Princeton or Tehran U? You'll have to check the lists

By Mary Beth Marklein
USA Today

What do Williams College, Simon Fraser University and the University of Tehran have in common?

Each tops somebody's list of best colleges this year. Ever since U.S. News & World Report's college rankings issue became a top seller — some higher-education insiders call it the "swimsuit issue" — publishers have discovered that the sometimes drab, button-down world of higher education can help sell magazines and guidebooks during back-to-school season:

• Newsweek listed its 12 "hot" schools recently; Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, was crowned best "all-around" college.

• In its September/October issue, lefty publication Mother Jones identifies this year's "top 10 activist campuses," and the University of Tehran took top honors. (Reason: the "unflinching dissent" of its student body last November after a history professor was sentenced to death for his views on who should have the power to interpret the Quran. His sentence was commuted to 74 lashes and eight years in prison.)

• September's Outside magazine weighs in with a cover story placing the University of California-Santa Cruz, Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Montana State University and the University of Hawai'i-Hilo among its 40 "coolest places to learn, live, work and play."

There's more. In addition to profiles of the "best 351 colleges" in its 2004 guidebook, the Princeton Review publishes rankings based on student surveys. Kaplan, its competitor in the test-prep field, this year offers its guide to the 328 "most interesting" colleges. Rather than ranking schools, the book opens with lists of multiple colleges — "best value" and "hidden treasures" for example — based on surveys of guidance counselors.

When rankings bring good news for a school, most campuses bask in their success.

Publicists for Washington University in St. Louis, for example, were quick to call reporters last week when they learned that the campus had cracked the U.S. News top 10, tying Dartmouth for ninth place among national universities.

But when the distinction is dubious, the rankings become an annoying headache. Pity the University of Colorado-Boulder, which this year was anointed not only the No. 1 "party school" by the Princeton Review but also the campus where students study the least number of hours. Last year, the school ranked No. 7 in the top 10 counterculture colleges according to High Times, a magazine dedicated to marijuana.

Last week, officials responded to an Associated Press query by touting its distinguished faculty and award-winning students. And to be fair, Colorado earned a spot this year on the Outside honor roll, which hypes the campus' active recreation center and hiking club along with the state's mountain parks system and ski resorts. Then again, that might help explain its performance in the study-habit category.

Most such rankings are "generally harmless," says higher-education consultant Paul Boyer, author of the just-published "College Rankings Exposed: The Art of Getting a Quality Education in the 21st Century" (Thomson/Peterson's).

But then there's U.S. News. With its number crunching based on data such as library holdings, alumni donations and selectivity measures, the 20-year-old rankings have become an unofficial kingmaker in the minds of many. One new ranking, of college towns, even includes U.S. News rankings as one of its measures of quality.

Like many critics of the magazine's annual America's Best Colleges edition, Boyer says U.S. News' rankings are troublesome because they promote the perception that "there are literally only a few 'best' schools and only one 'very best' school."

Yet the nation boasts about 4,000 colleges, he says.

U.S. News encourages readers to look beyond rankings when selecting a college, but Boyer dismisses that as irrelevant. "That's not what most people read," he says. "What they see is the cover. And they see not all the colleges across the page but No. 1 and No. 2."

But Brian Kelly, U.S. News executive editor, defends the rankings. He says they provide a starting point for families, but they are "also expected to do (their) homework."