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TagJeff Stake

alma-mater-statue-near-the-columbia-university-library-stockpack-adobe-stock
Alma Mater statue near the Columbia University library.

Should You Choose a College Based on Well-Known Rankings?

What goes into those rankings? Big Data has enabled newer ranking systems that may tell you more of what you need to know

Yesterday, philosopher of science Bruce Gordon interviewed physicist Jed Macosko and law professor Jeff Stake about how to read college rankings. What, exactly, lies behind those numbers, especially the ones from the iconic U.S. News & World Report? Are they something you can bank on or something you should know more about first? Macosko and Stake think you should know more. As Gordon’s introduction puts it, rankings are big business and can lead to outright fraud: A recent stark example of the financial implications of college and university rankings is the case of Moshe Porat, former dean of Temple University’s Fox Business School. Porat was convicted on November 29, 2021 of engaging in a fraudulent scheme to move the business Read More ›

law book library
Law book library

US News’ Law School Rankings Are Losing Ground, Analyst Says

Big Data has enabled a number of competitive new ranking systems, says Wake Forest University prof

Recently, physics professor Jed Macosko of Wake Forest University spoke to Mind Matters News about the way access to huge troves of data (Big Data) enables a variety of university ranking systems, depending on what matters to the prospective student. This is a far cry from traditional ranking systems like US News, which assume that all agree on the ranking criteria. You’re a physics professor who co-founded a new college ranking system. How did you end up here? I was born in 1972, in Minneapolis. My dad, Chris Macosko, who had a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University, worked in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota. There were four of us kids and we grew Read More ›