Every August, the US News and World Report releases its annual ranking of both national universities and liberal arts colleges in the United States. This year, Muhlenberg fell nine spots to 76th on the US News list after being 67th the year prior. While Muhlenberg has fluctuated in the rankings over the last couple of years, coming in at 72nd two years prior, the recent drop in enrollment raises some questions about the new ranking. This drop may not necessarily be a sign of decline at Muhlenberg; part of this drop is a result of skewed and inconsistent metrics within the college ranking system. For example, the University of Washington fell to 7th from 6th among global universities on the US News website while simultaneously dropping to 55th from 50th among national universities. These inconsistencies demonstrate the complex and seemingly arbitrary calculations used when determining how well a school ranks.
On their website, the US News and World Report details that they calculate “10 distinct overall rankings” based on the colleges’ academic missions. Then, for each ranking, “the sum of weighted, normalized values across 17 indicators of academic quality determine each school’s overall score and, by extension, its overall rank.” The rankings are based on the following metrics: graduation and retention rates, social mobility, graduation rate performance, undergraduate academic reputation, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources per student, average alumni giving rate and graduate indebtedness. While a lot of data is needed to rate the schools according to those metrics, US News does not rely on external data sources, and rather obtains the data straight from the colleges based on their figures submitted in a series of surveys sent to the school for the rankings. They also obtain data from the Common Data Set (CDS), a survey program where schools report directly to the data set rather than US News magazine. However, the CDS also relies on self-reported data.
The use of self-reported data has a number of flaws, chief of which is that it is hard to verify the accuracy of the data. One of the main examples of this is the recent Columbia University data scandal. In Feb. 2022, Michael Thaddeus, Ph.D., published an analysis of Columbia’s reported statistics, and refuted a number of key metrics, concluding that the reported class sizes were an underestimate, the number of professors who achieved the highest degree in their field was lower than reported, and that the spending per pupil was inflated through the addition of erroneous costs. As a result of the scandal, US News moved Columbia down 16 spots. It is likely that Columbia is not the only school to have inflated its numbers, threatening the veracity of the rankings and demonstrating the ranking’s inability to accurately assess the quality of an institution.
The Weekly spoke to both President Kathleen Harring, Ph.D., and the Office of Communications about the drop; the Dean of Students Allison Williams declined to comment.
When asked why the College fell in the rankings, Harring said that “Muhlenberg’s overall score in the U.S. News rankings remained the same as in 2021—at 63—however, because of a number of ties and movements above and below us in the rankings, our overall ranking decreased from 67 to 76 in the National Liberal Arts Colleges category.” In addition, Harring noted that the drop in ranking is not an accurate reflection of how the College is actually performing, saying, “The actual student experience at Muhlenberg, both academically and co-curricularly, is stronger than ever. This year, US News recognized us for the first time as one of the nation’s most innovative colleges, ranking #51 for innovation among National Liberal Arts Colleges.” When looking into the individual metrics that make up the overall score, Harring also noted that Muhlenberg actually improved in a number of categories, including affordability where the College “improved 10 points on the best value ranking to No. 62, up from No. 72.” The last and perhaps most important thing that Harring stated was that US News is not the only college ranking, and that other lists such as Niche rank Muhlenberg 4th in PA for communications, 9th in PA for accounting and finance, 50th in the nation for the performing arts and 1st in PA and 10th in the nation for dining.
Meg Ryan, vice president for enrollment management, also provided insight into the impact of the College’s US News ranking drop, stating that, “There’s a general consensus that rankings such as US News and World Report are not the most important influence on the admissions process… a higher rank in USNWR does not necessarily correlate with more applications or larger first-year classes.” Ryan also detailed the flaws of relying on college rankings such as US News saying, “The Muhlenberg experience is so much more than the numbers. The Office of Admissions focuses our recruitment efforts around telling the full story of the transformative Muhlenberg education.” Numbers cannot accurately reflect a student’s experience and the full breadth of opportunities that a college can offer, and while rankings can be helpful when used as a guide, to use them as the sole determiner for choosing a school means missing out on a lot of other potential schools. In addition to informing current and prospective students, rankings are also valuable for the College to be able to assess itself. Bill Keller, senior director of the Office of Communications, stated that “Rankings are one of many factors the College considers… we [also] query seniors each year and the results confirm that our students are engaged in a profound, life-changing education that immerses them in experiential learning opportunities and enables them to chart a course to achieve their goals. These findings help inform our marketing and outreach efforts to tell the Muhlenberg story far and wide.”
