Beyond Law Schools: Inflating data common in higher education

Gaming rankings among law schools has received plenty of attention, including from Congress, trade association the American Bar Association, and the media.  But it's coming out that law schools are hardly alone in higher education for inflating data to come across better to the constituencies which seem to matter.

THE NEW YORK TIMES reports on how Iona College, Baylor University, and Claremont McKenna have been those caught manipulating the numbers.  One especially inventive instance is Baylor's paying students, who have already been admitted, to re-take the SAT.

All this bodes ill for the credibility of such rankings institutions such as U.S. News & World Report.  Why should parents, prospective students, and guidance counselors pay attention to those numbers?  The old-fashioned way of describing what seems so pervasive is that the butcher has a finger on the scale.