Metrics Strategies Analyst Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida, United States
Session Abstract: Research on college rankings has shown that symbolic thresholds such as Top-50 or Top-100 can influence student application behavior and institutional strategy (Monks & Ehrenberg, 1999; Luca & Smith, 2013; Sauder & Espeland, 2006). Yet most studies focus on national universities or liberal arts colleges, leaving a gap in understanding for public 4-year institutions. This session addresses that gap by examining the 2020–2025 U.S. News & World Report rankings to identify which ranking cutoffs are salient for publics and whether they align with those in other institutional sectors. Using regression discontinuity as an analytic frame, we will evaluate how year-to-year shifts across symbolic cutoffs affect applications, yield, and advancement outcomes. Attendees will gain an applied framework for identifying prestige thresholds, learn methodological strategies for testing their salience, and consider implications for institutional research, enrollment management, and policy practice.
Keywords: U.S. News & World Report, Public Universities, Strategic Planning
