Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Houston is a R1 University spending $240M annually in research. Assuming the R1 status is now more weighted in the rankings?Also University of Houston is at #133 that should tell you all you need to know about the rankings.
Seems like a major factor. I personally think that the volume of research is not as important as the quality of the research. A lot of these Universities are putting out large swathes of documentation that no one in the private industry reads and is of mediocre quality.Houston is a R1 University spending $240M annually in research. Assuming the R1 status is now more weighted in the rankings?
"But more than a dozen public universities, many of them with relatively low profiles, climbed at least 50 spots in the rankings. Fresno State moved up 64 places, to No. 185, for instance, and Florida Atlantic ascended 53, to No. 209. Many other public institutions recorded smaller, if notable, gains, like Rutgers, which saw each of its three campuses rise by at least 15 places.Now below both OU and OSU. Woof. Lots to criticize in the ranking criteria. Doesn’t change the fact that people still look at these rankings.
Thoughts ?
It's very troublesome to those of us who think seriously about the validity of measurement.One problem is that there are lots of different kind of colleges that serve lots of different kinds of students with vastly different goals. The single rating is like trying to come up with a scale to say which is best, Tony's Tire Emporium, The Happy Bean Cafe or Gentle Finger Proctology, PC. How can you compare those things? It's a fool's errand, but a fool's errand that generates a ton of $$ so USNWR keeps up the fiction.
It's gotta kind of make your head want to explodeIt's very troublesome to those of us who think seriously about the validity of measurement.
I need to type a long response about heterogeneous composites.It's gotta kind of make your head want to explode
I think I speak for all of us on the board when I say that we would very much enjoy reading that piece and that we look forward to it soon.I need to type a long response about heterogeneous composites.
It's pretty simple. "Overall" evaluations of things that don't relate statistically to one another in the same direction are very tricky to interpret. Those kinds of measures are not completely useless, but handle with care.I think I speak for all of us on the board when I say that we would very much enjoy reading that piece and that we look forward to it soon.
Thanks. I’ll check it out.Malcolm Gladwell, love him or hate him, has a very interesting take on the U.S. News & World Report rankings. He covers it pretty extensively in one of his books, and also in several podcasts. Revisionist History Podcast
In short it's a near complete farce and if your dumb enough to pick a college, or be strongly swayed, by these rankings you don't belong at Tulsa, Tulane, or large number of schools that the formula is tilted against.
This is very similar to what the left did with “ESG” stuff to dictate corporate behavior. A small group of people makes the yardstick that everyone else is judged by. Control the yardstick and you (indirectly) control behavior by controlling the incentive structure."But more than a dozen public universities, many of them with relatively low profiles, climbed at least 50 spots in the rankings. Fresno State moved up 64 places, to No. 185, for instance, and Florida Atlantic ascended 53, to No. 209. Many other public institutions recorded smaller, if notable, gains, like Rutgers, which saw each of its three campuses rise by at least 15 places.
They benefited from an algorithm that sent some private universities’ rankings plummeting but represented an effort to account for deals that higher education leaders routinely talk up, like transforming the lives of economically disadvantaged students."
"The company discarded five factors that often favored wealthy colleges and together made up 18 percent of a school’s score, including undergraduate class sizes, alumni giving rates and high school class standing."
With a New Formula, U.S. News Rankings Boost Some State Universities
There is no metric like this for companies so that point is just nonsense.This is very similar to what the left did with “ESG” stuff to dictate corporate behavior. A small group of people makes the yardstick that everyone else is judged by. Control the yardstick and you (indirectly) control behavior by controlling the incentive structure.
The end result is something I like to call “woke seppuku”, where an institution commits credibility suicide for the sake of complying with whatever the woke diktats of the moment are.
Kind of like ranking "best restaurants" on quality of food plus low cost, which are likely negatively correlated. What does that ranking represent?There is no metric like this for companies so that point is just nonsense.
