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The US News Rankings: How We Rate

The US News Rankings: How We Rate. Jamie Redwine Office of Institutional Research July 2005. The Survey. Main Survey – 598 questions Financial Aid Survey – 55 questions IPEDS Finance Survey – 13 questions . Why US News Ranks Colleges.

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The US News Rankings: How We Rate

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  1. The US News Rankings: How We Rate Jamie Redwine Office of Institutional Research July 2005

  2. The Survey • Main Survey – 598 questions • Financial Aid Survey – 55 questions • IPEDS Finance Survey – 13 questions

  3. Why US News Ranks Colleges • To provide a source of reliable and consistent data–information so students can compare one college with another. • As in the past, U.S. News recommends that its readers use the rankings as one tool for selecting a college. We recognize that prospective students must consider their academic and professional goals, financial resources, scholastic record, and special needs when choosing a school. And we recommend that students gather information on colleges in a number of ways–by talking to parents, high school guidance counselors, and other advisers; from college catalogs, viewbooks, and Web sites; and from campus visits to form first-hand impressions. • It sells.

  4. The Rankings • National Universities • Liberal Arts Colleges • Universities – Master’s by region • Comprehensive Colleges • Etc

  5. Hollins’ Carnegie Classification • Hollins falls into the Baccalaureate Colleges – Liberal Arts category. • 217 institutions (21 public) • Primary emphasis is on baccalaureate programs. Award at least half of baccalaureate degrees in liberal arts fields.

  6. What They Rank • Peer Assessment (25%) • Retention (20%) • Faculty Resources (20%) • Student Selectivity (15%) • Financial Resources (10%) • Graduation Rate (5%) • Alumni Giving Rate (5%)

  7. How They Rank • Peer Assessment: Opinion of those in a position to judge a school's academic excellence. The peer assessment survey allows the top academics contacted--presidents, provosts, and deans of admission--to account for intangibles such as faculty dedication to teaching. Each individual is asked to rate peer schools' academic programs on a scale from 1 (marginal) to 5 (distinguished). Those who don't know enough about a school to evaluate it fairly are asked to mark "don't know." Synovate, an opinion-research firm based near Chicago, collected the data; 60 percent of the 4,095 people who were sent questionnaires responded.

  8. Retention • This measure has two components: six-year graduation rate (80 percent of the retention score) and freshman retention rate (20 percent). The graduation rate indicates the average proportion of a graduating class who earn a degree in six years or less; included are freshman classes that started from 1994 through 1997. Freshman retention indicates the average proportion of freshmen entering from 1999 through 2002 who returned the following fall.

  9. Faculty Resources • Based on six factors from the 2003-04 academic year to assess a school's commitment to instruction. Class size has two components: the proportion of classes with fewer than 20 students (30 percent of the faculty resources score) and the proportion with 50 or more students (10 percent of the score). Faculty salary (35 percent) is the average faculty pay, plus benefits, during the 2002-03 and 2003-04 academic years, adjusted for regional differences in the cost of living (using indexes from the consulting firm Runzheimer International). The proportion of professors with the highest degree in their fields (15 percent), the student-faculty ratio (5 percent), and the proportion of faculty who are full time (5 percent) are also weighed.

  10. Student Selectivity • Test scores of enrollees on the sat or act tests (50 percent of the selectivity score); the proportion of enrolled freshmen who graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school classes for all national universities and liberal arts colleges, and the top 25 percent for institutions in the master's and comprehensive colleges categories (40 percent); the acceptance rate, or the ratio of students admitted to applicants (10 percent). The data are for the fall 2003 entering class.

  11. Financial Resources • Measures the average spending per student on instruction, research, student services, and related educational expenditures in the 2002 and 2003 fiscal years.

  12. Graduation Rate Performance • Measures the difference between a school's six-year graduation rate for the class that entered in 1997 and the predicted rate for the class. • Predicted rate is calculated using a very complicated formula. I have simply used the average of the previous 3-yrs.

  13. Alumni Giving Rate • The average percentage of alumni who gave to their school during 2001-02 and 2002-03.

  14. Where Hollins Ranks • 87 (2005), 85 (2004), Tier 2 (2003-). • Four tiers. • In 2004 the 1st and 2nd Tiers were merged into The Top 100.

  15. Women’s Colleges

  16. What the numbers tell us?

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