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Columbia University is one of the eight Ivy League schools in the United States. After being exposed by a professor for falsifying data, one of the university’s undergraduate colleges admitted to submitting false information to score higher in the rankings, the same way students plagiarize to score higher on placement tests.
Columbia University is located in Upper Manhattan. In US News & World Report’s prestigious annual rankings for 2021, the school placed second for its use of “outdated and inaccurate methods.” After the scandal came to light, the school slipped to 18th in the rankings.
The allegations have serious consequences, as the value of the average college degree to humanity has sparked a heated debate as college tuition has become the biggest driver of inflation in the United States. In August, U.S. President Joe Biden ended a heated debate over the hot political issue of student debt, ordering that more than $1.6 trillion in debt owed by students to the federal government be partially forgiven.
In addition, academic integrity is considered a cornerstone of higher education, making it all the more embarrassing for Columbia to admit the scandal. Students caught cheating on exams or plagiarizing without crediting the source are immediately punished by the school, often with expulsion.
In a statement released on September 9, Columbia University said: “The inaccuracy of the data we report, no matter how much or for what reason, is inconsistent with the pursuit of excellence that Columbia University has always upheld. standard.”
Unlike in other countries, in the U.S., potential employers often place more value on the schools people attend than what degrees they got or how good their average grades are. The Ivy League schools are considered the benchmark for American higher education, capable of educating America’s best and brightest young people how to best analyze a problem and arrive at a solution or make a logically convincing argument.
Harvard University has been touting its number of applicants every year, and students pay high tuition to get an education at Harvard, as the school admitted only 3.2% of its 2026 undergraduates in April, a record high. All-time low.
“Fake Ranking”
This culture has led to a high profile of college rankings. This ranking boils down the varied experiences of attending college into a few narrow key performance indicators. College-bound students and their parents each year scrutinize U.S. News & World Report’s annual special issue before deciding on their application goals.
According to Columbia University’s own calculations, the school’s tuition for the current academic year is as high as $65,000; plus room and board costs up to $86,000, and students usually need to study for another three years before they can obtain an undergraduate degree.
Even after adjusting for inflation, the College Board, a nonprofit think tank, estimates that tuition fees at the average private college will double between 2020 and 2021 compared with 30 years ago. Tuition at public universities has nearly tripled.
If an institution like Columbia University is found not to adhere to the rational rigor one would expect, it will face enormous difficulty attracting the best students and professors, let alone raising money from the wealthy and successful alumni. obstacles that may be encountered.
Columbia University professor who reported the problem
Michael Thaddeus, a math professor at Columbia University, found inconsistencies in the data and dismissed college rankings.
He told the website Gothamist: “This stupid ranking would suggest that Columbia is in the top 18 in the US, behind Cornell University but ahead of the University of California, Berkeley. , Berkeley), does that make sense? Of course not, it’s ridiculous. The only thing that makes sense is to stop focusing on this fake ranking.”
Columbia University said a full review of its process would take a lot of time, and it may not be able to submit data before the U.S. News and World Report undergraduate rankings deadline for this year.
Instead, Columbia emphasized in its statement the intangible benefits of the school’s prime location on New York City’s Upper West Side, which offers students “unparalleled” career and cultural opportunities. (Fortune Chinese Network)
Translated by: Liu Jinlong
Reviewer: Wang Hao