Washington Monthly Editor-in-Chief Paul Glastris: “We don’t say it’s unimportant if you can get into a selective school, but it’s not relevant to most Americans.” Courtesy photo
After a decade at U.S. News and World Report, Paul Glastris had seen it all.
At one point in the early 2000’s, he disliked what he saw so much, he left the magazine.
Glastris departed U.S. News in part because of what he saw as flaws in the methodology in its rankings. He decamped to Washington Monthly, where he commissioned researcher Amy Graham, former director of data research for U.S. News, to create an all-new rankings system.
“U.S. News has traditionally ranked colleges on exclusivity, prestige and wealth,” Glastris says. “At Washington Monthly, our three main metrics are completely different — we measure upward mobility, research, and service.”
GLASTRIS SAYS P&Q IS MISSING 80% OF THE STUDENT AUDIENCE
Glastris broke it down. On one hand, you have 80% of the student population — the middle or lower class — who value the qualities that Washington Monthly measures. On the other hand, he says, you have Poets&Quants, U.S. News, and other publications that cater to the remaining 20% — the upper-middle class and the upper class.
Glastris was unfamiliar with P&Q‘s ranking methods, but after we explained, he concluded that our approach was similar to that of U.S. News and the majority of other rankings.
“Measuring schools based on how many students a college doesn’t let in (exclusivity), how well-known and important a school is thought to be (prestige), and how much money a school spends and brings in (wealth), is a recipe for the kind of higher education system which is wildly undemocratic,” he says.
See Washington Monthly‘s 2024 College Rankings here. See Poets&Quants‘ 2024 Best Undergraduate Business Schools Ranking here.
THE BIG PROBLEM WITH RANKINGS
To illustrate: The U.S. News Best National Universities Ranking. Only three from that list are public universities, whereas Washington Monthly includes 16 public schools.
Glastris says the big problem with the way U.S. News does its rankings is that “if all colleges try to climb up the U.S. News rankings, we get a highly class-shifted unequal, undemocratic, inegalitarian higher education system — whereas if they aim to do well in our rankings, we get a much more democratic system where opportunity is more widespread, costs are lower, etc.”
Rankings not only capture the attention of students, parents, and schools; they also serve as crucial intel for the general public. “Our rankings also guide taxpayers on where to allocate their tax dollars, supporting universities that truly make an impact,” Glastris says.
‘THAT’S JUST NOT HOW WE JUDGE COLLEGES’
So what needs to change about P&Q‘s rankings? Respectfully, Glastris says, that’s not for him to say.
“We are simply catering to different audiences. I will say you won’t find selectivity, SAT’s, or GPA’s in our rankings anywhere. That’s just not how we judge colleges,” he says. “We are measuring different things.”
So does he respect our ranking system? Yes. Would he adopt our ranking system? No.
For those who haven’t seen Washington Monthly’s rankings, as you might expect, you’ll see some new school names at the top. “You see all sorts of schools that don’t do particularly well in the U.S. well that do extremely well on our rankings,” says Glastris.
He commended us in a few ways.
“What you have is a good business model for the people with money who are really discerning and looking to go away to school. That’s also why U.S. News does it — that’s where the money is, that’s where the eyeballs are. I get it — we just don’t do it that way.”
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