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You add a simple and reasonable (until it gets abused) assumption to your model which allows a lesser data collection burden on thousands of universities. I wou

You add a simple and reasonable (until it gets abused) assumption to your model which allows a lesser data collection burden on thousands of universities. I wouldn't call it a restriction.

thaumasiotes 4y ago
> which allows a lesser data collection burden on thousands of universities. How's it supposed to do that? Universities all already collect the data on enrollment for every class they offer.
- fshbbdssbbgdd 4y ago
  Spoken like a software engineer! Now imagine every form is being filled out manually by an administrator with a calculator.
  - pc86 4y ago
    But it's not.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - mwint 4y ago
    Maybe the forms should be made too complex to be filled with a calculator, to encourage doing things the right way…
    - geraldwhen 4y ago
      Wouldn’t work. Entire state budgets are accounted for by spreadsheets without formulas, emailed between people in an office with no revision control. A few years ago when 50 million went missing, I wasn’t surprised. I’d seen the budgeting process, and it was worse than you could possibly imagine. There was an attempt to go the software route, but a nepotism deal left the budgeting department with a worse system than manual spreadsheet entry.
      - shreyshnaccount 4y ago
        lowest bidder took the 50mil. on a serious note tho, this is craziness. technical education and knowing how to code should be mandatory for these kinds of jobs.
        geraldwhen 4y ago
        Most of the budgeting department is highschool graduates with a few higher ups with accounting degrees. The pay is abysmal either way. You would make more money at an entry level software job anywhere.
        fshbbdssbbgdd 4y ago
        “Hire a coder” appears to be good advice for many organizations, but there’s not enough coders for everyone to do it, so most will do without.
CogitoCogito 4y ago
I don't agree that there's a good argument for ignoring the class sizes for half the year to decrease data collection burden. The data they're ignoring is of utmost importance to the statistic (well to the statistic as basically everyone will understand it since no one reads "average class size" and thinks "average class size of only half the classes"). In any case, the quality of the argument doesn't really matter. If the number is being gamed so trivially and yet US News continues to ignore spring classes, then the restriction has gone from bizarre and unnecessary to actively malicious. US News is basically colluding with the universities to engage in fraud.

You add a simple and reasonable (until it gets abused) assumption to your model which allows a lesser data collection burden on thousands of universities. I wouldn't call it a restriction.

thaumasiotes 4y ago

> which allows a lesser data collection burden on thousands of universities. How's it supposed to do that? Universities all already collect the data on enrollment for every class they offer.

fshbbdssbbgdd 4y ago
Spoken like a software engineer! Now imagine every form is being filled out manually by an administrator with a calculator.
- pc86 4y ago
  But it's not.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- mwint 4y ago
  Maybe the forms should be made too complex to be filled with a calculator, to encourage doing things the right way…
  - geraldwhen 4y ago
    Wouldn’t work. Entire state budgets are accounted for by spreadsheets without formulas, emailed between people in an office with no revision control. A few years ago when 50 million went missing, I wasn’t surprised. I’d seen the budgeting process, and it was worse than you could possibly imagine. There was an attempt to go the software route, but a nepotism deal left the budgeting department with a worse system than manual spreadsheet entry.
    - shreyshnaccount 4y ago
      lowest bidder took the 50mil. on a serious note tho, this is craziness. technical education and knowing how to code should be mandatory for these kinds of jobs.
      - geraldwhen 4y ago
        Most of the budgeting department is highschool graduates with a few higher ups with accounting degrees. The pay is abysmal either way. You would make more money at an entry level software job anywhere.
      - fshbbdssbbgdd 4y ago
        “Hire a coder” appears to be good advice for many organizations, but there’s not enough coders for everyone to do it, so most will do without.

CogitoCogito 4y ago

I don't agree that there's a good argument for ignoring the class sizes for half the year to decrease data collection burden. The data they're ignoring is of utmost importance to the statistic (well to the statistic as basically everyone will understand it since no one reads "average class size" and thinks "average class size of only half the classes"). In any case, the quality of the argument doesn't really matter. If the number is being gamed so trivially and yet US News continues to ignore spring classes, then the restriction has gone from bizarre and unnecessary to actively malicious. US News is basically colluding with the universities to engage in fraud.