Closed off on the third floor of Bentley Annex, a group of Ohio University students are trying to change what people value in higher education by creating a new college ranking system that will appear in Forbes online magazine ' a week before the established US News and World Report list of top schools goes public.
We're trying to challenge
I guess conventional views about higher education the view that more money equals higher results
stuff like you have to have high SAT scores to have a good college experience or even a rigorous one
said Gordy Ruchti, a recent OU graduate and a member of the think tank creating the new rankings. We're challenging the country club campus
the endowed chair professor and the well-funded football team that doesn't bring anything back.
The system was started by Richard Vedder, a professor of economics and founder of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, and is based largely on alumni success and student satisfaction. It also accounts for the average amount of debt a student will incur, predicted and actual graduation rates and awards won by students and faculty.
US News and World Report uses variables such as SAT scores, faculty salaries and endowments.
Forbes published Vedder's initial ranking of 240 institutions in May and since then he has expanded the list to include more than 570 with help from his think tank, which includes 10 mostly OU students located on campus and in Washington D.C.
The students work about 40 hours a week out of a lab in Bentley Annex and communicate with their D.C. counterparts mainly through e-mail or file sharing. All of the students were hired by Vedder and learned of the project in various ways ' through roommates, professors or word of mouth.
Dr. Vedder only works with undergraduates
I guess he likes the cheap component
Ruchti joked, adding on a serious note that, He chooses people that are motivated. Everyone in this room has an independent project they're working on
or a couple.
While the goal of the new rankings are not to replace those used by US News and World Report, they are there to provide a new way of looking at higher education, Ruchti said.
We look at fewer inputs and more outputs. G? Ultimately we're focusing on students and how well they do in life rather than how well they did in high school
he said.
The rankings will appear on Forbes.com later this summer, and members of the think tank are confident they've developed an effective system.
Our methodology is not perfect
but you can make an argument that it is the best available
