Spring Break
Despite high grad rankings, faculty wary of Report
Issue date: 4/10/08
US News & World Report released its latest graduate school rankings last week, which had Hopkins placing in the top 10 for programs in both the sciences and the humanities yet again.
However, Hopkins professors and administrators continue to question the accuracy of the increasingly unpopular rankings.
"I think that it's always wonderful to have top 10 departments, but the US News report is completely reputational, and reputational rankings are weak," Dean of Research and Graduate Education Eaton Lattman said.
Lattman said that while it is fortunate that the quality of Hopkins's programs is frequently reflected in the US News report, he does not believe the rankings system should always to be trusted.
While all of US News's undergraduate rankings are based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative data, its graduate rankings in the humanities, sciences and social sciences are based solely on reputation and "peer review," referring to evaluation from schools of similar caliber.
The publication ranks professional programs in business, education, engineering, law and medicine based on both reputation and statistics.
Researchers ask deans, program directors and senior faculty members to judge the academic quality of the programs in their field on a scale of 1 to 5.
According to Nicolas Jones, dean of the Whiting School of Engineering, these measures are invalid for judging the quality of a program.
"[The rankings are] purely a beauty contest," Jones said. "It's just an opinions ranking. You may see general improvement over time as different departments do a better job at getting the word out, but these [rankings] are based purely on opinions of deans and department heads. Whether you love the rankings or hate them, there's nothing quantitative about them."
Last spring, the Annapolis Group, a group of 19 liberal arts colleges, decided to opt out of the undergraduate U.S. News rankings altogether, citing the policy of peer review as its primary reason.
However, Hopkins professors and administrators continue to question the accuracy of the increasingly unpopular rankings.
"I think that it's always wonderful to have top 10 departments, but the US News report is completely reputational, and reputational rankings are weak," Dean of Research and Graduate Education Eaton Lattman said.
Lattman said that while it is fortunate that the quality of Hopkins's programs is frequently reflected in the US News report, he does not believe the rankings system should always to be trusted.
While all of US News's undergraduate rankings are based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative data, its graduate rankings in the humanities, sciences and social sciences are based solely on reputation and "peer review," referring to evaluation from schools of similar caliber.
The publication ranks professional programs in business, education, engineering, law and medicine based on both reputation and statistics.
Researchers ask deans, program directors and senior faculty members to judge the academic quality of the programs in their field on a scale of 1 to 5.
According to Nicolas Jones, dean of the Whiting School of Engineering, these measures are invalid for judging the quality of a program.
"[The rankings are] purely a beauty contest," Jones said. "It's just an opinions ranking. You may see general improvement over time as different departments do a better job at getting the word out, but these [rankings] are based purely on opinions of deans and department heads. Whether you love the rankings or hate them, there's nothing quantitative about them."
Last spring, the Annapolis Group, a group of 19 liberal arts colleges, decided to opt out of the undergraduate U.S. News rankings altogether, citing the policy of peer review as its primary reason.
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