PHILADELPHIA, July 23 (UPI) -- Some small U.S. colleges are chaffing at the rules used to establish the popular rankings of universities issued by U.S. News & World Report.
Forty-six liberal arts schools have signed an agreement to boycott the magazine's rankings next year in hopes of prodding it into changing the way they are compiled, The Philadelphia Inquirer said Monday.
Of particular concern is part of the survey asking college officials to rank other schools on a scale of 1 to 5. Critics told the Inquirer most administrators lack the detailed knowledge of other schools needed to make informed decisions.
While the rankings account for only 25 percent of an individual school's score, the officials said it is impossible to come up with informed opinions on more than 200 colleges across the country,
The magazine's editor, Brian Kelly, defended the process, saying it was a fairly common survey practice used to measure intangibles.
