We previously noted a Columbia math professor who raised serious doubts about the data the university reported to USNews.com for its college rankings; now USNews.com has removed Columbia from its number 2 spot last year. The real scandal here is not what Columbia did or didn't do; it's that USNews.com makes no effort to audit self-reported data. As Professor Thaddeus, the Columbia mathematican, is qouted as saying:
“What is clear is there’s no third-party vetting,” Dr. Thaddeus said. “At some point there has to be third-party auditing since these data are so important and so many people are making final decisions based upon the data. It won’t do to say these data are self-reported and there’s no way to check them.”
(Thanks to Gregory Mayer for the pointer.)
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