Gaming the College Rankings
Claremont McKenna
Claremont McKenna  part of the Claremont Colleges cluster outside Los Angeles  acknowledged Monday that a senior officer had resigned after admitting that he had inflated the average SAT scores given to U.S. News since 2005.
SAT score averages are also reported to credit rating firms and the Department of Education  which is looking into  Claremont McKennaâs  actions  said Justin Hamilton  the agencyâs press secretary. He said the department could impose fines and other penalties for supplying misinformation  but rarely did  particularly if the college brought the problem to light on its own.
 Ionaâs  case was extreme; U.S. News ranked its undergraduate college 30th among âregional universitiesâ in the Northeast  but estimated that with correct data it would have dropped to 50th.
Also last year  the law schools of Villanova University and the University of Illinois acknowledged that they had misreported some statistics; Villanova conceded that its deception was intentional  while Illinois did not say. And at the United States Naval Academy  famous for its honor code  a professor recently accused administrators of inflating the number of applicants  which the academy has denied. In 2009  a number of institutions were found to be inflating their percentages of full-time professors â another criterion used in ranking systems. The impact and extent of  Claremont McKennaâs  cheating remains unclear. In a statement to the college staff and students  the president  Pamela B. Gann  wrote  âAlthough the degree of inaccuracies varied over time  we understand that the reported critical reading and/or math SAT scores were generally inflated by an average of 10-20 points each.â
Mr. Morse said that without more precise information  he could not measure how such a change might have altered the collegeâs ranking  but it might have made the difference in cracking the top 10 of liberal arts colleges  a bragging right that  Claremont McKenna  reached this year for only the third time.
 Claremont McKennaâs  reputation has risen over the years; as recently as 1990   it  was not in the U.S. News top 20. But  it  is often conscious of the comparison with  its  neighbor  Pomona College  which U.S. News rated fourth among liberal arts colleges.
Mr. Vos had been dean of admissions at  Claremont McKenna  since 1987. âHe was always one of the people that I considered one of the good guys in the profession â said Ralph Figueroa  director of college guidance at Albuquerque Academy  a private day school in New Mexico.
In her Monday statement  Ms. Gann  the college president  said  Claremont McKenna  discovered the discrepancy in reported SAT scores and conducted an internal review  during which one senior administrator stepped forward to take sole responsibility.
Claremont McKenna  part of the Claremont Colleges cluster outside Los Angeles  acknowledged Monday that a senior officer had resigned after admitting that he had inflated the average SAT scores given to U.S. News since 2005.
SAT score averages are also reported to credit rating firms and the Department of Education  which is looking into   [TGT] said Justin Hamilton  the agencyâs press secretary.  [TGT]  said the department could impose fines and other penalties for supplying misinformation  but rarely did  particularly if the college brought the problem to light on its own.
 Ionaâs  case was extreme; U.S. News ranked its undergraduate college 30th among âregional universitiesâ in the Northeast  but estimated that with correct data it would have dropped to 50th.
Also last year  the law schools of Villanova University and the University of Illinois acknowledged that they had misreported some statistics; Villanova conceded that its deception was intentional  while Illinois did not say. And at the United States Naval Academy  famous for its honor code  a professor recently accused administrators of inflating the number of applicants  which the academy has denied. In 2009  a number of institutions were found to be inflating their percentages of full-time professors â another criterion used in ranking systems. The impact and extent of   [TGT] cheating remains unclear. In a statement to the college staff and students  the president  Pamela B. Gann  wrote  âAlthough the degree of inaccuracies varied over time  we understand that the reported critical reading and/or math SAT scores were generally inflated by an average of 10-20 points each.â
Mr. Morse said that without more precise information  he could not measure how such a change might have altered the collegeâs ranking  but it might have made the difference in cracking the top 10 of liberal arts colleges  a bragging right that   [TGT] reached this year for only the third time.
  [TGT] reputation has risen over the years; as recently as 1990    [TGT]   was not in the U.S. News top 20. But   [TGT]   is often conscious of the comparison with  its  neighbor  Pomona College  which U.S. News rated fourth among liberal arts colleges.
Mr. Vos had been dean of admissions at   [TGT] since 1987. âHe was always one of the people that I considered one of the good guys in the profession â said Ralph Figueroa  director of college guidance at Albuquerque Academy  a private day school in New Mexico.
In her Monday statement  Ms. Gann  the college president  said   [TGT] discovered the discrepancy in reported SAT scores and conducted an internal review  during which one senior administrator stepped forward to take sole responsibility.