To the Editor:

As usual, Yeshiva University's placing in US News & World Report's annual college ranking has received much attention, particularly because YU jumped four places since last year. In the last issue of The Commentator, Michael Kranzler is quoted as saying that this jump should come as no surprise. "Given the caliber of the students we have been attracting over the past few years, it isn't any wonder that we continue to rise in the rankings," he said.

Perhaps Mr. Kranzler chose to ignore the fact that annual fluctuations in a college's rank are rarely due to any substantive change in the college. Rather, the editors in charge of the ranking continuously alter their methods of determining rank, and this year's recipe happened to work to Yeshiva's advantage. In other words, the same data is merely being chewed differently.

As was also noted in the article, Yeshiva's financial resources compensated for a lagging academic reputation. Apparently the fact that the ranking redirected emphasis away from the caliber of the students worked to Yeshiva's benefit

But rankings are for losers. The only barometer of how "good" any school is should be the success and satisfaction of its students, however this may be defined. Numbers make nice sound bites for the PR office, but this is what truly counts.

Chananya Weissman
RIETS/YC '01