GW slips in 2008 college rankings

The George Washington University dropped another spot for the second year in a row in the latest college rankings from U.S. News and World Report, released this morning. However, the University did improve in its rankings for undergraduate business programs and student debt.

GW slipped to 54 on the prestigious U.S. News’ “America’s Best Colleges” rankings, tied with Pepperdine University in Ca. and the University of Maryland, College Park. GW was 53 in the 2007 rankings, and 52 in the 2006 and 2005 editions.

Kathy Napper, the director of admissions, said that these rankings must be taken with a “grain of salt.”

“All one has to do is look at the Admissions criteria for a number of the schools in the “top 50″ (versus GW) to see the irrelevance of the rankings,” said Napper in an email. “Since we continue to increase our application numbers as well as selectivity, there is no reason to believe that the rankings will affect admissions numbers–students are looking for the ‘right fit’ for college as opposed to a ranking.”

U.S. News ranks each University using “15 indicators of academic quality,” included: peer assessment (GW’s score was 3.4 out of 4), freshman retention rate (92%), graduation rate (79%), percentage of classes under 20 and over 50 (56% and 12%), percentage of full-time faculty (67%), SAT scores (1190-1380), percentage of incoming freshmen in the top 10 percent of their high school class (65%), acceptance rate (38%), and the average alumni giving rate (11%).

Kaplan and Newsweek also released their college rankings this week. Kaplan’s “Guide to 380 Colleges” is a more informal handbook for college seniors that offers two-page profiles of each university. In that issue, published by Newsweek, GW is ranked seventh among the top “25 cutting-edge schools with an eye toward the future.” However, it is unclear what, if any, methodology was employed.

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