As the Hill welcomes one of its most qualified freshmen classes, students are watching Tufts undergo renovations galore. With Hodgdon, Sophia Gordon, and Hotung among the many sites on campus that have been recently built or renewed, Tufts clearly has improvement on its horizons.
But despite the seemingly overwhelming efforts to move up in the higher education sphere, Tufts has dropped one place, from 27th to 28th, in the prestigious U.S. News and World Report ranking of national universities.
Tufts shares its current spot with University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, just behind the University of Southern California.
The rankings are based on seven weighted categories determined by U.S. News and World Report. A quarter of the weight is based on peer assessment, while 20 percent is based on graduation and retention rates, 20 percent on faculty resources, 15 percent on student selectivity, 10 percent on financial resources, 5 percent on alumni giving, and a final 5 percent on graduation rate performance.
The formula used by U.S. News and World Report has come under fire recently from some college presidents, who believe that reducing each school to a single number ignores the complexities of each institution. On Sept. 7, a group of 19 college presidents from prestigious liberal arts schools such as Wesleyan, Middlebury, Bates and Amherst, signed a pledge to not mention their rankings in admissions programs or publications.
Tufts did not sign the pledge, however, and continues to promote its own ranking in spite of the drop.
Particularly low among other highly ranked universities was Tufts' "peer assessment" score. The rankings report, in its explanation of the research and numbers, said the peer assessment survey asks other university presidents, provosts, and admissions deans to judge the school's academic programs on a scale of 1 to 5 based on their own perceptions of factors like the faculty dedication to teaching.
Tufts' 2008 peer assessment rating was 3.6, in comparison to USC's 4.0, UNC's 4.2, and MIT's 4.9.
Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman said he was skeptical of rankings research methodology, but admitted that recruiting more distinguished faculty members is among Tufts' goals.
"I know the [university] is focusing on excellence in scholarship and research by our faculty," he said. "So good faculty members - recruiting them, retaining them, giving them laboratory space that they need to do research in - it's a key focus ... because those faculty members are what draw good students, what draws research money, and what draws federal support to Tufts."
Financial resources also play a role in Tufts' campaign to improve, Reitman said. U.S. News and World Report rated Tufts' financial resources at 35th in the nation, a number lower than its overall ranking as a university.
Reitman said that need-blind admission is a key factor in improving the national reputation of Tufts.
"Getting to be need-blind in our admissions process is a major factor in determining, I think, the make-up of the community and diversity that is reflective not just of nationality and race, but also socioeconomic resources," he said. "Having the financial resources to make it possible for people to come to Tufts and places like Tufts is one of the most important things that we could possibly do.
"What could be more important than improving accessibility to this type of education?" he added.
Jumbos interviewed were surprised by Tufts' downward shift, and many had been previously unaware of the new ranking. Junior Shrutih Tewarie said she was "shocked" by the drop.
"I thought [the ranking] would have gone up, especially because the freshmen who came this year were supposed to be the best," she said.
Senior Rida Bilgrami disagreed with the peer assessment ranking, citing the availability and friendliness of Tufts professors.
"I've always been able to go see my professors, especially compared to my friends at other schools," she said.
Contention over the credibility and meaning of college rankings is not a new issue, but college guides like the U.S. News and World Report have remained popular among prospective students.
This past summer, Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions did an analysis of college's views toward college rankings, surveying 322 colleges about their participation in the system.
The survey found that, of the colleges who willingly participated in the rankings guide this year, 97 percent said they plan to participate next year and in the foreseeable future. In addition, 57 percent of the schools said that college rankings are "generally or completely fair," according to Kristin Campbell, National Director of SAT and ACT programs for Kaplan.
"Rankings are here to stay," she said.
In spite of their popularity, particularly among high school students applying to college, Campbell said that the rankings cannot always stand alone.
"[The rankings list] is a great starting point, but keep in mind that only some statistics are going to be relevant," she said.
One statistic, she said, does tend to be helpful for prospective students: freshman year retention rate.
"That's a good measure of whether or not students are happy," Campbell said. "That's the one [statistic] that college admissions feel is a pure number ... any number over 90 percent is a strong indicator."
Tufts' average freshman retention rate, as of the 2008 report, is 96 percent.
But while many students, along with Campbell, conceded that the rankings are important on a basic level for high school students researching colleges, skepticism as to the quality and meaning of the numbers was strong.
"I definitely looked [at the rankings] as a high school student," junior Nathan Tanaka said.
But Tanaka said he wasn't concerned about Tufts' drop in ranking.
"It's just one spot," he said. "It's probably going to fluctuate."
In the Tufts Public Relations department, where Tufts' reputation is a major concern, the feeling was similar.
"Last year, Tufts University was tied with two other institutions for 27th place on the U.S. News and World Ranking report list of national universities. There is virtually no difference between that and being in 28th place ... moving a few spots one way or the other is not a concern," Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler told the Daily in an e-mail.
Reitman also said that he's unconcerned about the change in rank.
"The rankings and ratings are certainly looked at by high school students looking for colleges, so they matter in marketing." he said.
And based on the numbers for the incoming class, he said, marketing is not a problem for Tufts.
"I don't think Tufts is worrying too much about marketing these days if we judge the yield from the offers for admission for 2011 as a measure of how popular we are," Reitman said. "We're soaring."
