As an increasing number of colleges and analysts question the value of the annual U.S. News & World Report college rankings, an alternative system is in the works and has drawn donations and support from the University and peer schools.
The project, spearheaded by the nonprofit group the Education Conservancy, aims to create a more student-friendly and less commercialized ranking system, "one that puts the educational needs of students center stage and restores educational integrity to college admissions," according to a statement on the group's website. Princeton and Yale have each given $30,000 to the project, according to the Harvard Crimson, and Harvard is considering donating as well.
Other colleges that have donated to the development of the system — estimated to cost $400,000 — include MIT and Dartmouth. The Education Conservancy hopes to have a prototype of the ranking system's website launched by January 2009.
Despite the University's public support for the alternative system, the U.S. News rankings that the new system will compete against have consistently boosted Princeton's public image and contributed to its prestige. Since 2000, the magazine has ranked the University as the top college in the country, and the University has repeatedly publicized these results. Last year, for example, the University's website featured an announcement touting the newest rankings.
Nonetheless, administrators have repeatedly stressed the limitations of the rankings and said the University does not consider its U.S. News status to be of significant importance. In 2004, Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel told The Daily Princetonian that she had "always believed that the U.S. News rankings are of very limited value."
More recently, Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye dismissed concerns that the University's decision to drop Early Decision would decrease its yield and hurt its U.S. News ranking. "There isn't a school in a stronger position than Princeton to be able to stand up and say [that] we are not going to judge ourselves on this artificial standard by which the outside world judges us," she said last month.
The tension between the University's eagerness to publicize its top ranking and its declaration that the rankings don't matter comes amid the movement of several think tanks and schools toward promoting alternatives to a system they consider to be flawed. Critics have cited U.S. News' focus on financial resources, selectivity and yield as reasons why the rankings may not provide an accurate picture of a college's quality.
The Education Conservancy is one among many groups that have criticized the U.S. News ranking system. The organization characterizes itself as seeking to reduce the commercial influences on the college application process, stating on its website that its goals are to "reestablish educational authority, equity and access as college admission precepts" and "[calm] the frenzy and hype that plague contemporary college admissions."
Earlier this year, the Annapolis Group, a partnership of 80 liberal arts schools in the United States, met to discuss the rankings. The meeting resulted in half of the participating colleges choosing to stop providing data to U.S. News, joining other colleges that had previously decided to boycott the rankings.
The Education Conservancy's effort to develop an alternative ranking system is not the first time the group has taken aim at the U.S. News rankings. Previously, it wrote a letter called "Beyond Ranking," which criticized the magazine's ranking criteria and was signed by 65 colleges. Schools that signed the letter agreed to cease providing statistics to U.S. News and to stop using the ranking information for promotional purposes.
In the face of such criticism, U.S. News has defended its methodology and the value of its rankings for students in the process of choosing which college to attend. "The reputation survey is very standard," the magazine's chief editor, Brian Kelly, told CNN in June. "While I recognize that the results are subjective, it is a way for students to get intangibles about colleges."
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