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Beyond the grade

Bernadette Starzee //September 23, 2019 //

Photo by Judy Walker

Photo by Judy Walker

Beyond the grade

Bernadette Starzee //September 23, 2019 //

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Drew Bogner

U.S. News and World Report came out with its annual higher education rankings this month, applying a variety of data points to rate schools in broad categories such as “National Universities” and “Regional Colleges-North” in addition to more specific criteria, such as “Value,” “Public Schools,” “Social Mobility” and “Best for Veterans.”

The rankings from U.S. News have been around for 35 years and are used by parents and students as they navigate a busy college landscape. As the original college list in a market cluttered with all manner of newer rankings, the U.S. News list gets particular attention from many college marketing offices.

“Some rankings are more well-established than others,” said Braden Hosch, associate vice president for institutional research, planning and effectiveness at Stony Brook University. “Most institutions know where they stand on the U.S. News and World Report list.”

Hosch proudly pointed out that Stony Brook has been in U.S. News’ top 100 for about a decade, placing No. 91 among national universities and No. 39 among public schools nationwide. That being said, Hosch takes the U.S. News rankings and the many others that have flooded the marketplace with a grain of salt.

“You can’t throw thousands of pieces of data into an algorithm and say the college that’s ranked No. 7 is better than the one at No. 8,” he said. “No single number can really capture the excellence or quality of a university or its faculty or students or staff. When rankings come out and we do well, we’re gratified that we were recognized and we do play it up in our marketing. But we don’t manage toward rankings; we manage toward mission.”

When students come to Stony Brook, “they don’t give the rankings as the top reason,” Hosch said. “Rankings are hooks to get people interested in giving the college a closer look, but they’re doing a deeper dive.”

Rankings, like accreditations, “can be an indication of high quality, but not the only indication,” echoed Herman Berliner, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Hofstra University in Hempstead, which cracked the top 100 in the U.S. News list for “Best Value” among national universities, ranking No. 97 in that category, and No. 162 among national universities overall. “They are an important snapshot but they don’t provide a full picture of a quality education.”

Besides U.S. News, college rankings from Forbes, Money magazine, the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education and other publishers have emerged in recent years, using a variety of methodologies to compare colleges.

“There are so many out there, and some of them are there one year and then disappear the next,” said Kathy Coley, senior director of communications for Farmingdale State College. It’s a lot of information to weed through, “but rankings have been good to us [including tying for the No. 21 spot in the Regional Colleges-North category and coming in 11th among public schools and 12th for value among regional colleges in the North in the U.S. News new list] so we include them in our marketing,” she said.

Debra Lund, senior director of marketing and analytics for Adelphi University, also evaluates all the ranking lists that come out.

“Parents and students look at the U.S. News list, and counselors use it, so it’s the one we focus on most in our marketing,” Lund said. Adelphi was No. 166 among national universities and No. 102 for value among national universities in the latest edition. “But we also focus on the other popular ones, like Forbes, and also College Niche, which the students look at more than the parents.”

Lund said that Adelphi lists some of the rankings in printed materials, print and digital advertising, social media and on its website.

“We use these badges as a kind of proof of performance, a qualifier – something that is important for catching the attention of people who haven’t heard of us as we grow outside the core market,” Lund said.

Besides marketing to incoming students, rankings play a role in reengaging alumni with the university.

“Good rankings are a point of pride for alumni, who get really excited when they see one,” said Meryl Altuch, assistant vice president of marketing for Stony Brook University.

Newer rankings tend to put a greater focus on outcomes, such as graduation rate and salaries after graduation, than “inputs” – criteria like GPA of the incoming students and peer assessments from college presidents and provosts in the region, said Drew Bogner, president of Molloy College in Rockville Centre. “The outcomes are what parents and students tell us are most important to them,” he said.

“Somehow we got to a point where the important thing was for the kids to go away and have a formative experience, and there was less emphasis on what happens after that,” Bogner continued. Students and their parents racked up tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt, and the students couldn’t get jobs when they graduated.

“We’re at a historic moment now,” Bogner said. “Things are shifting. Generation X parents and their kids are more practical and more concerned about the outcome and less focused on formation and development.”

While “a certain segment of the marketplace will still look for formative experiences,” Bogner said, “I don’t think it will be seen as a medallion of success that you were able to send your student away to a top private institution like it was for a long time. If you look at the window decals on the backs of cars in the region, you begin to wonder what part of it was the parent wanting to have that decal? High schools, too, want to advertise how many of their students went to Ivy League schools or little Ivies, but what we should look at is what happens after graduation, and that’s where the ratings are shifting.”

Last year, The Wall Street Journal ranked Molloy No. 18 in the country for “Added Value.” Added value was calculated by comparing predicted salaries – based on factors including students’ SAT scores, family income and the school’s percentage of first-generation college students – to the actual outcomes for graduates 10 years after enrollment. Other accolades for Molloy have included inclusion in the “Top 10 Best Value Schools” among Catholic Universities by College Values Online in 2017 and the No. 1 College to Study Healthcare Professions by College Factual, also in 2017.

“The advantage of going to school in the New York area – if you want your son or daughter to get a good-paying job – is that institutions like Molloy use the metropolitan area for clinical opportunities and internships, and the experiences are at a higher level than they would be elsewhere,” Bogner said, noting that Molloy students have done an average of three internships by the time they graduate.

“At Farmingdale, we know that our students get really good hands-on applied learning experiences,” Coley said, adding that in the college’s survey of 2018 graduates, 90 percent were employed within six months of graduation.