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yale daily news · wednesday, september 10, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
from the front
“Comparisons are odious.” Miguel de cervantes spanish novelist
Admins question utility of rankings system rankings From page 1 many high school applicants and media outlets attribute to college rankings, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeremiah Quinlan and other college admissions experts cautioned against reading too much into the results. Although the University consistently ranks highly in the U.S. News rankings, Quinlan said there are considerable flaws and potential pitfalls with a comprehensive college ranking system. “Any time you try to rank an incredibly diverse set of institutions in an ordinal way, there are going to be issues,” Quinlan said. For example, Quinlan said he is concerned that the metrics of the U.S. News rankings could incentivize schools to overvalue the importance of standardized test scores or prioritize using financial aid resources for merit scholarships at the expense of needbased scholarships. He added that his office does not ascribe much importance to Yale’s rankings. Still, experts interviewed said that many schools pay close attention to their rankings on a year-to-year basis. “The research shows that many university administrators make educational policy decisions with the school’s ranking in mind,” said Robert Morse, director of data and research at U.S. News. In order to rise in the rankings, Morse said a school might decrease class sizes or hire more research-oriented faculty. Still, he said U.S. News does not encourage schools to let the company’s ranking methodology be a primary reason for making administrative or policy shifts. David Petersam, president of the Virginia-based higher education consulting group AdmissionsConsultants, said many admissions offices use the rankings as a gauge of how well they are doing. But Quinlan rejected that claim where Yale is concerned,
adding that the University’s admissions office uses its own internal set of metrics such as the strength and diversity of the incoming freshman class and admitted student surveys to assess its performance. Tony Marx ’81, the former president of Amherst College from 2003 to 2011, said rankings do not adequately assess the quality of higher education because the metrics used are too narrow. “There is real educational benefit in having a diverse community of students from a variety of backgrounds,” he said. According to Marx, the U.S News rankings do not reward schools who take students from low-income or ethnically underrepresented backgrounds who may either have lower standardized test scores or are statistically more at risk of dropping out. Although Morse conceded that the U.S. News rankings do not consider ethnic diversity in its rankings, he said the rankings do reward schools whose students graduate at a higher rate than the average for their socioeconomic background. Quinlan and all three college counselors interviewed said one of the reasons the U.S. News and World Report has so much clout in higher education is its near monopoly on college rankings. “We need another gorilla in the room, starting from a place that incentivizes different types of admissions behavior,” Quinlan said. Just over a year ago, President Barack Obama announced that the federal government is in the process of building its own rating system to hold America’s 7,000-odd colleges and universities accountable for performance, and to help control rising tuition fees. Although the Department of Education has yet to publicize an exact date when this ranking will be released or the exact methodology by which universities will
U.S. NEWS COLLEGE RANKINGS Princeton
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Harvard Yale UChicago Stanford Columbia
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MIT Duke UPenn
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CalTech
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Dartmouth 2009
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be evaluated, Quinlan said he is hopeful that this new federal ranking could challenge the U.S. News and World Report’s historic dominance by evaluating colleges with a more holistic set of metrics. But Morse said his company would likely be unaffected by the introduction of a federal rating system because the two systems would be measuring different qualities. While U.S. News is trying to assess the academic excellence of a school, the government will try to measure the best postgraduate outcomes for a student in comparison to the tuition a school charges, he said. Still, Morse cautioned students or parents from relying too
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heavily on college rankings during the college search process. “College rankings should be only used as one tool in the application process,” he said. He added that it is important for students and parents to do as much independent research as possible. Although all 18 students interviewed said college rankings affected their college selection process in some way, the opinions of Yale freshmen differed from those of the eight high school seniors interviewed. Seven of eight high school students said the rankings will play a strong role in deciding where they will apply. Sophie Whisnant, a high
Bolden urges global cooperation
2013
school senior from Wilmington, North Carolina, said she is only applying to schools that were ranked in the top 10 for journalism, the subject she plans to study. “I think rankings give me a pretty good preview of how good the programs are there, especially since, as a high schooler, I don’t really have much to base my opinion off of,” said Bob Wang, a senior from San Diego, Calif. But only three of 10 Yale students interviewed said the rankings played an influential role in the college application process. Lena Nasrallah ’18, a freshman from Egypt, said she had to rely on rankings more heavily because, as an international stu-
NASA administrator Charles Bolden spoke to a packed room about his experiences and the program’s importance. bolden From page 1 ble telescope completely altered the way in which the universe is viewed, he said. Bolden also discussed how NASA, and space travel at large, is advancing quickly, with the possibility of longer and more thorough missions. In the coming years, space travel to Mars may take only half the time it currently does, he said. But most importantly, Bolden said, he considers the collaborative spirit of space research a paragon of the kind of cooperation that can and should happen on Earth, calling the International Space Station “the United Nations in orbit.” “How we continue to work collaboratively and make scientific discoveries speaks loads to what we can do on Earth,” Bolden said. “What is being done 250 miles above is done by people who don’t always agree on things on Earth.”
