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Getting on the Front Page: Organizational Reputation, Status Signals, and the Impact of U.S. News and World Report on Student Decisions

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Abstract

Recent studies have suggested that a causal link exists between college rankings and subsequent admissions indicators. However, it is unclear how these effects vary across institutional type (i.e., national universities vs. liberal arts colleges) or whether these effects persist when controlling for other factors that affect admissions outcomes. Using admissions data for top-tier institutions from fall 1998 to fall 2005, we found that moving onto the front page of the U.S. News rankings provides a substantial boost in the following year’s admissions indicators for all institutions. In addition, the effect of moving up or down within the top tier has a strong impact on institutions ranked in the top 25, especially among national universities. In contrast, the admissions outcomes of liberal arts colleges—particularly those in the lower half of the top tier—were more strongly influenced by institutional prices.

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Acknowledgements

Sincere thanks to Jeremy Reisman, Ben Shipper, and Ruth Kallio for research assistance.

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Correspondence to Nicholas A. Bowman or Michael N. Bastedo.

Appendices

Appendix A

See Table 6.

Table 6 Descriptions and codings for variables in fixed effects regression analyses

Appendix B

See Table 7.

Table 7 Descriptive statistics for variables (excluding year and institutional dummy variables)

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Bowman, N.A., Bastedo, M.N. Getting on the Front Page: Organizational Reputation, Status Signals, and the Impact of U.S. News and World Report on Student Decisions. Res High Educ 50, 415–436 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-009-9129-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-009-9129-8

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