Getting on the Front Page: Organizational Reputation, Status Signals, and the Impact of U.S. News and World Report on Student Decisions

Abstract

Recent studies have suggested that a causal link exists between college rankings and subsequent admissions indicators. However, it is unclear how these effects vary across institutional type (i.e., national universities vs. liberal arts colleges) or whether these effects persist when controlling for other factors that affect admissions outcomes. Using admissions data for top-tier institutions from fall 1998 to fall 2005, we found that moving onto the front page of the U.S. News rankings provides a substantial boost in the following year's admissions indicators for all institutions. In addition, the effect of moving up or down within the top tier has a strong impact on institutions ranked in the top 25, especially among national universities. In contrast, the admissions outcomes of liberal arts collegesparticularly those in the lower half of the top tier-were more strongly influenced by institutional prices.

Student satisfaction, league tables and university applications: Evidence from Britain

“…A third insight is that the influence of information contained in league tables depends on its salience. Bowman and Bastedo (2009) show that the impact of moving onto (or off) the front page of the USNWR ranking is over and above the ordinal ranking of institutions. Luca and Smith (2013) show that, when presented as an ordinal ranking, the USNWR has a statistically significant impact on applications.…”

“…One is that the impact of rankings is most pronounced amongst the top-tier of highly ranked institutions with their influence dwindling, or even disappearing altogether, for lower tiers (Griffith and Rask, 2007;Sauder and Lancaster, 2006). Second, the influence of rankings may vary with individual characteristics, such as race (Bowman and Bastedo, 2009), gender (Mueller and Rockerbie, 2005) and fee-paying status (Griffith and Rask, 2007). A third insight is that the influence of information contained in league tables depends on its salience.…”

Measuring university quality

“…Turning to the relatively few quantitative studies of university rankings, Bowman and Bastedo (2009) and Monks and Ehrenberg (1999) examine the effects of changes in the US News & World Report's National Universities rankings, finding that universities that climb the ladder receive more applications and enroll a more highly qualified pool of students. Grewala et al (2008) focus instead on the factors that result in changes in US News & World Report rankings: while persistence is the norm, graduation and retention rates emerge as the most important causes.…”

“…They are now used as explicit targets by university administrators (Hazelkorn, 2007), in funding decisions by government authorities (Rauhvargers, 2013;Salmi and Saroyan, 2007), and as important factors in students' application and enrolment decisions (Bowman and Bastedo, 2009;Monks and Ehrenberg, 1999).…”

An Exploratory Multiple Case Study about Using Game-Based Learning in STEM Classrooms

“…In the field of STEM education, while there is an increasing demands for STEM-related jobs because STEM careers are driving our economy and generating a disproportionate number of other jobs (National Research Council, 2011), students at all levels are not interested in STEM subjects (Bowman & Bastedo, 2009). By the time elementary students reached 3 rd and 4 th grades, one third of them lost interest in math and science.…”