International collaboration is particularly essential to success in outer space, Bolden said, adding that the United States alone will not be able to put a crew on Mars without the brainpower of other nations. Throughout his talk, Bolden emphasized the importance of exploring other planets, in particular Mars, through NASA initiatives. “We all came from the same place. So if we can see what happened to these planets, we can find things not to do so we don’t end up like them,” Bolden said. Student feedback on the talk was overwhelmingly positive. Madison Stenzel ’18 said she was most impressed by the inspirational value of Bolden’s personal story. In particular, she was struck by how Bolden was able to become so successful in his field even though his career did not seem like an attainable possibility when he was growing up. Ashesh Trivedi ’18 said he appreci-
ated how Bolden tried to make outer space a topical subject for the audience members. “I thought [the talk] would be a lot more administrative because I had no idea about his background, but he’s more of the idea that NASA needs to be appealing to everyone and science is for everyone,” Trivedi said. “Space is now.” Genevieve Silva ’17 said she was most interested by the new advances in space technology that NASA is developing. But it was Bolden’s “charismatic” personality that made the talk so enjoyable, according to Gerrardo Carranza ’17, who also said he appreciated the broad scope of the discussion. Bolden’s talk marked the kick-off event of The Politic’s speaker series, which will feature a different speaker each week throughout this semester. Contact Phoebe Kimmelman at phoebe.kimmelman@yale.edu .
2015 dent, she could not easily visit schools. But Herbert Gilman ’18, a freshman from New York City, said college visits were a far more important factor for him than university ranking systems. In this year’s U.S. News rankings, Stanford, Columbia and the University of Chicago were in a three-way tie for 5th place. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Duke, University of Pennsylvania and the California Institute of Technology rounded out this year’s top 10. Contact Rishabh Bhandari at rishabh.bhandari@yale.edu and Patrick Peoples at patrick.peoples@yale.edu .
Politicans call for more local jobs new haven rises From page 1
lakshman somasundaram/contributing photographer
2014
paign’s nine key leaders. “We’re going to improve the economic standing of the people of New Haven.” Statistics released last year by New Haven’s data hub DataHaven revealed that of the approximately 83,000 jobs in New Haven, only 47,000 were considered to pay a living wage. Only 9,000 of those jobs are held by New Haven residents, and a mere 2,000 are held by residents of inner-city neighborhoods. “The data speaks for itself,” said NHR key leader Jaime Myers-McPhail, standing at a podium, backed by other leaders holding info graphics describing New Haven employment data. “We’re engaging all residents in a discussion about this crisis.” To organizers, the “jobs crisis” can be solved by collective community action and by educating other city residents, as it did in its initial campaign. Their petition demanding greater job access for city residents has accumulated over 4,000 signatures. “We as a city coming together will create more access to good jobs,” said Rev. Scott Marks, an organizer for New Haven Rises. “We need to build consensus.” While they did not fully develop specific demands, organizers and audience members were vocal and passionate about continuing a broader call for more access to jobs. The campaign’s next steps will be to send letters to the 20 top employers in New Haven, including YaleNew Haven Hospital and United Illuminating, to make them aware of the employment situation and ask for their help in hiring more New Haven residents, said Kenneth Reveiz, another of the campaign’s Key Leaders. New Haven Rises also plans on collaborating directly with the Chamber of Commerce. “Employers probably have no idea what’s going on,” Poole said. “This movement is meant to bring this situation to light.” About 10 alders aligned with New Haven Rising were in attendance Tuesday. The organization emerged partly out of electoral grass-roots organizing in 2011, supporting the wave of
labor-backed alders who are now in the majority. Several other elected officials, including Senator Gary Holder-Winfield and Mayor Toni Harp’s chief of staff Tomas Reyes also came to demonstrate support for the campaign. Poole said that New Haven officials are key allies because they can implement policies that would encourage employers to prioritize employees or contractors from the city. With huge developments on the horizon, he said, there will be many opportunities in the near future for the city to help get more residents to work. “We need leadership and courage from you,” Reveiz addressed the politicians in the crowd. “We are pushing to expand access and open up the doors for all.”
We as a city coming together will create more access to good jobs. Scott marks Organizer, New Haven Rises Another issue the campaign intends to address is unemployment and underemployment in the city. According to DataHaven’s 2013 Community Index, unemployment in low-income neighborhoods in New Haven, at 17.9 percent, is nearly twice the national average. About a third of jobholders, moreover, can be counted as underemployed. Pastor Valerie Washington and Pastor Héctor Otero, among the 25 faith leaders flanking the podium, delivered impassioned sermons stressing the importance of good jobs for their congregations. Both said that many of their members are forced to work two or three jobs to stay financially afloat, which has a profound impact on their children’s safety and success. New Haven Rises was chartered in July 2012. Contact sebastian medina-tayac at sebastian.medina-tayac@yale.edu .