New College Information Website

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen Oct 2, 2007

Here's an interesting development in the college rankings controversy. Over the past year, a growing list of private colleges and universities have been boycotting U.S. News &World Report's annual ranking of U.S. schools by refusing to participate in the Report's surveys. Why? Many schools feel that the ranking system is biased and unscientific and pits schools against each other. They also feel the ranking system is not particularly useful because students are all looking for different things. A college that fits one student's needs ideally will not necessarily meet another students needs at all, and therefore students should spend some time visiting schools instead of relying on college rankings.

The schools who are boycotting U.S. News &World Report' have gone a step further. The protesting schools have formed an organization called The University and College Accountability Network--or UCAN-- and together they have created a new website that offers students detailed information about private colleges and universities--without ranking them against each other. This information comes directly from the schools themselves and includes facts about admissions, ACT and SAT scores, degrees, diversity, and more.

Want to take a look? Here's the UCAN website.

Pretty neat, huh? Students can log onto the site and compare information about schools. They can create their own personal ranking systems based on whatever criteria they themselves find important. By not comparing themselves against each other, schools help to take away this notion that colleges ought to be in competition with one another. It's too bad the site only contains information about private colleges--but maybe down the road that will change.