THE MOTHER OF ALL RANKINGS

The online magazine Slate blasted U.S. News & WorldReport last year for the way it conducts its immensely hyped annual rankings. "Whatever their validity as measures of academic excellence, the annual rankings are a brilliant gimmick for U.S. News. But there's a problem," wrote Slate's Bruce Gottlieb. "A successful feature like this requires surprise, which means volatility. Nobody's going to pay much attention if it's Harvard, Yale and Princeton again and again, year after year."

More recently, The WashingtonPost took U.S. News to task. In an August story, the paper quoted education experts as saying the rankings "give the false impression that there really is a difference between the No. 1 and No. 6 institutions... and that colleges change quickly from year to year."

U.S. News doesn't disputethe fact that it constantlychanges its methodology.Instead, it touts the changesas improvements. For a detaileddescription of howU.S. News ranks colleges,go to www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/collmeth.htm.