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From: reggie@pdn.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: rankings of colleges
Message-ID: <1449@pdn.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 30-Sep-87 07:20:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: pdn.1449
Posted: Wed Sep 30 07:20:43 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 4-Oct-87 01:24:56 EDT
References: <1503@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <8359@shemp.UCLA.EDU> <625@rocky.STANFORD.EDU>
Organization: Paradyne Corporation,   Largo FL
Lines: 48
Keywords: rankings, colleges
Summary: I agree!!!

In article <625@rocky.STANFORD.EDU>, andy@rocky.STANFORD.EDU (Andy Freeman) writes:
> 
> Gourman may be the premier undergrad ranking, but that doesn't make
> it any good.  Every year we go through this.  Someone tries to find
> out where he gets his data and how he manipulates it.  He uses all
> of the right words, but there's an underlying iceberg of bogusness.
> The rankings have changed drastically in the past couple years, even
> though the schools haven't.  (They now agree more with popular
> conceptions.)  Was he making up his data before, now, or both?
> 

      I agree with Andy.  I have looked at some of the Gourman Reports
over the past years and also some of the well known Guides to Colleges
that are issued each year.  If you think about it, rating all of the
universities in this country is a difficult and time consuming task.
Given that just how much useful information can be obtained to come 
up with a fair comparison?  And who knows about a program more than
the students themselves who have gone through one?  At best one can
hope to find people who have participated in more than one program
and can make comparisons between them.  But even this has a limited
value.  You can easily find two people who went to the same university
in the same department with a wide difference of opinions, due to
different classes, instructors, etc.... that were encountered within a
program.


     True, quality of faculty, library, etc.... go a long way towards
shaping a program, but on what criteria is faculty judged?  In an 
undergraduate program I feel that teaching ability is far more
critical than research and publication history.  While at the
graduate level, where the student needs to be more independent,
the focus should be on research opportunities.  The later is easier
to judge than the former.  Teaching ability is a highly subjective
measure.  What makes an effective teacher?  I'm sure we could
kick this one around for a while.

BTW:  In my travels I have found that no matter where people work, live, or
attend school you can always find people who want to complain, even at the
most highly thought of places.  Rather than focus on what is the number 1
school in some subject, I feel the potential student should understand what
he/she wants in a program and try to find the right match.


-- 
George W. Leach					Paradyne Corporation
{gatech,codas,ucf-cs}!usfvax2!pdn!reggie	Mail stop LF-207
Phone: (813) 530-2376				P.O. Box 2826
						Largo, FL  34649-2826