U-CAN launched as alternate to U.S. News rankings

After the University made the decision in June not to participate in the U.S. News & World Report college rankings, a new college comparison Web site has been developed for prospective students.The University and College Accountability Network (U-CAN) Web site provides students and parents with statistical data for colleges and universities. Over 600 independent institutions are already taking part in this initiative. The Web site has over 440 institutional profiles published, and 150 additional profiles are expected to be published within the next week.

Executive Vice President Neal Abraham said U-CAN was created by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU). NAICU was influential in the decision made by a group of private liberal arts colleges to stop participating in what Abraham referred to as the "beauty contest" part of the U.S. News rankings.

Abraham said the University felt the rankings from the U.S. News and World Report were unreliable. He said U-CAN is different because the data is not based on the opinion of other institutions, offering credible information that will help students make their college decisions. Though the universities did not want to continue to rank other institutions, Abraham said schools still wanted prospective students to be able to easily compare colleges.

"We certainly believe in information that helps students, prospective students and their parents make informed choices about where they want to go to college," Abraham said. "So a group of us, a group of institutions, agreed to provide information in a standard format, which would be on our Web sites and therefore could be reflected on a central Web site."

U-CAN is free of charge and requires no log-in. With the click of a button, students and parents can browse through hundreds of schools and institutions. The Web site presents entirely statistical information, represented by charts and graphs. Data about admissions, student demographics, common fields of study and class size is available through the Web site.

"One version of thinking about UCAN is: 'You can do your own ranking,' or 'You can find the information,'" Abraham said.

Still, Abraham said U-CAN's Web site has room for improvement; it currently only has information from the 2005-2006 school year. Abraham said this wasn't the best representation of the University.

"I would be more comfortable saying, 'We know certain numbers fluctuate.' I would not want to look overly good in an unusually good year, nor bad in a bad year," he said. "I'd rather take averages."

Since U-CAN is not completely satisfactory to all universities, other alternatives are also being investigated.

"This instrument, and others that are being developed, will provide exciting new tools to help those in the college search process," said President Robert G. Bottoms.

Sophomore Elisa Richardson thought the new system was less effective and didn't serve a strong purpose. She said she felt U-CAN's profile of DePauw lacked enough information about social life.

"I like hearing what DePauw is ranked on the party system. It's fun. It's humor," she said. "We're all in college. [That's] more realistic as opposed to reading about our acceptance rate."

The Princeton Review offers a ranking on social aspects of colleges, but Abraham said these types of rankings do not involve the University and rely only on students to respond to an online survey.

"What we have been told by groups like the Princeton Review is that the response groups tend to be ... 30-40 [students]," he said. "So, a few respondents could have a big influence on the outcome."

Still, some students think the Princeton Review offers what U-CAN is lacking. Freshman Brock Wappes said the new system could be helpful but would not offer the full picture of life at the University.

"It's just numbers, it's just statistical information, so you don't have any personal opinions about [colleges]," he said. "While that may be good in some aspects, in other aspects you don't know because numbers can only tell you so much.