the new system, they would have shared the coveted No. 1 ranking.
Morris said the new ranking method clarifies the decision-making process for prospective college students and their parents.
"We didn't want to exaggerate the differences in schools," Morris said. "Doing ratings at 10th place creates more differences than there are in the real world."
Associate Vice President for University Relations Lisa Baker said that while there is a place for rankings, they are "superficial (and have) absolutely no impact on academic programs and how the University does things."
Baker said the adjusted rankings still will not adequately reflect the University's academic quality or that of other public institutions.
"The rankings display an inherent bias against public universities because by definition they don't have the privates' resources," Baker said. "There have been some minor changes but (U.S. News) hasn't done anything to correct these fundamental flaws."
A significant problem arises when a well-respected public school like University of California-Berkeley does not place in the top 25, Baker said.
Simone Himbeault Taylor, director of the Career Planning and Placement at the University of Michigan, said that while the magazine's rankings are high profile, their importance is overemphasized.
"I'm not concerned about what (U.S. News) is going to do about ranking because much of the information is subjective and is not always fully comparable from one school to another," Taylor said.
Employers' hiring decisions are not based on rankings, Taylor said. Instead, employers refer to an institution's reputation and tradition, along with the success of previous graduates. University graduates are well prepared to enter the workplace, Taylor said.
"Communication, qualitative, analytical, leadership and multicultural skills give University students a competitive edge in the job market," Taylor said.
Michigan Student Assembly President Michael Nagrant said that "although they are probably not the most objective," the rankings are important.
"The rankings are sort of a bellwether by which parents and potential students measure excellence of schools," Nagrant said. "The rankings are skewed toward private universities and it is important to reform the system."
Last year, MSA coordinated with student governments at Stanford University, University of California-Berkeley and other universities in an effort to persuade administrators to protest the magazine's classifications by not submitting statistics to U.S. News.
The 1997 rankings are scheduled to be released by the end of August.
09-03-97
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