Another ranking has come down the pipeline, Columbia, and we're number five (huzzah!). What's more, according to the people doing the ranking (The Global Language Monitor), this is the only one we should trust:
TrendTopper MediaBuzz utilizes a mathematical model that 'normalizes' the data collected from the Internet, social media, and blogosphere as well as the top 75,000 print and electronic media. The end result is a non-biased analytical tool that provides a gauge of relative values among various institutions, as well as measures of how that value changes over time.
Leaving aside for a moment the vagueness of the word "value," we might ask ourselves if a methodology that simply tracks how often a school is mentioned in the media or online is really an effective means measuring overall quality. And then we might ask ourselves if that was a serious question because of course it's not an effective means of measuring overall quality, dammit.
