The University of Maine at Augusta spent more than $15,000 last year to promote its college rankings from the U.S. News and World Report.
And it will likely do so again this year.
That’s based on a report from The New York Times exploring the U.S. News and World Report’s controversial college ranking system. It’s facing growing challenges to the legitimacy of its rankings, while many smaller schools rely on them to stand out in a crowded education marketplace.
Jonathan Henry, a vice president at UMaine at Augusta, told The New York Times that it’s impossible to ignore college rankings, calling the U.S. News and World Report a “leviathan.”
Additionally, many families and students rely on various college rankings to make sense of the plethora of school choices. A September 2023 survey from the higher ed consultancy Art and Science Group found that 58 percent of high-school seniors “actively considered” college rankings.
The competition for prospective students has increased in recent years, especially in Maine, where enrollment within the University of Maine System fell 4 percent for the 2023-24 school year. (Just one school — the University of Maine at Presque Isle — saw enrollment grow this past fall.) That’s contributing to projected systemwide budget deficits for the coming years.
It also coincided with a surge in enrollment within the Maine Community College System, which saw 16 percent growth this school year. Much of that growth is attributed to the state’s free tuition program for high-schoolers who graduated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly half of Maine community college students are participating in the free tuition program.
“I always feel like you’re closing one eye when you’re writing that check, because you feel like you’re drinking from that Kool-Aid,” Henry told The Times. “But every year, we’ve said, ‘This is still important.’”
What UMaine at Augusta and many other schools have done is pay U.S. News and World Report to emblazon their marketing material with a U.S. News “badge” reflecting their rankings from the media outlet, according to The Times. U.S. News and World Report currently has badges for 85 for undergraduate rankings and 135 for graduate rankings.
In the most recent set of college rankings, UMaine at Augusta came in at 61st for its online bachelor’s programs for veterans, 79th for its online bachelor’s degree for business and 104th for its online bachelor’s degree program. It tied for all three, according to the U.S. News and World Report rankings.
The total cost for the licensed badges for UMaine at Augusta’s most recent college rankings: $15,225, The Times reported.
A growing number of law and medical schools have decided to boycott the U.S. News and World Report college rankings, saying that the money spent on the licensing goes away from supporting low-income students or providing financial aid. Other critics suggest the rankings can contain errors and flawed data, according to The Times.
The U.S. News and World Report defended its rankings, telling The Times that it helps families and students make sense of a crowded and chaotic marketplace.