A revealed preference ranking of U.S. colleges and universities
By: Christopher Avery ... [et al.].
Contributors: Avery, Christopher; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series ;; working paper 10803; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) ;; working paper no. 10803.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Subjects: Universities and colleges -- United States -- Evaluation.; College choice -- United States.
Description: "We show how to construct a ranking of U.S.  undergraduate programs based on students' revealed preferences.  We construct examples of national and regional rankings, using hand-collected data on 3,240 high- achieving students.  Our statistical model extends models used for ranking players in tournaments, such as chess or tennis.  When a student makes his matriculation decision among colleges that have admitted him, he chooses which college "wins" in head-to-head competition.  The model exploits the information contained in thousands of these wins and losses.  Our method produces a ranking that would be difficult for a college to manipulate.  In contrast, it is easy to manipulate the matriculation rate and the admission rate, which are the common measures of preference that receive substantial weight in highly publicized college rating systems.  If our ranking were used in place of these measures, the pressure on colleges to practice strategic admissions would be relieved"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
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Mode of access: World Wide Web.