Some colleges will do anything to improve their national ranking.
That can be bad for their students-and for higher education. Since
U.S. News & World Report first published a college ranking in
1983, the rankings industry has become a self-appointed judge,
declaring winners and losers among America's colleges and
universities. In this revealing account, Colin Diver shows how
popular rankings have induced college applicants to focus solely on
pedigree and prestige, while tempting educators to sacrifice
academic integrity for short-term competitive advantage. By forcing
colleges into standardized "best-college" hierarchies, he argues,
rankings have threatened the institutional diversity, intellectual
rigor, and social mobility that is the genius of American higher
education. As a former university administrator who refused to play
the game, Diver leads his readers on an engaging journey through
the mysteries of college rankings, admissions, financial aid,
spending policies, and academic practices. He explains how most
dominant college rankings perpetuate views of higher education as a
purely consumer good susceptible to unidimensional measures of
brand value and prestige. Many rankings, he asserts, also undermine
the moral authority of higher education by encouraging various
forms of distorted behavior, misrepresentation, and outright
cheating by ranked institutions. The recent Varsity Blues
admissions scandal, for example, happened in part because affluent
parents wanted to get their children into elite schools by any
means necessary. Explaining what is most useful and important in
evaluating colleges, Diver offers both college applicants and
educators a guide to pursuing their highest academic goals, freed
from the siren song of the "best-college" illusion. Ultimately, he
reveals how to break ranks with a rankings industry that misleads
its consumers, undermines academic values, and perpetuates social
inequality.
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