US News and Peer Assessment

According to our sources, the US News latest college rankings are due out tomorrow and our friends over at Inside Higher Ed has a report today discussing the peer assessment portion of those rankings. By now, most people are familiar with how US News ranks colleges. For those that don't, essentially, researchers from US News ask college leaders to rank similar colleges around the country. 25% of a college’s rankings are based on these peer review rankings.

The IHE report discusses specific rankings that were done by several universities around the country. The reports raising issues about college rankings, and US News rankings in particular, are becoming so common that they are hardly news.

Bottomline, please don't treat any of these rankings as the gospel. Go visit schools, talk to students, sit in on classes - those are the best primary research factors you can do as you you begin to settle in on your final choices!

-- ThinkChina