Magazine goofs on top 10 ranking

Portland State staff and faculty were elated to hear that U.S. News and World Report ranked the PSU electrical engineering program ninth in the nation out of 169 schools.

Last week, they were disappointed to find out that ranking was incorrect.

The program is ranked ninth out of 169 engineering schools in the printed version of the U.S. News and World Report’s guide to the nation’s colleges. Robert Morse, director of data research at U.S. News and World Report, said that printing is incorrect because of a problem with their research database’s output system.

In the finalized online guide, the PSU Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Sciences did not make the top 80 schools. Morse said that the weekly magazine will publish an apology in their next issue.

“We made a mistake and we apologize for any problems that this caused,” Morse said. “We’re not blaming anybody but ourselves.”

The incorrectly printed version of U.S. News and World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” guide was distributed in February and is available at newsstands across the country. Morse said that a corrected version of the list became available online on Saturday, March 30.

The guide groups schools according to their field of study and ranks them on a five-point scale, with a five being the best score. The PSU engineering college earned a score of less than 2.5, placing PSU in the lower half of the list. The correct list only reports the top 80 engineering schools, or about half of all engineering programs reviewed.

Morse said that the data system works in an alphabetical order and that output errors did not occur until the list reached Oregon. The only other reported error in the published guide placed the University of Texas, Arlington in 10th place. Like PSU, the Arlington school received a score of less than 2.5.

Morse said that PSU’s engineering program received its low ranking because of missing records.

PSU’s electrical engineering program was alerted of its ranking before the online version was published. Morse said that the engineering school learned of the ranking via access to a private website that included a disclaimer against discussion of the ranking with the press or public.

“We aren’t blaming the PSU electrical engineering program for the early press,” Morse said. “This is our fault.”

Malgorzata Chrzanowska-Jeske, chair of the engineering program at PSU, said that the program is trying to look forward and not let the lower ranking bother them. Jeske said the department was pleasantly surprised by the initial ninth in the nation ranking, but still skeptical.

“I do not believe in looking back at the past,” Jeske said. “These things happen but we don’t worry about it too much. My faculty and I have other things to worry about.”

Morse said that most of the guide’s readers access the online version to see the rankings. He said that millions of readers view the U.S. News and World Report website for the guide and that the circulation of the printed guide reaches far fewer readers.

Joan Barnes, PSU’s assistant vice president of university communications, said that her office was first notified of the engineering college’s ranking Wednesday, March 28. She said that they were notified of the difference between the print and online versions by Monday, April 2, and that the engineering college was contacted before the communications office.