Rank order: changing college ratings.

• Author: Dalmia, Shikha
• Position: Citings

IN THE AGE of Google, the problem for consumers sometimes seems to be not too little but too much information. Unless, that is, the consumers are parents shopping for an American university. For whatever reason, there are precious few comprehensive guides to higher education outside of the annual college rankings prepared by U.S. News & World Report.

But an interesting new alternative debuted this school year, when Ohio University economist Richard Vedder collaborated with the Center for College Affordability and Productivity to develop a new college ranking system for Forbes.com. The U.S. News rankings are fundamentally flawed, Vedder argues, because they judge universities on the SAT scores of incoming students, the salaries and credentials of professors, the amount of alumni giving, and the reputation the institution enjoys among other colleges. "They are tantamount to judging a recipe from the ingredients used rather than the food produced" he laments.

To create a more results-based system, Vedder looks at four-year graduation rates, course evaluations by students, debt incurred upon graduation (an indication of affordability), and the number of faculty and students who have won...