
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 18, 1995                   TAG: 9504180128
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

COLLEGE RATINGS UNDER SCRUTINY

For years, American colleges have railed against magazine rankings of their campuses as oversimplified ``short cuts'' that gloss over the complex, subtle nature of learning.

Now there are contentions that some of the schools, under pressure to attract students, are fibbing about the figures they send each year for the rankings done by U.S. News & World Report, Money magazine and others.

The rankings have come under closer scrutiny since a Wall Street Journal article April 5 reported discrepancies in data sent for the rankings and information sent to debt-rating agencies.

The dispute over the rankings has underscored the importance of marketing to the nation's 3,000 colleges and universities.

``It's a buyer's market,'' says Lee Stetson, dean of admissions at the University of Pennsylvania, whose school was not mentioned in the Journal article. ``And the amount of publicity you get helps determine the students you get.''

A spokesman for New York University - which was mentioned in the Journal article - said questions asked by the surveys can be interpreted in different ways, which results in varying answers.

For example, the Journal reported that NYU, in responding to the U.S. News survey, excluded the SAT scores of about 100 poor students in a special state-sponsored program. But NYU's Virgil Renzulli said Monday the U.S. News survey asked for SAT scores for students entering school in the fall. The 100 excluded students began classes in the summer.

``This has become a fairly big thing,'' Renzulli said. ``We don't take this as an accurate rating of how good a school is.''

Among other discrepancies reported by the Journal:

New College of the University of South Florida, in Sarasota, reported its freshman class average SAT score as 1296. But that score was obtained by cutting off the bottom-scoring six percent of students, raising the average 40 points. Admissions director David Anderson told the newspaper the practice, since stopped, was part of the school's marketing strategy.

Northeastern University in Boston and several other schools excluded international and remedial students' SAT scores, even though surveys specifically said not to. Northeastern's provost, Michael Baer, said the practice gave potential students a more accurate reflection of what their peer group would be.

Long Island University told U.S. News that its graduation rate was 55 percent, but told the National Collegiate Athletic Association the rate was 28 percent, the Journal reported. A spokesman for the school said Monday that the discrepancy seen by the Journal was an example of ``one office not communicating with another office.'' Gary Wojtas said the higher number included transfer students, who graduate at an extremely high rate, while the lower number only counted students entering the university as freshmen.

Harvard University, which often ranks near the top of surveys, had a slight discrepancy in the SAT scores it reported to U.S. News and to Moody's Investors Service Inc., the Journal said. Marlyn McGrath Lewis, director of admissions for Harvard and Radcliffe College, told the Journal the U.S. News figures were accurate and described the Moody's information as a ``mystery.''

by CNB