2008 Woodie Awards
Video related to this article is available below.Issue date: 2/12/08 Section: News
Schools get their say in rankings
Colleges choose who is asked to fill out Princeton Review surveys
Alyssa Schwenk
Other schools take different approaches to alerting students about the survey. Stanford University, for example, uses student volunteers to staff tables around campus where other students fill out the surveys in person, according to Shawn Abbott, Stanford's director of admissions.
At other schools, Adams said, information technology departments send e-mails to a randomly generated sample of students.
Despite the relatively small pool of students notified directly by the Admissions Office about the survey, Lustig said he believes the diversity of personalities within Kite and Key would present an accurate portrait of Penn student life.
Penn's results "look random. We can see the differences with classes and genders of students," Adams said.
She added that the Princeton Review would likely catch cases of administrators trying to skew the survey results positively. In 2001, Adams noted, the president of Macalester College tried to target responding students after alumni complained about the school's appearance on the Review's "Students Ignore God on a Regular Basis" list and Princeton Review noticed the statistical shift.
The Princeton Review surveys are completed by about 120,000 college students nationwide, averaging about 325 students per school.
At other schools, Adams said, information technology departments send e-mails to a randomly generated sample of students.
Despite the relatively small pool of students notified directly by the Admissions Office about the survey, Lustig said he believes the diversity of personalities within Kite and Key would present an accurate portrait of Penn student life.
Penn's results "look random. We can see the differences with classes and genders of students," Adams said.
She added that the Princeton Review would likely catch cases of administrators trying to skew the survey results positively. In 2001, Adams noted, the president of Macalester College tried to target responding students after alumni complained about the school's appearance on the Review's "Students Ignore God on a Regular Basis" list and Princeton Review noticed the statistical shift.
The Princeton Review surveys are completed by about 120,000 college students nationwide, averaging about 325 students per school.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
JJ Man
posted 2/12/08 @ 2:07 PM EST
I saw Karl Rove visited campus. I didn't know he was an advisor on how to spin surveys though.
Penn student
posted 2/12/08 @ 10:51 PM EST
Hopefully the Princeton Review will have the balls to put an asterisk next to any Penn survey results.
Disgusting
posted 2/12/08 @ 11:41 PM EST
Why is this Kaplan fellow not calling this the ridiculous garbage it is and speaking about it as if it were a legitimate move?
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