Mo' Rankings, Mo' Problems

The Washington Post published a skeptical look at college rankings today. Colleges are of course eager to use the lists in their marketing materials when the results are flattering. But when one list claims that Johns Hopkins University is one of the 15 "least rigorous" in the country and that Georgetown is a hipster mecca, then (according to a Johns Hopkins University spokesman) “the reaction around here was a collective scratch of the head and a unanimous ‘Huh?’ ”