A Columbia Professor Takes the University to Task Over Rankings

Columbia mentioned that 82.5 p.c of undergraduate lessons enrolled fewer than 20 college students, the next proportion than another faculty within the prime 100. He created a spreadsheet of lessons with beneath 20 college students, excluding some like lab and dialogue sections and noncredit programs, and located that the share of core programs — Columbia’s famed normal schooling programs — with fewer than 20 college students was 45 p.c. In engineering and pure sciences, under 50 p.c of lessons had fewer than 20 college students. “This makes it inconceivable for the general worth to get anyplace close to the determine of 82.5 p.c claimed by Columbia,” he mentioned.

Columbia was No. 18 in 1988. Dr. Thaddeus says that climbing to No. 2 was outstanding. Was it?

He speculated that Columbia might have benefited from the overall enchancment within the high quality of life in New York Metropolis since 1988, when the college ranked No. 18. However he concluded that indicators like declining crime would have solely an oblique impact on the educational high quality of an establishment, and in any case, should not the metrics utilized by U.S. Information.

His conclusion? “A number of of the important thing figures supporting Columbia’s excessive rating are inaccurate, doubtful or extremely deceptive.”

Columbia felt he had oversimplified its rise within the rankings. The march to No. 2 from No. 18 was not a gradual and regular one over 34 years, they mentioned. Columbia jumped 10 locations in only one yr, to No. 8 in 1989 from No. 18 the yr earlier than. This was as a result of U.S. Information modified its standards, Columbia officers mentioned.

Extra just lately, earlier than it attained the No. 2 spot in a tie with Harvard and M.I.T., it had been bouncing across the prime 5 locations for a decade, usually tied with different faculties.

How vital are these rankings, anyway? What sort of a distinction does it make if a college is, say, No. 10 versus No. 2?

I don’t assume it makes a lot distinction to a college’s potential to draw analysis grants, for instance, however it most likely makes a distinction in its potential to draw bold college students and cost excessive tuition. We stay in a society the place standing is paramount, and plenty of college students imagine, maybe rightly, that attending probably the most prestigious college they will get into will assist them land the most effective job they will get.