Math is hard.

• Author: Ohles, Frederik
• Position: LETTERS - Letter to the editor

There are lots of things that I've long admired about your magazine. And for that reason, I had thought you might do a better job in the business of college rankings than U.S. News & World Report. But on reading this year's issue, I was disappointed.

In the Monthly college rankings, Nebraska Wesleyan University is predicted to graduate 66 percent, graduates 65 percent, and you rank us number 144 for that result.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

What kind of Rube Goldberg-inspired formula would lead to this result? Sorry, folks, but you've discredited yourselves with such mathematical nonsense.

In the future you'd better stick to subjects that you know something about. Math and ranking methodologies sure aren't among them.

Frederik Ohles

President,

Nebraska Wesleyan University

Lincoln, Neb.

The editors respond: The methodology used to calculate the graduation rate performance measure changed from 2011 to 2012 to take cost into account. This year, as we explained in the methodology, we divided the...