Kansas State is one of the nation's 25 most desirable large public universities based mostly on selectivity, endowment, test scores — and oh, yeah, Manhattan's climate.
The Kaplan/Newsweek 2010 college rankings listed the Manhattan campus as the 16th most desirable.
But it turns out that Newsweek researchers drew that conclusion based on information that had been misreported by K-State for two years in a row. Oops.
After learning of the error, researcher Courtney Kennedy ran the data again, using corrected information.
Her conclusion?
K-State "would have been knocked out of the top 25," said Kennedy, who helped compile the ranking.
The piece of information causing the gaffe was not the Kansas weather, but K-State's reported admission rate. The school's planning and analysis office mistakenly reported to the National Center for Education Statistics that of all the students who applied in 2008, only 56 percent were admitted.
That would make K-State a selective institution. It's not.
The actual admission rate at K-State is about 98 percent, said Pat Bosco, vice president for student life.
Like the University of Kansas and other four-year public institutions in Kansas, in-state students at K-State are automatically admitted if they score at least 21 out of a possible 36 on the ACT, are in the top third of their graduating class, or have at least a 2.0 grade-point average.
Cheryl May, a K-State spokeswoman, said someone at the university misunderstood which percentage the federal database was requesting and instead gave the percent of students who, after acceptance, attend the university.
In selecting the top 25 most desirable public institutions, Newsweek considered 11 criteria, including campus dining, housing and climate. The most weight was given to admission rates, graduation rates, test scores and endowment.
"We appreciate that the overall criteria ranked us among the 25 most desirable large schools," May said.
"We win lots of awards. We earn them. We don't want to get any award that we don't deserve. We want to make sure any recognition of K-State is based on accurate and real data."
Comments
persevering_gal 2 years, 8 months ago
How does one "mistakenly" report 56% instead of 98%?
vertigo 2 years, 8 months ago
"Cheryl May, a K-State spokeswoman, said someone at the university misunderstood which percentage the federal database was requesting and instead gave the percent of students who, after acceptance, attend the university."
Reading comprehension isn't your strong suit, is it?
LivedinLawrence4Life 2 years, 8 months ago
She earned a math degree at K-State! :)
FarneyMac 2 years, 8 months ago
+1
whats_going_on 2 years, 8 months ago
hahahahaha
Aiko 2 years, 8 months ago
I am sorry but that is funny!
nobody1793 2 years, 8 months ago
"K-State mistakenly cited as one of 25 best large public universities in country"
Best headline ever!
techmanmacho 2 years, 8 months ago
You beat me to it!....
Majestic42 2 years, 8 months ago
Cue the KSU haters (and I'm certainly rooting for KU everyday no days off) saying that this incident means everyone who went to K-State is an idiot. It's a silly mistake. A really silly one. Hehe.
CreatureComforts 2 years, 8 months ago
It's called friendly rivalry...
Majestic42 2 years, 8 months ago
Bull!#@$ it is. I've had far too many people say "it's just friendly rivalry," but then they are teaching their children to hate anyone from an opposing school. Super classy. And nothing but friendly.
phoggyjay 2 years, 8 months ago
Hmmm...
GUMnNUTS 2 years, 8 months ago
The only thing good to come out of Manhattan is Tallgrass Brewing Co. everything else.......
zstoltenberg 2 years, 8 months ago
... smells like manure?
TheSychophant 2 years, 8 months ago
All college ranking systems are misleading in that the level of selectivity is a factor in determining the "best" colleges and universities. Many state institutions, such as KU and K-State, have open or quasi-open admission standards, which is usually sufficient, in itself, to exclude them from eligibility. Just because a school is not highly selective in admissions does not necessarily mean you can't get a quality education, unless one can prove that the presence of mediocre students detracts from the educational experience.
notajayhawk 2 years, 8 months ago
Seems a better word would be desirability. It's not so much a matter of how many get let in, it's a matter of how many more wanted to.
kernal 2 years, 8 months ago
Hahahahahaha! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVpw4YAH-Ts
Alabamastreet 2 years, 8 months ago
The good news for K-State is they still rank in the list of the top 25 schools in the State of Kansas, just above Friends and below Allen County.
matthewjherbert 2 years, 8 months ago
K-State rejects 2% of applicants? I'd hate to be one of those 2%.
