A Quest for Ranking Excellence

Research “A Quest for Ranking Excellence” A man named Richard Freeland took over as president of Northeastern University in 1996. He took over a third-tier, blue-collar, commuter-based university that was known for its group of simple, functional buildings south of Huntington Avenue. Cuts made by the federal government in the mid-1980s had an effect on Northeastern. At that time, many schools were scrambling to find money to fill budget gaps. In the early 1990s, Northeastern's former president, Jack Curry, had to cut the budget and 875 jobs because of these cuts and falling enrollment. Curry broke down in tears when he told his staff that people were being let go. There was a way for Freeland to save Northeastern. He thought Northeastern could be saved if it could show students and parents why its costs were going up. Freeland thought that the place of a college on the U.S. News & World Report "Best Colleges" list always showed how valuable it was. Freeland saw that schools that were ranked highly got more attention and prestige, better applicants, more donations from graduates, and most importantly, more money. A bad grade made a university need money right away. There was only one list that Freeland thought could make or break a school. Curry had made Northeastern better while he was there, but these changes couldn't move the school up in the U.S. News rankings. With the motto "Smaller but better," Curry cut down on class sizes and made it harder for people to get in. He also tried to get students from outside of Boston by making the school friendlier by putting in new buildings like a library and a recreation center and replacing some of the crumbling blacktops with new ones. U.S. News didn't see these changes as having much of an effect on the school's reputation, which is the most important factor in their ranking method. Curry graduated 162nd from high school in 1996. New mantra for Freeland when he came to Northeastern: change the school to get ahead. Freeland says, "We made a systematic effort to change the outcome." He told university students to figure out how to break the U.S. News code and copy its formulas. He talked about the scores all the time, in the hallways and at board meetings, and used charts to help him make his point. He worked all day to figure out how to get the best boost in the charts for his money. He added the goal to the school's long-term plan. Freeland says, "We had to get into the top 100." It was a matter of life and death for Northeastern. The 1930s and 1940s were the start of U.S. News and World Report by David Lawrence as two different newsweeklies. In 1948, they merged. The magazine didn't run its first cover story ranking America's top 50 colleges until 1983. At the same time as the problem, there was a sudden surge in interest in higher education among the general population. Between 1970 and 1983, the number of people going to college rose by 47%. For the first time, you needed a college degree to get into the middle class. This led to a new need for unbiased, numerical data—like how Consumer Reports rates appliances, college scores would help people who are looking for their first college. The New York Times had just put out Edward Fiske's first Guide to Colleges at the same time as the U.S. News list. In 1984, the College Board started selling SAT prep books on a daily basis. Except for U.S. News, none of them were as reliable. In 1984, the magazine and its rankings brand were bought by billionaire publisher Mort Zuckerman. Robert Morse has worked for decades at U.S. News & World Report in Washington, DC, as a number cruncher for college ranks. He spends his days looking over the information that schools sent in over the summer. Morse is the top data strategist and creator of U.S. News's "secret rankings sauce." He has helped the magazine become one of the most respected and powerful voices in higher education. When editors at U.S. News first came up with a formula that could accurately say which school was the best, they put a number on something that people had thought was abstract. Colleges and universities have counted on a mysterious mix of prestige and reputation for many years.