U.S. News and World Report Drops Columbia

by Annika Dronge and Claire Ponder

Only several hours after the U.S. News and World Report "America's Best Colleges" issue was made available to the Columbia area on September 18, newsstands in the vicinity reported being sold out of the magazine.

"I sold 50 copies already. I am reordering another 50," said Rose Parmew, the owner of the newsstand on 116th Street and Broadway. She reported that the vast of majority of magazine buyers are Columbia students and professors.

Why do we have such heavy interests in the U.S. News ranking? We asked students around the Columbia campus if they consulted the U.S. News ranking back when they were shopping for colleges.

"Definitely," said Howard Schwartz, a sophomore at the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS). "I chose to come to Columbia for its name and prestige, which is related to ranking." Margaret Hsiau, a Columbia College sophomore said that she really did not look at the ranking when she applied. "I just know Columbia is in one of the [top] 20's."

What purpose does the U.S. News ranking actually serve to currently enrolled students? According to U.S. News and World Report, colleges are ranked for the benefit of the students because, "a college education is one of the most important and often the most costly investments prospective students will ever make."

As most Columbia students know, Columbia University's interest in the U.S. News and World Report survey was a result of its dramatic drop in the rankings. Over the past seven years, we have placed tenth All-Time among the top universities. (Harvard, Yale , Princeton, Stanford, Cal Tech, MIT, Duke, Dartmouth, and University of Chicago respectively ranked one to nine on the All-Time List based on the accumulative ranking calculated from U.S. News Surveys from the eight previous years.)

This year, we are ranked as the fifteenth best university for its undergraduate education, the lowest Columbia has ranked since placing eighteenth back in 1987. Students around the campus express different reactions towards the plummet: "The ranking varies too much from year to year, " said Kate Krauss, a CC sophomore. "It's not like Columbia is less of a school this year than last year." Other students contribute the drop to the graduation rate. "I guess people were lazy," said Ann Rawlings, a SEAS sophomore. "Well, we have got to work harder," echoed Noah Brosowsky, a second year in Columbia College.

Others express sympathy for the new freshman class. "I feel bad for [them] actually," said a SEAS senior. "They came here thinking that we are in the top ten. But they found out during the first week of school that we are fifteen."

However, we should note that SEAS and Barnard College, which represents two out of three undergraduate programs at Columbia University, were not incorporated into the data submitted on the National University List. In a separate survey ranking the reputation of the engineering programs among the nation top universities. SEAS shares the 28th spot along with nine other engineering programs from schools such as Arizona State University, University of Florida, and University of Pennsylvania. Barnard College, on the other hand, ranks 32nd in the National Liberal Art Colleges Survey, despite placing 18th in the academic reputation column.

U.S. News and World Report neatly organizes its ranking procedures into several, though somewhat ambiguous categories. These include student selectivity, faculty resources, financial resources, retention rank, and academic reputation. Each category is weighted according to what the magazine considers as important in choosing a school. Academic reputation and retention rank are the two most heavily weighted categories, each constituting 25% of the overall score. We share the 8th place position with five other top schools for academic reputation and took the 19th slot for retention rank.

Most disappointing is the satisfaction of our alumni, which is deemed as 57th in the nation. "What it comes down to is ... how satisfy the alumni are with the politics and bureaucracy of the university," said Jeremy Blacklow, a CC sophomore. "I think that the administration is trying to cover this up with as many excuses about the whole graduation rate and transfer students thing."

Perhaps most disturbing of all the statistics thrown at the reader is Columbia's exclusion from the list of the top twenty-five universities whose "faculty has an unusually strong commitment to undergraduate teaching." When George Rupp was inaugurated two years ago, he promised to improve undergraduate education at Columbia University. Does U.S. News and World Report prove that President Rupp has failed his promise made to thousands of our undergraduate students? Is the annual guide to "America's Best Colleges" reliable, just and trustworthy? Most importantly, the undergraduate students at Columbia University, best qualified to answer the question, need to ask ourselves, have we noticed an improvement of the quality our education as promised by George Rupp? Or have we notice a decline as suggested by the survey?

All Time U.S. News & Report Ranking (1988-1995)
Ranking	University	Total Points
1	Harvard	13
2	Yale	18
3	Princeton	20
4	Stanford	36
5	Cal Tech	40
6	MIT	42
7	Duke	57
8	Dartmouth	61
9	Univ. of Chicago	79
10	Columbia	83
11	Cornell	95
12	Rice	104
13	Brown	107
14	Johns Hopkins	113
15	U. Penn	115
16	Northwestern	126
17	UC Berkeley	150
18	Univ. of Virginia	159
19	Georgetown	160
20	Washington U.	161
21	UCLA	173
22	U. Michigan	177
23	Vanderbilt	178
24	Emory	179
25	Notre Dame	188
26	Carnegie Mellon	188
27	U.N.C. at Chapel Hill	190