Spring Break
Rankings Released
Princeton Review, U.S. News pass their annual verdict of Drexel's performance.
By: Marshall Fleming
Issue date: 8/24/07 Section: News
Originally published: 8/24/07 at 3:05 AM EST
Last update: 8/24/07 at 3:04 AM EST
Originally published: 8/24/07 at 3:05 AM EST
Last update: 8/24/07 at 3:04 AM EST
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Popular college rankings were released by the Princeton Review and U.S. News and World Report in late August, with Drexel's assessment staying relatively similar to previous years.
The U.S. News and World Report tries to provide a comprehensive overview of schools, while Princeton Review focuses on lifestyle of the top schools, and other reviews focus on specific schools and even individual concentrations.
How much importance the rankings hold varies from person to person. Drexel administrators, like most people, put more emphasis on some rankings more than others.
"These rankings are kind of imperfect," said Provost Stephen Director. "The U.S. News and World report rankings-people have been bashing those for years, and there's a lot of problems with them. To some degree they measure input, they don't measure output. They don't necessarily measure all the things that are even right in terms of input. For example, a lot of students choose Drexel because co-op. That's just not on their radar screen at all."
Selçuk Güçeri, dean of the College of Engineering, pays attention to the rankings and gives them some weight, but knows that they are somewhat of an illusion.
"I do put some weight behind them, but do I put a lot of weight like that's the only thing that matters? No. Absolutely not," said Güçeri. "When they put the rankings, they also put tabulated data, like SAT's, graduation percentage, and it sort of creates an illusion of the metrics that play into their rankings. But we were surprised when we went back to them and they said they asked for that information, but it doesn't play into their rankings."
Other administrators gear their focus toward industry specific magazines more than the U.S. News and World Report that tries to cover everything.
"There are two ranking authorities; one is BusinessWeek, and the other is U.S. News and World Report," said George Tsetsekos, dean of the LeBow College of Business. "BusinessWeek rankings focus attention on a set of parameters that evaluate the quality of education, the quality of students; they are very objective. And at the same time, one of their parameters that they have is the responses that are received from students. They send a survey to the students, and the students independently present their views about how good or bad this particular business program. So this is the BusinessWeek ranking. The U.S. News and World ranking is the ranking that is based on perceived quality of business deans. So there is just one score in the U.S. News and World Report that assesses the program based on what others outside of your business school believe."
Even rankings for essentially the same aspect of a school can vary greatly between magazines doing reviews of schools. In 2006, Entrepreneur Magazine listed Drexel as the 6th ranked school for undergraduate entrepreneurial programs; (the magazine has not yet released its 2007 rankings). Fortune Small Business, on the other hand, did not even mention Drexel in its 2007 rankings.
Among the more notable rankings that mentioned Drexel was the U.S. News and World Report, ranking the university as a whole 108th, and the engineering program 57th overall.
Despite the general dismissal of the rankings in the world of academia, President Papadakis still wants to see the university move up in the rankings. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Papadakis wants to see the University reach the number 80 spot in U.S. News and World Report within 5 years.
The U.S. News and World Report tries to provide a comprehensive overview of schools, while Princeton Review focuses on lifestyle of the top schools, and other reviews focus on specific schools and even individual concentrations.
How much importance the rankings hold varies from person to person. Drexel administrators, like most people, put more emphasis on some rankings more than others.
"These rankings are kind of imperfect," said Provost Stephen Director. "The U.S. News and World report rankings-people have been bashing those for years, and there's a lot of problems with them. To some degree they measure input, they don't measure output. They don't necessarily measure all the things that are even right in terms of input. For example, a lot of students choose Drexel because co-op. That's just not on their radar screen at all."
Selçuk Güçeri, dean of the College of Engineering, pays attention to the rankings and gives them some weight, but knows that they are somewhat of an illusion.
"I do put some weight behind them, but do I put a lot of weight like that's the only thing that matters? No. Absolutely not," said Güçeri. "When they put the rankings, they also put tabulated data, like SAT's, graduation percentage, and it sort of creates an illusion of the metrics that play into their rankings. But we were surprised when we went back to them and they said they asked for that information, but it doesn't play into their rankings."
Other administrators gear their focus toward industry specific magazines more than the U.S. News and World Report that tries to cover everything.
"There are two ranking authorities; one is BusinessWeek, and the other is U.S. News and World Report," said George Tsetsekos, dean of the LeBow College of Business. "BusinessWeek rankings focus attention on a set of parameters that evaluate the quality of education, the quality of students; they are very objective. And at the same time, one of their parameters that they have is the responses that are received from students. They send a survey to the students, and the students independently present their views about how good or bad this particular business program. So this is the BusinessWeek ranking. The U.S. News and World ranking is the ranking that is based on perceived quality of business deans. So there is just one score in the U.S. News and World Report that assesses the program based on what others outside of your business school believe."
Even rankings for essentially the same aspect of a school can vary greatly between magazines doing reviews of schools. In 2006, Entrepreneur Magazine listed Drexel as the 6th ranked school for undergraduate entrepreneurial programs; (the magazine has not yet released its 2007 rankings). Fortune Small Business, on the other hand, did not even mention Drexel in its 2007 rankings.
Among the more notable rankings that mentioned Drexel was the U.S. News and World Report, ranking the university as a whole 108th, and the engineering program 57th overall.
Despite the general dismissal of the rankings in the world of academia, President Papadakis still wants to see the university move up in the rankings. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Papadakis wants to see the University reach the number 80 spot in U.S. News and World Report within 5 years.
