In the perpetual race to raise their national profiles, college leaders are starting to advertise themselves to an unlikely audience: each other.

At stake are the “academic reputation” ratings that help mold the popular but controversial “America’s Best Colleges” rankings by U.S. News & World Report.

The magazine’s latest edition was released Friday and listed Kansas University at No. 41 among the nation’s top public universities.

Building a reputation

In the 15 years since it began ranking institutions annually, U.S. News has been lauded and lambasted for highlighting the hard numbers of higher education quality, from admissions standards and graduation rates to faculty resources. Yet the most important factor in the rankings system remains the ever-so-subjective reputation score, derived from surveying presidents, deans and admissions officers on their perceptions of other schools.

The reputation survey has drawn increasing criticism from college leaders, who find it unscientific and unfair.

Yet in these same circles, the survey seems more crucial than ever. Campus leaders report that they receive more and more promotional material from peers, with the apparent goal of swaying votes. A few cop to doing it themselves.

“It’s part of a marketing mania that’s taken hold in higher education,” said Howard University President Patrick Swygert, who sends an annual letter to “400 or 500 of my closest friends” to note the school’s latest achievements.

Surface-level changes

An annual circulation-booster for U.S. News, the “America’s Best Colleges” issue and its lucrative spin-off book have withstood criticism for promoting a shallow brand-name ethic among college-choosing students and parents.

Many schools have tinkered with their admissions practices to make their student bodies appear more elite.

But experts note that some of the most-debated aspects of the rankings, such as the percentage of admitted students who choose to enroll, account for barely 2 to 3 percent of the overall ranking. More important by far is reputation, weighted at 25 percent.

U.S. News officials say they conduct the reputation survey to help gauge intangible virtues, including the quality of teaching and learning. This year, they changed the category’s name to “peer assessment,” acknowledging presidents’ discomfort with the ambiguities of the word “reputation.”

Of all the things U.S. News considers, reputation is “the easiest to change theoretically,” said George Dehne, a higher education marketing consultant based in South Carolina. “To build a bigger library, to pay your faculty more, all those things are expensive. It’s alluring to think: Gee, we’ll just go out and schmooze the president and admissions director.”

Little progress made

Yet it remains unclear whether a college can successfully change its reputation through better marketing.

Most schools, in fact, have maintained largely the same rating over the past several years, according to Robert Morse, U.S. News director of data research.

“Academic reputations are very slow to build, and they’re very slow to be lost,” said Elisabeth Muhlenfeld, president of Virginia’s Sweet Briar College, explaining why she objects to the survey itself. “A certain department might be known as top-notch, when in fact it was top-notch in the 1950s when your dissertation professor told you it was top-notch.”

Muhlenfeld used to send fellow presidents copies of her school’s alumnae magazine but stopped after realizing she barely read any of the material she receives from other colleges. “I’m aware that most of it goes in the trash,” she said.