I need old US News rankings of USM - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Aug 31, 2004

I need old US News rankings of USM

Date: Aug 31, 2004

You might find older US News & World Reports at the Hattiesburg Public Library on Hardy St. since it shows up in their catalog. They should have a periodicals section where you can ask the desk assistant for copies of the magazine from specific years.

Date: Aug 31, 2004

The Library of Hattiesburg and Forrest County has the 2003 US New & World Report. As FMW already mentioned, it does not contain any information on what we have come to know as the third and fourth tier schools. There is no mention of USM, UM, or MSU. The top schools are listed in a manner similar to that which was used in the 2004 issue.

One of the librarians suggested that the complete information might have been accumulated in a book version, as is typical for USN&WR. Unfortunately, the public library did not have the 2003 edition of the book.

Date: Aug 31, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by: Librarians' friend
"The Library of Hattiesburg and Forrest County has the 2003 US New & World Report. As FMW already mentioned, it does not contain any information on what we have come to know as the third and fourth tier schools. There is no mention of USM, UM, or MSU. The top schools are listed in a manner similar to that which was used in the 2004 issue. One of the librarians suggested that the complete information might have been accumulated in a book version, as is typical for USN&WR. Unfortunately, the public library did not have the 2003 edition of the book."

You are right, and I have tried just about everywhere.....including the USN&WR editors. There has been no response from the editors, though I do not expect to ever get one. I am afraid Amazon.com does not have the 2003 or 2002 edition of its lengthy guide. All I can find there are the 2000 to 1997 editions.

Date: Aug 31, 2004

i suspect that USNWR wants a short shelf-life, guarantees more sales the next year. in addition, they see most value in the current edition. Here is an excerpt from their FAQs about the rankings:

How can I find out a school's rank from last year (or an earlier year)?
You can look it up in a past issue. Bear in mind that changes in a school's rank may reflect changes in other schools' performance or changes in our methods and not just changes in the school's programs. For this reason, we encourage prospective students to focus on the current rank of schools they are considering.

Date: Aug 31, 2004

When in doubt, try our old buddies at archive.org

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php.

The 2003 ranking has us in tier 3:

http://web.archive.org/web/20021001132142/www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/natudoc/tier3/t3natudoc_brief.php.

Of course, they use php here, and php didn't gain much widespread acceptance until 2001 or so. So, we can poke around a little more, and find the rankings from 1998-2001:

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/.

If you want to do your own manual data mining, just go to www.archive.org