In the August 24 issue of Forbes Magazine, West Point came out on top for the best college using a new ranking system developed by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity at Ohio University. According to information on Forbes’ website (article: America’s Best Colleges 2009) , the college ranking has the following component metrics: 25% on evaluation of instructors and courses from the website RateMyProfessor.com, 25% based on average salaries reported by Payscale.com and entries in Who’s Who in America, 20% based on estimated average student debt, 17% on a 4-year graduation rate, 13% on number of faculty and students who have won awards like the Rhodes Scholarships or Nobel Prizes. According to the article, West Point came out on top because all cadets have full scholarships and West Point graduates start at $69,000 as second lieutenants.
Is this the right criteria? Can we measure success by how much of a salary you draw as a graduate? Is it sufficent to measure success for a college that graduates a high percent of students in four years? The students at West Point are a very select group to begin with. Should not a metric encourage colleges to mentor students who have a tougher academic path and give colleges credit in the rankings for mentoring and providing student success programs for those students, especially when it takes longer to graduate? On the other hand, a metric on the average student debt is an excellent metric to include in the a ranking of colleges.
Lastly, to base instructor ratings from the website RateMyProfessor.com is very biased since dissatisfied students would be more inclined to use the website than satisfied students. Is this the best metric for measuring teaching quality and engagement with students? There must be others to consider.
Cindy