Image Courtesy of U.S. News and World Report
Earlier today, Clemson University tried desperately to save face by claiming it had not tried to manipulate the U.S. News and World Report ranking system after all. Now, USNWR’s trying to unsully its own reputation by saying it’s up to Clemson’s tricks, particularly the one where they rate other universities lower than themselves on the reputation survey:
In terms of the reputation survey, U.S. News has safeguards in place to prevent strategic voting from affecting the results. We subtract a few of the highest and lowest scores from respondents before the results are calculated in order to prevent downgrading or upgrading from altering the results. We are confident that such voting practices by respondents are not affecting the results of the reputation survey in any meaningful statistical way.
But Inside Higher Ed quoted Catherine Watt, Clemson’s director of institutional research, as saying everyone cheats on the reputation surveys:
And to actual gasps from some members of the audience, Watt said that Clemson officials, in filling out the reputational survey form for presidents, rate “all programs other than Clemson below average,” to make the university look better. “And I’m confident my president is not the only one who does that,” Watt said.
If everyone does it, then simply throwing out the highs and lows won’t fix the problem, right?
