For the third straight year, Georgetown tied with Carnegie Mellon as the 23rd best university in the country according to U.S. News and World Report. Georgetown has been as high as 17th over the last decade, but has stayed put since it fell from 20 to 23 in 1999.
While noting that Georgetown was generally pleased with University’s ranking, Assistant Vice President of Communications Julie Green Bataille said the school’s policy decisions and fundraising campaign are not aimed at improving it. The ranking system, which the magazine says aims at measuring academic excellence, does not take into account the University’s location or its Catholic and Jesuit tradition, she said.
The ranking should “be taken with a grain of salt,” she said.
Dean of Admissions Charlie Deacon repeated criticisms he has made of ranking systems, echoing remarks in 1999 that the magazine does not pay enough attention to the school’s reputation among high school counselors.
Deacon said he did not believe the ranking has affected the number of applicants, which has increased in recent years.
Beginning in 1983 as a simple survey of college presidents, the U.S. News ranking has become one of the nation’s most recognizable measurements of universities. It is open about its controversial habit of regularly changing the weights it gives to its various criteria, which makes year-to-year comparisons difficult.
The three most important criteria in this year’s U.S. News rankings, published in the magazine’s Sept. 11 edition, are academic reputation, faculty resources, and graduation and retention rate, the latter measuring the percentage of first-year students returning for a second year.
Georgetown’s academic reputation?determined by the evaluations of 2,738 university presidents, provosts and deans of admissions?has consistently been low for top-25 schools. Its graduation and retention rate was 13th, while it ranked 44th?up from 63rd last year?in faculty resources.
One of Georgetown’s strengths is its selectivity, ranked 16th by U.S. News. But selectivity accounts for only 15 percent of the magazine’s final ranking of universities.
Publications probably received too much attention when administrators evaluate schools’ academic reputations, said Tom Melvin (CAS ‘02), chair of the Student Association’s Academic Affairs Committee. Melvin said he was especially pleased with what he said was the commitment by professors to teach undergraduates as well as conduct research.
Melvin joined Green Bataille in highlighting the school’s location?and the educational and job opportunities the city offers?as an advantage of Georgetown that is absent in the magazine’s criteria.
U.S. News rightly identifies the school’s financial weak points, Melvin said, but the ranking is only one factor for students deciding to attend college.
On his last point, the magazine agrees, saying that “rankings are only one of many criteria students should consider in choosing a college.”
Still, U.S. News continues to stand vigorously behind its belief that its rankings do make a good attempt at objectively rating school’s academic excellence.
