College Rankings: Why isn't the Forbes list more widely followed than USNWR?

What are you ranking them about? Best education, best jobs, satisfaction with life, etc?

Forbes ranking is about vocational training. US News is about education.

They are different things.

ARWU is the most popular amongst prep conselours today given ARWU's methodology is fully open, contributors can be contacted by email and or challenged at regularly held public conferences. In contrast, the people employed to do the Forbes and USNWR are not transparent, the primary goal of Forbes and USNWR to sell copies at newstands at Northeast US subway and rail stations.

$$$$$$$ wrote:

Forbes ranking is about vocational training. US News is about education.

They are different things.

What Forbes says, and I would agree, is that their metrics are about output (or results) and US News is about input (a student's standing going in).

Times Square Elmo wrote:

$$$$$$$ wrote:

Forbes ranking is about vocational training. US News is about education.

They are different things.

What Forbes says, and I would agree, is that their metrics are about output (or results) and US News is about input (a student's standing going in).

Cater to EGO & Make Money wrote:

Times Square Elmo wrote:

What Forbes says, and I would agree, is that their metrics are about output (or results) and US News is about input (a student's standing going in).

Which essentally means the US News and Forbes surveyors are told to flex the survey to increase magazine sales as much as possible.

What does "flex the survey mean?" What kind of manipulation would increase sales? One school above or below another has little value for the publishers, it only has value to the school, students or alumni.

Certainly both are trying to expand brand and sales (USNWR is no longer a magazine), but I don't see how having a good survey would create a conflict with increasing sales; just the opposite. Conversely, what is the issue with increasing sales or making money if you create a good idea?

High School USA wrote:

ARWU is the most popular amongst prep conselours today given ARWU's methodology is fully open, contributors can be contacted by email and or challenged at regularly held public conferences. In contrast, the people employed to do the Forbes and USNWR are not transparent, the primary goal of Forbes and USNWR to sell copies at newstands at Northeast US subway and rail stations.

ARWU is an excellent ranking system, but probably a bad list to consider for the average HS senior, especially one pursuing a liberal arts education. I think there are strong arguments for schools which focus on teaching undergraduates vs. conducting world class research, and that does not seem to be considered in this survey. I don't want to assume that small liberal arts colleges are better at teaching undergrads than big research universities, but this survey assumes the opposite.

Among other reasons: Because last year (this?) Forbes gave Sweet Briar College an 'A' for financial stability.

Any bunch of monkeys can collate self-reported data.

In this day and age, US News/Forbes has to let us know how they computed the rankings, what were the criteria, list the names and bios people who made the decisions, and allow us space for a blog on their websites.