NE Colleges Defy US News

Several top New England colleges agreed this week to stop cooperating with the hugely influential college rankings published every year by the magazine "U.S. News & World Report." The schools risk angering alumni and losing prospective students, but they insist the rankings do more harm than good.

The rebellious colleges include Amherst, Holy Cross, Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, and Williams, among others. They plan to put information about themselves on a web site instead of giving it to U.S. News.

Its editor Brian Kelly says that's a disservice to consumers, "I would be very skeptical of any institution collecting information and providing consumers information about itself. We're an objective source of information. If the colleges come up with a better source of data, we think that's great."

In this interview, WBUR's Bob Oakes speaks with someone on the other side of the issue. Michael Akillian is Vice President for Enrollment at Wheelock College, one of the first schools to come out against the U.S. News rankings.