Rating the nation’s colleges

Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009 | 2:06 a.m.

UNLV suffered a blow to its reputation last week when Forbes magazine ranked the school 486th among the top 500 public and private colleges and universities in the country.

The one saving grace is that the ranking, compiled with the assistance of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, a higher education think tank in Washington, was based on deeply flawed methodology.

One-quarter of the ranking was based on student evaluations of professors and courses as compiled by the Web site RateMyProfessors.com. Though some input on that site can be useful, there is nothing to stop students who scored poorly in class from ripping their professors in retaliation.

Another quarter of the ranking was based on postgraduate success as determined by entries in Who’s Who in America and by an online salary survey. The inclusion of Who’s Who was ironic because Forbes in 1999 published a lengthy article by political commentator Tucker Carlson titled “The Hall of Lame.” Carlson criticized many entries in the reference book, including those on a bowling coach, a driver’s education instructor, an undertaker and a social worker.

The Forbes ranking didn’t take into account many of the facets of a university that give it credibility. In the case of UNLV, its highly respected Boyd School of Law and Harrah College of Hotel Administration did not factor into the methodology in any noticeable way.

Forbes should keep that in mind and rely on a more fair methodology if it chooses to rank universities again.

The shame of this for UNLV is that Forbes is a publication that caters to the very business leaders who might be interested in expanding their companies to Southern Nevada. To those employers who place a great deal of emphasis on the quality of higher education, UNLV’s ranking is not going to look good.

UNLV certainly has room for improvement and can use more financial support from the state. Forbes’ readers, though, should beware that the college rankings paint a woefully incomplete picture of the school’s worthiness.