The Foreign Service Journal, December 2016

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2016 109 EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT F or years, U.S. News & World Report ’s annual college rank- ings monopolized the attention of col- lege applicants and students, and their parents. Over the past decade or so, a number of competitors have cropped up, offering a variety of rankings and different ways to compare schools. Now Forbes, Kiplinger, Money, Niche (formerly College Prowler) and Princeton Review are all in the rankings business, too. This year, the Wall Street Journal joined the fray, linking up with Times Higher Education, a unit of the London company TES Global Ltd., to issue the inaugural WSJ/THE ranking of U.S. col- leges in September. WSJ/THE advertises its depar- ture from the traditional emphasis on “inputs”—average SAT scores or how many applicants are rejected—in favor of a greater focus on students’ postgraduate success and their own opinions about the quality of their education. The WSJ/THE rankings are based on 15 factors across four categories: student What’s Up with All Those Rankings? There are more ways than ever to compare schools. THE ED I TORS outcomes (40 percent), as defined pri- marily by salaries; the school’s resources (30 percent); how well the school engages students (20 percent); and diversity (10 percent). Among other things, the WSJ/THE rankings incorporate results from a survey of 100,000 college students about their college experience. The top spot went to Stanford Univer- sity. Forbes also ranked Stanford No. 1, with Williams College ranked No. 2. Addressing Adult Learners In another new development this year, Washington Monthly , the most promi- nent “alternative” ranking group, intro- duced what it describes as the nation’s first-ever ranking of the best colleges for adult learners—based on ease of transfer, flexibility of programs and services for adult students. Though nearly half of all college students today are adults, no national publication has ranked schools for them. The new ranking of best two-year and four-year colleges for adult learners joins Washington Monthly ’s “Best Bang for the Buck” rankings (added in 2012). Since it debuted “College Rankings: What Can Colleges Do for the Country?” in 2005, Washington Monthly has been driving the push to collect, explore and raise the weight of “outcomes” data in college rankings. WM ’s annual rankings, as well as the in-depth journalism on education in the United States that accompanies each College Guide, are based not on what col- leges do for themselves but on what they do for the country in terms of promoting social mobility, research and service. This year, WM ’s College Guide ben- efits from the Obama administration’s release of new outcomes information for all colleges and universities in the coun- try—such practical data as how much students earn 10 years after enrolling at a given college, and how likely they are to be paying down the principal on educa- tional loans. The Spread of Rankings In the meantime, the rankings world has spread out horizontally, not just to global rankings (produced by both U.S. News & World Report and THE), but to rankings for just about everything. Maybe you are into hiking. You have only to consult “The 20 Best Colleges for