The fact that Columbia falsified its data shows that the importance of these rankings is grossly overestimated. The scandal shows that Columbia’s administrators seem to think the school is untouchable, that consequences don’t apply to them. And they are not wrong. Columbia dropped 16 spots once the news of its cheating broke, but that is unlikely to have an impact on its next application pool. Students will still compete to attend the school for its prestigious Ivy League status. Even if Columbia now looks slightly worse in national rankings, its reputation as a top-tier institution will compensate for this blemish on its record.—Jackson Walker, University of Wisconsin-Madison, journalism and English
University Communications