University rankings by national news media have come under fire as prestigious graduate business programs are refusing to divulge information.
Students interested in pursuing MBAs, however, said they have always been disdainful of rankings and that this recent trend will affect them very little.
Earlier this month, the Harvard Business School (HBS) and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania both agreed not to provide information concerning current students and alumni of the schools.
The contact information is typically used by publications such as Business Week and U.S. News and World Report to gauge student approval of their respective schools.
Basic information about the school will still be available. Both programs are consistently ranked among the top five by a variety of publications.
Young Entrepreneurs at Tufts President Thomas Singer is planning to pursue an MBA after gaining some work experience. He is wary of what rankings say about schools.
"I believe there are many factors that these rankings overlook," he said, "and many of the factors that these rankings deem important might not necessarily be the ones most pertinent to all students."
Singer does not believe that rankings should be completely abolished because to some extent they make schools "stay on their toes."
Vice President of the Economics Society at Tufts Jon Parker said rankings are one of the least valuable methods of evaluating a school. "It is fairly obvious in general which schools are in the top tier, and I believe there are far better sources than a magazine's numeric ranking and brief comments to help compare perspective business programs," he said.
Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Lee Coffin said any protests against the decision may be irrelevant as HBS and Wharton's stature will help them weather any criticism.
"Wharton and HBS are known commodities, however, places like [Dartmouth's business school] Tuck could have a different outcome," Coffin said.
The debate over MBA rankings reflects a larger, ongoing discussion about their merit in undergraduate admissions.
"Rankings in general have really warped the admissions process," Coffin said. "There are many of us who work in admissions who would love to see all manner of rankings disappear."
The danger is that rankings can be over-emphasized, especially for incoming undergraduates. Coffin described a student he met at April Open House whose sole factor in deciding between Tufts and another school was national rankings.
Coffin said this shows the "power of surveys in the mind of a 17 year old."
Tufts was ranked 27th in the most recent U.S. News and World Report listings of "National Universities -- Doctoral" category.
Reed College suffered when they stopped reporting data nine years ago.
The school fell from among top ten liberal arts schools to the bottom quartile and applications subsequently dropped.
"It was a story of 'whoa,' this is what can happen when you pull out," Coffin said.
Economics Society Public Relations Officer John Papp said "a move like this has to be made by the institutions that benefit most from the rankings in order to have a real impact."
For Tufts, Coffin has recommended to President Larry Bacow that the school should consider removing itself from rankings only during the right circumstances.
