Concerning NRC rankings

[JeremiahParadise]

http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-English/124728/

Take a look. Which would you weigh more heavily: potential programs' S-Rank or their R-Rank?

The NRC site says the following on the subject: "R-Rank: Programs are ranked highly if they have similar features to programs viewed by faculty as top-notch" and "S-Rank: Programs are ranked highly if they are strong in the criteria that scholars say are most important."

I know it's foolish to take any rankings as fact, but I think they can sometimes be helpful for determining how potential employers will view our degrees. And I'm wondering which metric gives a better indicator of those views. What do you think? Has anyone used this page as a resource? Is it all garbage? Thanks.

[lolopixie]

I'm retarded sometimes and I can't really understand the graph. BUT my opinion is that the subject is more important. That will give you the background you need in order to be able to up the ante on your research ability.

[Networc]

I think PHDs.org does a better job explaining the measures:

Survey-Based (similar to S-rank): "The survey-based quality measure is one of two estimates of overall program quality prepared by the NRC. Both measures use the same data on 20 key variables, but they use different methods to determine which variables are the most important predictors of program quality. For the survey-based measure, the relative weight of each variable is based on input from about 50 faculty members in each field. Each faculty member was asked to identify the most relevant variables in assessing program quality and to give each one a numeric value according to its importance."

Regression-Based (similar to R-rank): "The regression-based quality measure is one of two estimates of overall program quality prepared by the NRC. Both measures use the same data on 20 key variables, but they use different methods to determine which variables are the most important predictors of program quality. For the regression-based measure, the relative weight of each variable is derived input from about 50 faculty members in each field. The faculty assessed a random selection of graduate programs on a scale of 1 to 6 without specifying the their assessment criteria. Those variables that were most often associated with highly regarded programs received the most weight."

I feel that these measures are best used together. PHDs.org allows you to toggle the weights to see how they affect the rankings.

Edit: That being said, I tend to weight the Regression-Based score higher than the Survey-Based. To me, it sounds like it would rank schools based on how similar they are to the "leaders" in the field. But, I can see how this might allow for more bias based on 'prestige'.

Edited January 16, 2012 by Networc

[perrykm2]

I think the student ranking would be most important because nothing matters if you can't 1. fund the program or 2. graduate from it.

[0000000000AAA]

It also doesn't matter if you can't get hired afterwards with a PhD.

[ComeBackZinc]

It's particularly hard to take seriously considering that they seem to simply list English departments as departments, when there's such a tremendous amount of difference within them based on subfield. People doing ESL are not the same as people doing creative writing who are not the same as people doing rhet/comp. And the job market is very different for different subfields.