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"To really compete with the

Submitted by C. Leung (not verified) on October 4, 2006 - 9:03pm.

"To really compete with the Harvards, Yales and Princetons..."

I'm sorry, but Cornell won't beat Harvard, Yale and Princeton with some one-off publicity stunt involving opting out of the US News rankings. The problem isn't that people think Cornell isn't innovative or that it's ranked 12 instead of 11 - it's that just because of our sheer size and the fact that we're half public, we aren't as competitive or as well-endowed as some of our other Ivy League schools.

"The U.S. News survey is "widely criticized" for its poor methodology and its subjective criteria, yet most major universities cooperate with the magazine."

The federal government is widely criticized for its stance on war, the budget deficit, foreign relations and terrorism, but most states cooperate with them. Just because US News has come under some criticism it doesn't mean that they are completely and utterly wrong. You can claim that Reed College is doing "well" after parting with the rankings, but really, if not for their little spat with US News, who would have ever heard of Reed College? Reed did not and still does not have the national and international prestige that many schools, including Cornell, have. Thus, it really can't be used as an example of how Cornell will suddenly improve if it opted out of rankings.

Being ranked 12 out of some 4000 colleges and universities is not bad at all... I don't see why we should be complaining about our "low" ranking if we're not willing to make some drastic changes to our selectivity.

For your information, I applied early and came halfway around the world to attend Cornell, and I am damn proud to be here.

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