News magazine changes data, list methodology

Each year, U.S. News & World Report releases rankings of colleges and universities across the country.

These rankings are based on a ranking methodology, which takes into account many factors.

This year, the news magazine will collect and publish additional sets of data, though these new data won’t be included in the ranking methodology.

The three new data areas will look at graduation rates based on income and race, the affordability of colleges and information about the college’s connectivity, according to Robert Morse, the magazine’s director of data research.

This data will be included in the magazine’s 2013 annual college rankings report.

Victor Borden, an IU professor and senior advisor to the executive vice president for University Regional Affairs Planning and Policy, said rankings change slightly from year to year, as do the criteria. He said this is done for a few reasons.

“The first reason is to make them better, but the second is that if there is no movement in the rankings, then who cares?” Borden said.

“Changing creates readership. That’s certainly a benefit for them. The changes always make the list change slightly, which keeps people interested.”

As far as the true effectiveness of the rankings, Borden said he has mixed feelings.
“Now, whether they are important, that’s controversial,” he said. “You can’t ignore them. Do they reflect true quality? Only minimally, and only in certain ways. They certainly don’t tell you what your learning experience will be in any way, shape or form.”

The data to be included this year has been on people’s radars for a while, but in the case of the college affordability data set, there are now more stable measures to collect that information, Borden said.

The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 requires schools to provide the total cost of attending the institution, including living expenses.

“Because they mandated that all institutions report this data in a set way, it then created this reliable source of data,” he said.

For now, the new data collected won’t have an effect on where IU, or any school, falls in the primary rankings.

“Colleges and universities are very complex businesses, and the way they are organized from state to state is very different,” he said. “It’s kind of silly to think of such a large place in terms of an average or total.”


— Matthew Glowicki