
DATE: Friday, October 3, 1997               TAG: 9710020545

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Education 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER 
                                            LENGTH:  140 lines

COLLEGES GET A HARSH LESSON IN RANKINGS

Rankings, schmankings

James Bosch didn't look at any of the annual ``best colleges'' listings in popular magazines when he picked Old Dominion University.

The Florida native's investigation showed that the Norfolk university had great success in getting graduates into the local medical school. That was good enough for him - he wants to be a doctor like the many others in his family.

``Nobody I know pays attention to them,'' Bosch said.

College rankings? What of them? was the usual response from students on local campuses. They either hadn't heard of them or couldn't care less.

Sheffrie Butler notices the rankings, but she's on campus because her husband is stationed here in the Navy, and it has been one of his few postings near a four-year school. Tracie Crowell enrolled because his credits from local Tidewater Community College transferred easily.

One word drew Adrian Diaz of New Jersey south to Virginia Wesleyan College: ``beach.'' Allyson Hyatt and Colleen Rose came because of another word: ``location'' - both live in the school's city, Virginia Beach.

And for Liana Nestor, traveling north from the Virgin Islands to Norfolk State University was a matter of economics: NSU offered her the best financial-aid package.

The effect of outside rankings on their college choices was nil. Good thing for the local four-year schools. None was highly rated recently in perhaps the best-known of the mass-media rankings, by U. S. News & World Report.

Old Dominion was ranked in the fourth and lowest tier of national universities. As a comparison, the other Virginia school in that tier was George Mason University.

Virginia Wesleyan, which moved up from the regional liberal-arts colleges category to the more-prestigious national category in 1995, also was ranked in the fourth tier of such schools.

And Norfolk State was ranked in the fourth tier of regional universities in the South. Virginia State University joined it.

The same study, as it has in past years, placed the University of Virginia and the College of William and Mary in the top 50 national universities. Both made the top 10 public national universities, with the University of Virginia named No. 1.

Harvard University in Massachusetts was the overall top university; Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania was the top liberal arts school.

The rankings were based on 22-page surveys sent to leaders of 1,400 four-year colleges across the United States. The questionnaires covered such things as rates of acceptance, freshmen retention and graduation; class sizes; per-student expenditures and ``academic reputation,'' a subjective measure accounting for 25 percent of a school's score.

But college officials here and elsewhere warn that prospective students and their parents should take the information with a good-sized chunk of salt - they don't tell the whole story about any school, they say. And they don't have much effect, one way or the other.

``I guess I read those magazines, but they're increasingly becoming irrelevant,'' ODU President James V. Koch said.

Such rankings, he said, emphasize traditional entering-freshmen statistics such as college-entrance test scores and high-school class standings and predicted graduation rates based on them. But they don't take into account the rise of off-campus classrooms linked by computers, the large number of non-traditional - read: older or second-career - students who don't finish degrees in standard time frames, graduate studies, special programs for military personnel, and the like.

``That's the direction higher education is moving,'' Koch said. ``These rankings pay absolutely no attention to that.''

In 1994, Virginia Wesleyan was ranked 17th of the south region's 113 liberal arts colleges. The next year, it was moved up to the more selective national-school category according to the standards of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which also rates colleges, but it winds up in the lowest tier of that category.

``It's ultimately a subjective process,'' said Stephen S. Mansfield, Virginia Wesleyan's dean.

When he receives the U. S. News survey, he said, he leaves blank the questions about schools he doesn't know. Not everyone does, he said, and there's a lot of debate in academic circles about the worthiness of such rankings. In fact, a college president in the West tried to launch a campaign to halt participation in the surveys.

Younger, smaller schools - 1,400-student Virginia Wesleyan opened in 1966 - often don't receive the number and quality of applications that older, more established schools do, which hurts ``academic reputation'' and rankings, Mansfield said.

``Obviously, we'd like to see that (ranking) increased,'' Mansfield said. ``But . . . national is more prestigious than regional.''

U. S. News also noted that Virginia Wesleyan had the second-lowest graduation rate in its category - 37 percent - but there are some explanations, said Mary S. Bruner, a college spokeswoman. A smaller school means fewer available programs, so many students leave to finish their degrees elsewhere in the programs they need. A high percentage of commuters plus many military families mean students often move. And the graduation measure doesn't count those who transfer to the school.

Parents do sometimes ask Norfolk State about school rankings, which leaves Admissions Director Frank W. Cool III explaining that the rankings don't measure everything a college does - especially a school like Norfolk State, which accepts a wider range of students as part of its mission.

``We do things that we're not ranked for,'' Cool said. ``In my opinion, we are ranked highly. We do take kids in and give them an opportunity.''

No sour grapes, though, Cool said. The school's staff feels good about what it's doing, and shares those successes with callers. And if NSU received a high ranking, he'd certainly trumpet it, he said.

``It'd be nice to be No. 1, but we're real happy with where we are,'' Cool said. ``We're going to continue to get better.''

Even U. S. News provides a disclaimer of sorts. It called its rankings just one factor to consider in choosing colleges, and an imperfect one even though it now puts more weight on what colleges do than on the attributes of the students coming to them, the magazine said in a news release.

``But we believe that our approach produces rankings that are reliable and fair,'' it said.

Fair or not, many students don't pay them any mind.

``If your parents didn't go to an Ivy League school, and you're not rich, so to say, then . . . you just basically go for the school that helps you out,'' said Norfolk State's Nestor, a junior majoring in education. ``Times are hard.''

``The main thing here is location'' and the cooperative relationship with TCC, said ODU's Crowell, an ex-Navy, 29-year-old senior engineering student. ``And they have an outstanding engineering program.

``Most of the students in my classes are older students. And very few of them are right out of high school. . . . And a lot of them are ex-military people.''

Several students said the proof's in the classroom, no matter where a school is ranked.

``I'm glad I did come here, as tough as it is,'' said Patsy Marrero, a senior human-services major at Virginia Wesleyan who relied on the good word of a friend in New Jersey to transfer. ``I'm learning.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

RICHARD L. DUNSTON/The Virginian-Pilot

The Education Building at Old Dominion University provides a

backdrop to students walking on the campus.

Graphic

How local schools fared

For complete copy, see microfilm

Graphic

Virginia school ranking

For complete copy, see microfilm KEYWORDS: COLLEGE UNIVERSITY RANKING SURVEY