1) Gilfillan, Beth. “I Cringe When I Hear the Word ‘Rankings.” nytimes.com. October 3, 2012. Web.

This article was about the concerns of Mrs.  Gilfillan towards how students in high school use college rankings to pick their schools as well as how she believes the college rankings should be used by students as well as how they could be modified to be more efficient and useful to the students.

2) Bastedo, Michael. “Insiders Care the Most About These Lists.” nytimes.com. October 3, 2012. Web.

This article was about Mr. Bastedo and his believes on who or what is effected by the college rankings. According to Mr. Bastedo the college rankings do not really effect the decision of what college to attend of incoming freshman. According to Mr. Bastedo the people who are mostly effected by the rankings are those inside the ranking colleges them self’s such as faculty and alumni. According to Mr. Bastedo another factor that is critically affected by college rankings is the institutions reputation and they become one and the same.

3) Vedder, Richard. “Filling a Void, Providing a Service.” nytimes.com. October 3, 2012. Web.

This article was about the view Mr. Vedder has of the college rankings. According to him the college rankings fill in the void of information distribution about each learning institution. The college rankings according to Mr. Vedder give parents and prospective students an inside look into the learning institution and sort of sets the standards of what college is doing things “right.” Mr. Vedder also states that the college ranking are flawed in the sense that they do not cover all the factors involved in college decision making such as financial situations and personal interest of the student.

4) O’Connell, Martha. “The College Search Requires Greater Thought.” nytimes.com. October 3, 2012. Web.

This article was about Mrs. O’Connell views of the college rankings. She believes that because college rankings are ranked based on the outcome of the freshman class that the rankings are not very accurate. She believes that the ranking should not only cover the beginning year but all four years, from enrollment to graduation. She also stated that when the colleges are looked at closely there is a pattern that the colleges without much recognition are outperforming the colleges with well-known reputations. She also stated she agrees with the believes that the ranking are controlled by those making the rankings.

5) Thacker, Lloyd. “College Presidents Should Just Say ‘No’ to U.S. News.” nytimes.com. October 3, 2012. Web.

This article is about the negative factors Mr. Thacker sees in the ranking college system. According to him the college rankings provide very little if any helpful information about the colleges them self’s. Mr. Thacker also makes a note about how even if the college rankings do not effect a vast percentage of prospective students in does effect the financial spending’s of the colleges. The colleges are spending more money on improving their ranking rather than improving their educational standards. Mr. Thacker also talks about how the school officials should take more active action in steering the college rankings into a more effective and useful tool.

6) Decatur, Sean. “Rankings Can Be Useful, but Also Dangerous.” nytimes.com. October 3, 2012. Web.

This article played a devil’s advocate; Mr. Decatur proceeded to first mention how college rankings are a useful comparing tool in a market of colleges that is tremendously crowded. However, Mr. Decatur proceeds to also explain how the rankings could be misused or produce negative effects on the colleges. He also talked about how the systems used for college rankings fluctuate every year changing the outcome of each year’s ranking. Also due to the fact that the system is in constant fluctuation it is impossible to recreate previews results. Which could lead to the conclusion that as the system used to create college rankings is unreliable so are the results yielded by the system.

Fabrice Douillard

Carlos Oreza

Fritzpatrick Phillips