Colleges Gaming the System

SEAN NGUYEN
Staff Writer

As colleges begin admitting freshmen, there will be situations where students must pick between colleges that have accepted them.
Students and families often refer to rankings from sources such as U.S. News & World Report or Forbe’s Top Colleges List in making the final decision.
However, the reliability of these lists and the integrity of some institutions of higher education come into question with the recent revelation that some schools have manipulated their data for higher standings. A notable example emerged when Claremont McKenna College’s (CMC) President Pamela Gann reported that the school had been deliberately misreporting SAT statistics since 2005.
“The reported critical reading and/or SAT scores were […] inflated by an average of 10-20 points each,” Gann said in an e-mail to the CMC community.
According to the U.S. News & World Report, CMC is currently ranked No. 10 on the National Liberal Arts Colleges list. At AHS, some suggested that students should be wary of rankings.
“Students should not base their decisions off of these rankings anyway,” junior Ryan Dunning said. “The data that they use, such as SAT scores, are not good indicators of a student’s ability to do well in college.”
Other AHS students believe that while college rankings may be skewed due to misrepresentations, the lists themselves still provide valuable information on potential colleges.
“The list provides other colleges’ names that [students] are unfamiliar with,” senior Asia Chi said.
In a previous example of higher education institutions attempting to artificially raise their average scores, Baylor University was found to have offered money to its freshmen students to retake and raise their SAT scores by a minimum of 50 points. Students at AHS questioned the ethical issues that surround such practices.
“I understand that higher scores means more recognition and better resources, but it is deceiving for schools to do this,” senior Amber Castro said.