Did_I_say_that 2 years, 8 months ago
"The school's planning and analysis office mistakenly reported to the National Center for Education Statistics that of all the students who applied in 2008, only 56 percent were admitted.
That would make K-State a selective institution. It's not."
So being "selective" improves a college's ranking. In any other industry that would somehow be called discrimination.
Still a great headline!
KU_cynic 2 years, 8 months ago
"In any other industry that would somehow be called discrimination. "
What industry would that be? It's called quality control. KU and KSU don't practice it, and suffer because of it.
Did_I_say_that 2 years, 8 months ago
My statement was made as sarcastic humor; however, humor requires some truth. So, since you ask:
"1971 Supreme Court decision in Griggs v. Duke Power provided a major precedent in pre-employment testing. In that case, an applicant for a janitorial job was required to take an intelligence test and to show a high school diploma.
When the company did not hire him, the applicant sued and took his case to the Supreme Court. The court ruled that a high school diploma was irrelevant to the position in question. The court also ruled that pre-employment testing must measure only skills directly related to performance on the job." http://restaurant-hospitality.com/features/rh_imp_5615/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griggs_v._Duke_Power_Co.
justoneperson 2 years, 8 months ago
This case has to do with race and discrimination, no? Whereas, with University admissions, if you use an assessment test that's not racially biased and base entrance on that, it's ok. Particularly in states without a history of blatent racial discrimination.
notajayhawk 2 years, 8 months ago
Being neither a Jayhawk nor a Wildcat, I'm not going to get into the 'my professor can beat up your professor' thing. But I do think it's amusing that they accept 98% of the applicants, but only half of them enroll.
In the words of Groucho Marx, "I would never belong to any club that would have me for a member."
rockchalkblock 2 years, 8 months ago
Its a Numbers Game! KSU is the ugly sister so they have to ask out every boy that talks to them or else they will never find a date to the prom.
puddleglum 2 years, 8 months ago
so now does that make EMAW stand for:
every man and woman accepted?
MYOB 2 years, 8 months ago
That doesn't even make sense.
puddleglum 2 years, 8 months ago
myob, I think you got it!
lubyloo 2 years, 8 months ago
LMAO
OldEnuf2BYurDad 2 years, 8 months ago
I love the wonderfully deep sarcasm in this story. WOW, she really let KSU have it. Like, she's been waiting for a legitimate professional reason to jump on KSU for her whole career. Clearly, this woman did not graduate from KSU.
Did_I_say_that 2 years, 8 months ago
Mara Rose Williams’s Education
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mara-rose-williams/12/51b/307
ksucat 2 years, 8 months ago
Is that ambitions or abitions? And where does your higher education come from? My guess...KU.
Did_I_say_that 2 years, 8 months ago
The [sic] after the misspelled word "abitions" indicates that the error was in the original and was noted in the quotation.
The worst part of commenting online is that when someone, such as ksucat, displays their ignorance they can not retract it. Does your user name indicate where you did not get your education?
puddleglum 2 years, 8 months ago
that's why ksucat doesn't know what sic means....
Did_I_say_that 2 years, 8 months ago
ksucat forgot how to login and can't respond.
sic 'em
Did_I_say_that 2 years, 8 months ago
The Manhattan Mercury article is not quite as informative. I wonder why?
http://www.themercury.com/News/article.aspx?articleId=d3b3472eb34b4506aa0159426cef7c56 :
K-State ranking based on incorrect data Kimber Wallace
Kansas State University is backing away from its claim to the No. 16 spot in Kaplan-Newsweek's list of the 25 most desirable large schools in America, acknowledging that the ranking was based on incorrect admission data.
Cheryl May, of the university's information office, said a school officer mistakenly reported that only 56 percent of students who apply to K-State are admitted. The actual admission rate to K-State is about 98 percent, she said."
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