327. What Actually Makes A College The Best? feat. Colin Diver

Does the way we rank colleges prioritize status over educational quality or the public good? 

Colin Diver is the Charles A. Heimbold, Jr., Professor of Law and Economics, former dean at the University of Pennsylvania, and former president of Reed College. His book, Breaking Ranks: How the Rankings Industry Rules Higher Education and What to Do about It, explores the methodologies of U.S. News and others to evaluate higher education institutions.

Colin and Greg discuss the pitfalls of college rankings, how they fail to measure important aspects of education,  how they distort the incentives of college administrators, and what a better system could look like. 

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

Why are the SATs becoming less popular?

27:43: I realized that in this day and age, the SAT is becoming less and less popular, and I understand why—it does tend to favor privileged students that are economically and academically privileged students. But I still think that it is a force for democratizing higher education. It's a way of identifying talented students from out-of-the-way places, unfamiliar high schools, maybe even kids who didn't have a high GPA for whatever reason, but still have a lot of raw talent.

Do we have the capacity to opt out of rankings?

26:23: Yes, we dislike the rankings. We may even hate them, but we can't afford to fight them. And we can't afford to pull out. I understand that calculation. It's like we depend on the rankings to signal our value to our primary constituency, which is potential undergraduate students.

How does early decision admission contribute to economic inequality?

27:43: If you apply early, we'll give you an answer early, but if we admit you, you've got to accept our offer. And so, that way, you drove up your yield rate because everybody who applied that you admitted was going to come because they had agreed ahead of time that they would come. And, well, what was wrong with that? What was wrong with that was that it favored the rich because the poorer students can't afford to commit early. They need to see what the competitive financial aid awards are. And so, it was well demonstrated in the literature that early decisions tended to favor rich applicants and disfavor poor applicants.

The value of Ivy League education is a function of its exclusivity

55:23: The apparent value of an Ivy League education is a function of its exclusivity. We want to be a club that only a few people can join, is the sentiment. And that is unfortunate. It's a reflection of the competitive conditions in higher education.

Show Links:

Recommended Resources:

• U.S. News Best Colleges
• Build Your Own College Rankings (New York Times)
• Niche
• President John F. Kennedy’s Frost Speech 

Guest Profile:

• Faculty Profile at University of Pennsylvania 
• President's Profile on Reed College
• Colin Diver on LinkedIn
• Colin Diver on X

His Work:

• Breaking Ranks: How the Rankings Industry Rules Higher Education and What to Do about It
• Article on The Chronicle of Higher Education
• Article on Los Angeles Time
• Article on The New York Times

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