Eric Dash: Don't dismiss the rankings

When the University captured an all-time high No. 5 spot in the U.S. News and World Report rankings last week, Judith Rodin didn't uncork the celebratory champagne and toast dear old Penn. Nope, she and other top administrators brushed off the hype, saying they were pleased with Penn's high standing, but as usual, the rankings "should [not] be taken too seriously."

That refrain has become something of an annual rite in recent years, as higher education officials at Penn and beyond take advantage of the rankings to vent their frustration at such a flawed measure of a school's performance.

And you know what? They're probably right. There's not much credibility to a survey that relies upon an ever-changing methodology as well as imprecise criteria, and results in a billing of Princeton as America's best university.

But flawed or not, there is no question that administrators and students realize the importance that U.S. News and other magazine rankings have on their institutions. Regardless of what they say, these ridiculous rankings are taken damn seriously. I should know. As an intern at BusinessWeek two summers ago, my job was to help run a similar project that rated top MBA programs.

Not a week went by when I didn't field a call from an overzealous administrator, lobbying me with reasons why his or her school should catapult to the top of the list, or providing unsolicited suggestions on how to improve the methodology. Countless others attempted to tweak the data so that it portrayed their school in a more favorable light.

Still, others turned elsewhere for an edge. Most business school communications departments subscribed to a newsletter devoted entirely to rankings developments. Other schools commissioned high-paid consultants to analyze their results. In fact, one official from a major university told me that her dean hired her away from a top consulting firm to improve the school's ranking position.

Then, he followed up the Big Five consultant's appointment up with Big Bucks: a $2 million slush fund dedicated toward landing the school a higher position.

Perhaps the strangest strategy came from a top B-school dean, who actually thought that a slickly crafted marketing campaign might move his institution up a notch. He even sent baseball cards to BusinessWeek depicting his MBA students as comic book superheros -- complete with names like the Dot-Com Dynamo or the Super Entrepreneur.

Admirably, officials at Penn don't seem to go that far. Their attitude seems to be closer to "Let's be holier than thou," than, "Let's game the system." While College Hall administrators try to remain above the fray by saying that Penn does not put much consideration into the rankings, their impact is just too pervasive to dismiss. Besides, everyone likes to have a winner -- and more than that, success begets success.

Admissions Dean Lee Stetson certainly knows that. Do you think it's a coincidence that the number of Penn applications soared by 22 percent between 1997 and 2000 -- a move that not surprisingly corresponded with Penn's surge in the rankings?

The folks from Alumni Affairs and University Development know it, too. Dialing for dollars is a lot easier when you have a top-of-the-line product to hawk.

Wharton Dean Patrick Harker can tell you what being number one does for the egos of those hyper-competitive B-school alums. When hotshot Wharton graduates can brag at the water cooler about being the top school in the country, donations flow more freely. And that, in turn, improves other ranking factors, such as the endowment and other faculty resources.

Surely, Penn's media-savvy president also recognizes the importance of the national exposure a top ranking brings. Strategic goal number one of Rodin's Agenda for Excellence: to solidify and advance Penn's position as one of the premier research and teaching universities in the nation and in the world. And how might most people measure that?

The Penn administration should never let these polls drive their actions. But at the very least, they need to be taken seriously. By claiming relative indifference to the results, Penn officials are doing themselves -- and the University -- a great disservice. The stakes of the rankings game are just too high for them to ignore, or more precisely, claim to take with a grain of salt. After all, rankings don't just sell magazines, they sell the school itself.

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