Patricia M. McDonough, Anthony Lising Antonio, MaryBeth Walpole, Leonor Xo chitl Pe rez

Abstract: Every fall the opening of the academic year is heralded by an ever increasing number of newsmagazines that rank colleges. In addition to the standard bearers of this market—U.S. News and World Report and Money— magazines that offer their readers advice on how to choose a college are proliferating. For example, one can find lists of the “ best colleges” and “best buys” accompanied on newstands by the “ top jock schools” (Sports Illustrated), the ª best party schoolsº (Playboy ), and the “best colleges for Asian Americans”(A. Magazine). This paper is a study of who uses the contentious and seemingly influential newsmagazine rankings of U.S. colleges and universities, and an analysis of what types of freshmen find these rankings useful in making their choice of college. Equally important, it is a discussion of why reputations are important and how they can serve as a hedge against uncertainty. Finally, the paper provides an analysis of the for-profit sector ’ s encroachment into a critical educational equity arena— college access— embedded within a discussion of whether widely available college rankings result in democratized college knowledge.

总 结：

1、每年秋天的学年在新闻杂志的排名不断攀升，除了market-U.S这个标准旗手除外。

2、新闻与世界报告和资金——杂志,提供读者如何选择大学的建议正在激增。例如,一个可以找到列表的“最佳大学”和“最佳购买”附在报摊的“顶级运动员学校”(《体育画报》),ª最佳党校º(《花花公子》),和“亚裔美国人最好的大学”（杂志）。

3、本文是一个使用有争议的研究,似乎有影响力的新闻杂志上面的美国学院和大学的排名和什么类型的新生的分析发现根据排名做出大学的选择是有争议的。同样重要的是,这是一个讨论为什么声誉是重要的,以及他们如何可以作为应对不确定性。最后,本文提供了一个分析盈利性院校的侵入教育公平的竞技场——大学访问嵌入的讨论是否普及大学排名，会否导致大学知识的民主化。

来源：Research in Higher Education, Vol. 39, No. 5, 1998, p513-537. 25p.