[preview]

I'm surprised at the university representatives who were disturbed by Clemson's gaming of the system. Shouldn't this make those people (and US News) question the validity of the ranking? Instead of making a display of outrage, why not find a better methodology?

The most troubling aspect of this is that good schools feel the need to become arbitrarily more selective in order to boost their ranking.

[nickb]

As if they're not using the same techniques... The 'outrage' is probably just a façade. You can bet that they took notes and will be using some of the same strategies when they get back and start having meetings.

[noodle]

speaking as a clemson alumni, the outrage is either for show, or because someone outed secrets in public.

none of the things that clemson did are secrets or new. the only thing that could be considered to possibly be unethical, imo, would be the class size shifting. but, again, this isn't new. my high school actually did this as well, in order to improve its appearance from outside metrics. and it isn't a secret. students received somewhat regular updates on what the president was doing/implementing, and i distinctly remember this being mentioned. maybe not worded the same way, but the concept was communicated.