Vol. 8 No. 2
October/November 2005

Return to Contents

By A Nose
Jockeying in the Rankings Race

The Current Standings

Whither the NRC Study?

"I am not going to change our methods of calculation just in order to try and achieve a ranking higher than another institution."

"Part of the reason educational reputation is so important is because people—students, faculty, and administrators—derive much of their status from the status of their institution."

Graduate School and College Excellence
Does research reputation influence undergraduate rankings?

Peer Scorings and Rankings of Colleges and Graduate Programs and Research

Appendix

The “Lecture Track” Reconsidered
Professional identity and aspiration among non-tenure-path faculty

Tales from the Lecture Track: Kristin Wendland, Music

Tales from the Lecture Track: Sheila Tefft, Journalism

Virtue and the Stewardship
of Academic Freedom
Reflections on ambition, conversation, and community

Endnotes

U.S. News and World Report’s 2006 “America’s Best Colleges” http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php

U.S. News and World Report’s 2006 “America’s Best Graduate Schools” http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/rankindex_brief.php

National Research Council’s 1995 Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States: Continuity and Change (next study due for release in 2008)
http://books.nap.edu/html/researchdoc/appendix_p.html

A compendium of links to online college ranking services, including undergraduate and graduate programs, business schools, law schools, and international programs. Also includes a bibliography of articles about the ongoing debates over rankings. Compiled by the University of Illinois
at Urbana Champaign’s Education and Social Science Library. http://www.library.uiuc.edu/edx/rankings.htm