Schools do have multiple legitimate goals and all the USNWR changes seem to reflect reasonable things. Educating low income people so they aren't low income anymore is valuable for everyone - they move off state support, pay more taxes and become valuable cogs in the capitalist machine that generates wealth for society as a whole, and what's more American than lifting yourself up with your own bootstraps through education? Or is lifting yourself up with hard work too woke these days? Back in the olden days we would also have said that helping others help themselves is the good Christian thing to do but I know we don't believe in that stuff anymore.
The problem isn't that these factors are being measured, they're all valuable, it's as the good Dr said, that they are being mashed into one score that then doesn't really tell you anything about anything.
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/...kings-explainer-what-changed-in-2024/3228595/
Spoken like a man who really does not get to Taco Mayo often enough.Kind of like ranking "best restaurants" on quality of food plus low cost, which are likely negatively correlated. What does that ranking represent?
This is consistent with my point.Spoken like a man who really does not get to Taco Mayo often enough.
I'd say it's more like "which is the best restaurant, a fine French restaurant, Taco Mayo or an ice cream shop?" How can you answer that? Do I have 3 hours and $500 or 20 minutes and $6? Is it me and my wife or do I have a van of 10 year old soccer players? Am I looking for a meal or something cold and sweet at the end of the day?
This goes back to Clayton Christenson's job to be done theory. Is a product good or bad? Well, it depends on the job that customer plans to do with the product, there is no good or bad without knowing the job to be done. Universities have lots of jobs to do and they can't always be reconciled in one number.
https://hbr.org/2016/09/know-your-customers-jobs-to-be-done
Yeah but you didn't say it in an a$$holey enough way What is the statistical analysis where you don't look for factors but look for types or groups?This is consistent with my point.
Cluster analysis.Yeah but you didn't say it in an a$$holey enough way What is the statistical analysis where you don't look for factors but look for types or groups?
The problem is that some people think for purely ideological reasons that we have to pretend that people's experiences or needs are all the same even if they are not. It's like "which product is better, a chainsaw or a recorder". Clearly the chainsaw is better. "But I want to give it to a child for their music class." Sorry, for political reasons we cannot acknowledge that children and adults have different needs, that's woke, so we can only say that the chainsaw is the better product. It's all fun and games until someone gets their arm cut off.
Do we think cluster analysis is scientifically useful? My professors always thought it witchcraft but that's been 30 years ago. I used hierarchical factor analysis in my MA to create personality by situation factors to reconcile social and personality psychology, which alas history has not determined to be as brilliant as I thought it was (academicians are too woke to recognize my genius). Is that still a thing?Cluster analysis.
Anyway I would venture a wild guess that the correlation between food quality and affordability is at least r = -.40. Far from perfect but enough to mess up a composite ranking.
Woke academicians who fail to recognize students' genius? Yes.Do we think cluster analysis is scientifically useful? My professors always thought it witchcraft but that's been 30 years ago. I used hierarchical factor analysis in my MA to create personality by situation factors to reconcile social and personality psychology, which alas history has not determined to be as brilliant as I thought it was (academicians are too woke to recognize my genius). Is that still a thing?
It falls within the generally accepted definition of woke, "whatever I don't like".Woke academicians who fail to recognize students' genius? Yes.
BTW I would not have classified RT exactly that way so this must have been Minnesota.It falls within the generally accepted definition of woke, "whatever I don't like".
Yeah, I stopped interacting with academicians decades before woke was a thing so I have no idea whether my professors were woke or not (tho definitely agreed on RT, and it's hard to imagine Phil Ackerman being woke given his generally high level of misanthropy).BTW I would not have classified RT exactly that way so this must have been Minnesota.
No doubt RT is liberal. Just read his books and you can tell. But too hedonistic and commercially oriented to be called "woke" maybe? Though I am not sure what that means, if anything.Yeah, I stopped interacting with academicians decades before woke was a thing so I have no idea whether my professors were woke or not (tho definitely agreed on RT, and it's hard to imagine Phil Ackerman being woke given his generally high level of misanthropy).
LOL, I think you vastly underestimate how fascinating you and I areAnyway, apologies to everyone else. This should now be a PM exchange
You left out “while talking about Boston sports teams”I always expect to find a video of BLA juggling tucked down at the end of some General board thread