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Forbes challenges U.S. News in the college ranking game.

Nothing on law schools yet, but here's Forbes calculation of America's Best Colleges, done with Ohio University economist Richard Vedder, an economist at Ohio University and the Center for College Affordability and Productivity:

CCAP's methodology attempts to put itself in a student's shoes. How good will my professors be? Will the school help me achieve notable career success? If I have to borrow to pay for college, how deeply will I go into debt? What are the chances I will graduate in four years? Are students and faculty recognized nationally, or even globally?

Great questions! I wonder how they answer them....

To answer these questions, the staff at CCAP (mostly college students themselves) gathered data from a variety of sources. They based 25% of the rankings on 7 million student evaluations of courses and instructors, as recorded on the Web site RateMyProfessors.com.

Huh? They relied on RateMyProfessors?! That's utterly unscientific. Okay, everybody, head over to RateMyProfessors and game the system. Don't you want your school's rating to go up? Instead of going there to slam the teacher who made you read too much, failed to amuse you sufficiently, and gave you a bad grade, it's time to pad the ratings of your school's teachers so that you can improve your credentials.

That's if anyone cares about the Forbes ranking... which they shouldn't, if it's based on idiotic data.

Another 25% depends on how many of the school's alumni, adjusted for enrollment, are listed among the notable people in Who's Who in America.

Who's Who in America?! What's the methodology of inclusion in Who's Who in America?

Who's Who in America? A better question is: Who cares about the Forbes college ranking? Other than the folks at Wabash College and Centre College, 12th and 13th on the list.

And, yeah, I'm irked that they completely disrespected the University of Wisconsin?Madison ? at 335th.

Full post as published by Althouse on August 14, 2008 (boomark / email).