Why Colleges Are Leaving The U.S. News Rankings

1A

NPR

News

4.3 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2023

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For 40 years, U.S. News and World Report has released rankings of the nation's top colleges, universities, and graduate schools. They've been used in advertising materials for schools and showcased in the national media. But in recent months, dozens of the nation's top-ranked institutions have stopped providing data to the publication.

Yale University Law School was the top law school in the country in the U.S. News ranking for years, then chose to stop cooperating in November of last year.

Forty more law schools, including 12 of the top 14 ranked in the country followed suit. Some undergraduate schools also decided they would no longer participate in the U.S. News and World Report rankings.

We discuss how important these rankings should be for prospective students.

Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Find us on Twitter @1A.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	For 40 years, US News and World Report has released a ranking of the nation's top colleges,
0:13.8	universities, and graduate schools.
0:16.0	It's used in marketing materials for schools and is often highlighted in national media.
0:20.3	Florida colleges and universities are getting national recognition in a new ranking from
0:24.7	US News and World Report.
0:26.4	For the first time ever, US News and World Report ranked Florida at Leningu University
0:30.4	in its list of top public schools in the nation.
0:32.8	The new 30th edition of Best Colleges was just released this morning.
0:37.0	And we've got it. You're seeing the 2015 rankings first on CBS this morning.
0:41.6	Best Colleges list includes rankings of more than 1400 schools throughout the country.
0:46.8	But in recent months, dozens of law schools and several medical schools and undergraduate
0:52.0	colleges have stopped providing data to the publication.
0:55.3	School leaders raise concerns about how the rankings are calculated and how schools can
1:00.0	manipulate their data to improve their standing.
1:02.8	After the break, we get into how important these rankings should be for prospective students.
1:08.3	I'm Jen White. You're listening to the 1A Podcast where we get to the heart of the story.
1:13.2	We'll be back with more in just a moment.
1:22.0	Let's get into the conversation and welcome our guests.
1:24.8	Joining us to discuss now are two leaders of schools that have stopped cooperating with the US
1:29.3	News ranking.
1:30.4	Al Song Richardson is the president of Colorado College.
1:33.8	It's a small liberal art school in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.