If I'm not mistaken the news that Columbia "won't participate" in the rankings came a bit sooner[^1], but if anything that struck me as a "you can't fire me, I

If I'm not mistaken the news that Columbia "won't participate" in the rankings came a bit sooner[^1], but if anything that struck me as a "you can't fire me, I quit" sort of preempting of what was inevitable. Honestly though, college rankings are toxic, as is this whole prestige economy we've built around them. I don't even really care about colleges faking numbers, so much as other shady practices like sending students false promises to get their hopes up - pretty much for the express purpose of rejecting them down the line. As any unfortunate student who has either had to apply to college, or been the parent of someone applying, you can't avoid the "chance me" threads or the endless HYPSM dick measuring contest while trying to get legitimate information. [^1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/30/us/columbia-us-news-rankings.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/30/us/columbia-us-news-ranki...