University drops in U.S. ranking list

Boston College continues to fluctuate in the U.S. News and World Report's "America's Best Colleges," falling to 40th in the 2006 issue, released last month. In the past four years, BC has alternated from 38th, 40th, and 37th before returning to 40th this year.

"We were happy last year at 37, and we could be happier, but it's certainly not unusual over the last 5 years," said Dean of Enrollment Robert Lay.

The rankings are based on a 100-point scale averaged from data including peer assessment, graduation and retention rank, class size, selectivity, and financial resources. BC increased or stayed the same in most categories, but fell from 3.6 to 3.5 (out of 5.0) in peer assessment, which accounts for 25 percent of the final score.

"People need to realize that by a fraction of a point we could be ranked substantially higher," said Jack Dunn, University spokesman.

"Even though we improved on every dimension or stayed the same, we are ranked slightly lower because these other schools made vast changes," said Lay, in reference to schools such as Lehigh, Rochester, and Georgia Tech, who jumped several notches this year. "We don't want to take [the drop] personally, but we want to analyze what these other schools are doing to improve their ranking."

BC's fluctuation is tied in to these other schools, with which it closely shared rank last year. The University was tied with Lehigh, Rochester, and Illinois, ranked 37th last year, so BC technically held the 37th-40th rankings. This year BC shares ranking 40 and 41 with the University of California-Irvine.

BC made solid improvements in faculty resources rank, financial resources rank, and alumni giving rank and broke into the top 20 of graduation and retention rank.

The University hopes to make greater changes in faculty resources rank, according to Dunn. New York University, which is tied for 37th right above BC, is ranked 30th in this area.

"That is a major factor in placement in the top 36-40 schools. If we could improve that score we could certainly move up," he said. He also hopes to improve the average alumni giving rate from 25 percent to 30-33 percent.

"Thirty years ago we were a poor school, and now we're one of the nation's 40 wealthiest schools," said Dunn. "The commonality of the schools ahead of us is that they have more money."

To improve peer assessment, Lay discussed the new public service announcements for the ACC emphasizing BC's academic strength. "We're doing that on purpose," he said. "It may not have helped us this year but we're just getting started. While we're not happy about [the variation], we know how difficult it is. Maybe this gives us more motivation to work hard. We know over an extended period of time we will improve our reputation."

Administrators were quick to undermine the significance of the rankings. "We always tell students that the U.S. News rankings are just one of many measurements for prospective students to consider," said Dunn.

"It's better to ignore the rankings as much as you can, but it's hard to avoid them," said Lay. "We take it seriously because we know that students and parents pay attention to them."

Michael Cherkezian and Joe Sabia, both A&S '06, studied the rankings as high school students. "As a freshman I cared [about rankings], but now I don't," Sabia said. "It's sad that kids are going in and basing things on ranking."

"It's hard to compare schools with such different personalities," said Cherkezian. "It's hard to compare NYU to BC, because it is a completely different environment and curriculum. It's like trying to rank a dog better than a cat."

Lay, who sits on the national advisory board for U.S. News offered insight about how the magazine views itself. "They are befuddled about how seriously most colleges take the rankings," he said. "Their attitude is, 'Why do people take it so darn seriously? We're just providing a lot of information.'

"Students are not going to choose a school this way," he continued. "They want to visit the campus and talk to students. If our ranking helps people justify taking a look at BC, then we know we will get the right people here. We don't want to fool anybody. We want people to know as much about us as possible, and we want them to want to be here."