[hkmurakami]

Agreed about the profits.

But I think you underestimate the need for Stanford to do everything it takes to get maximize their rankings. Most college applicants base their college choice largely on rankings, and the best students are going to be the most likely to give $$$ "back to the school" (whatever that means). If every other top college (I guess the "Ivy+" schools) is trying their darnedest to inflate their ranking metrics, then Stanford is eventually going to find itself towards the bottom half of the top 10 schools with respect to rankings. That will actually affect its long term student body quality in ways that it doesn't want.

Now I personally don't think rankings mean anything, but this is me, 10+ years after my own college applications. From the school's perspective, they have to protect their ranking.

[duaneb]

I found the rankings immensely helpful in selecting a college. Since then I've realized how little the rankings mean for much of the top 50, 100 colleges. A startup that allowed the user to define their own rankings could make bank.