Colleges and universities are always on the lookout for new ways to attract prospective students and incentivize them to commit to four years at their institution. Although the well-informed student looks at more than a college’s statistical rankings, they nonetheless remain an important part of the application process. For approximately forty years, the U.S. News College Rankings have provided students with easily accessible information about schools. Those listed higher are viewed as more prestigious and thus attract more applicants from the upper echelon of high school students. For this reason every top-tier institution hopes to rise in the rankings and be perceived as providing a better education and more resources. It is important to recognize that almost all highly-rated institutions are very similar in terms of services and education provided. Rankings often do a poor job of assessing a college’s program in a specific field of study or learning environment preferred by the student. For many applicants, a school ranked a few spots lower may provide a better college experience, depending on their interest areas. Unfortunately, the rankings, however non-precise and poorly done they may be, are highly coveted by students and schools alike. This creates an environment where institutions will do almost anything to rise just a few spots even if no significant change is actually made to the program or quality of student life.
One of the most meteoric rises in the U.S. News College Rankings has been that of Columbia University over the last thirty-five years. In 1988 they were listed as the eighteenth best school in America. After years of steady growth they eventually rose to being tied for second in the 2021 U.S. News edition. Although he is happy about Columbia’s increase in prestige, faculty math professor Michael Thaddeus discovered some suspicious information that led him to believe Columbia had been cheating the ranking site for years. He published his findings in February of this year in an eight section article, outlining various ways Columbia has reported misleading or false data to U.S. News.
Some of his specific points surrounded the reported graduation rate and funds reportedly spent for instructional purposes. According to Thaddeus, about twenty percent of the U.S. News rankings are based on the opinion of an institution by its peers, but eighty percent is derived from statistics submitted by the university. Some of the most heavily weighted attributes of a university are what are called “outcome measurements.” These are meant to show the relative success of graduates of various schools. This takes into account a variety of factors but an especially key one is graduation rate. Columbia University reported a graduation rate of ninety-six percent within six years of enrollment for the 2021 rankings. This figure is correct but only if not including those students who transferred to the university. In the fall of 2020, Columbia stated that thirty percent of its incoming students were transfers—a number much higher than that of its peer schools such as Harvard or Princeton. When including transfer students (who have a graduation rate of approximately eighty-five percent at Columbia), the touted ninety-six percent graduation rate is severely overblown.
A second discrepancy Thaddeus found in Columbia’s statistics was the amount of money they reportedly spent on instruction. For the year of 2019-20 Columbia reported instruction spending amounting to 3.1 billion dollars. This figure is somewhat unbelievable considering the fact that it is much higher than the numbers reported by Harvard, Princeton, or Yale, all of which have higher endowments and thus generally more funds. Thaddeus’s shocking discovery was that 1.2 out of that 3.1 billion was for patient care at the school hospital which can hardly be considered instructional funding. These discoveries along with several others, forced the university to admit to wrongdoing although they would not say that it was purposeful. Thaddeus himself did not initially think the errors were made with bad intent but the more he looked into it the more likely it seemed that these were purposeful attempts at cheating. As he said “I find it very difficult to believe the errors were honest and inadvertent at this point.”
As a result of Thaddeus’s paper, U.S. News dropped Columbia back down to eighteenth place for the 2022 rankings, a huge blow for a university working towards a prestigious image for decades. Unfortunately, Columbia isn’t the only university to cheat. Many schools use ambiguity and misleading information, which results in a rise in the rankings. Other notable examples include University of Oklahoma submitting misleading data for years, Claremont McKenna lying to Forbes rankings about key statistics, and Temple University for a variety of ranking-related misdeeds. The sad thing is that not all cheaters get caught and even when they are, punishment is often very light. In 2019 UC Berkeley admitted to misreporting data to U.S News since 2014 and the only punishment they received was a suspension from the list for one year.
Several steps need to be taken to ensure a fairer system for students who want an honest representation of a school’s capabilities. The first step should be for students to not put so much stock in rankings—any of the schools listed near the top of the list are institutions of great caliber. The exact position is not that important and the rankings are more of a guide than a strict hierarchy of schools. Additionally, more tangible legal punishments should be put in place for schools who report misleading data in a possible attempt to game the system and appear more favorable to applicants. There needs to be a consistent and codified system for punishing said infractions; otherwise there is no reason for colleges to not continue cheating. All in all, nothing written here is to say that Columbia or any other top-tier school participating in cheating the rankings is not an elite institution. The exact rank does not matter so much as the culture of the institution. The notion that sixteen places makes a substantial difference is misguided. Schools shouldn’t cheat and we shouldn’t let them, but Columbia is still a great place to learn and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. The key is for us to recognize the prowess of a college holistically rather than basing our judgments on a single number. Then, not only would we be better able to decide where to apply, but colleges would also have less reason to cheat because rising or falling a few places would not mean so much for their public image.