George Washington University on Wednesday lost its U.S. News & World Report ranking as one of the top national universities because the school revealed it had erroneously reported data on incoming students for more than a decade.
The private university held the coveted 51st ranking on the ‘‘Best Colleges’’ listing of the top 200 national universities. But U.S. News said the use of incorrect data in the September publication made the school’s rank higher than it would have been.
U.S. News said the school will have an ‘‘unranked’’ status until the publication of its 2014 edition of ‘‘Best Colleges’’ and until the school confirms the accuracy of its data.
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‘‘The rankings have been around for 30 years. No data that I've seen shows that education is better off because of the rankings,’’ Thacker said, adding that he’s not surprised schools are being caught manipulating numbers under competitive pressure. ‘‘This just underscores the notion that there’s a degree of arbitrariness that certainly does not justify the status and importance that is given to the rankings.’’
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