Ranking reconsidered: U.S. news yields on yield.

When the new edition of the U.S. News & World Report Guide to America's Best Colleges comes out later this month, yield won't be part of the mix. The magazine's editors say the yield factor, and its part in the early admissions debate, had become a lightning rod for criticism. The annual ranking issue has drawn fire over the years because of its influence on school choice: Early decision programs boost a college's yield, making it appear more desirable to prospective students and their families.

"They're right that it has become a Lightning rod, because it appears to the public that colleges manipulate yield, thinking it will improve their rankings," says admissions consultant and University Business contributor Howard Greene. "But, in fact, it is such a small factor that U.S. News is wise to do away with it."

Greene says rankings are not the reason colleges care about yield; rather, it is how competitive they are with one another for the best students. "For example, part of what led Princeton to go coed years ago was that its yield was going down as other institutions went coed," he says. "Every decade there are trends for which schools become more competitive within their particular orbit of college competitors."

Dropping yield will ultimately have title effect, because "it's not about rankings, it's about competing for the top kids," Greene says. "That's what really drives early admissions programs, and just because U.S. News has dropped the yield ranking, that's not going to change the competition."

But the rankings do influence public perception of an institution, Cook: Looking for substance says Allegheny College (PA) President Richard Cook, who would like to see more effective criteria tied to student Learning.

"It shouldn't sound like sour grapes, because at Allegheny we're very pleased with our national profile. But we also know that students who choose us--or anyone else--based on those rankings are not making an informed choice," he says. "They need to visit the campus and talk to faculty, students, and alumni to get a sense of the campus atmosphere and what we offer--that's the way to choose a college. Students start their college lists in early high school. If they mention a school that isn't as well known, they may be so embarrassed by their friends that they drop it from consideration because they need to go with something that's 'safer' or better known among their friends. What an unfortunate circumstance that is."