前几年的风向是觉得标化考试不公平，所以SAT 等考试就在不断进行改革，不管结果怎么样，至少能应对下舆论压力；
这几年风向是大学排行榜了，现在出来抵制榜单成了一件很“正确”的事情。
有两个比较有意思的点：
第一，榜单对于这些名校来说，影响本来也是不大的，
比如没有人因为Columbia 的本科排名从2 到18了，就不申请了。对于榜单在乎的往往是一些非老牌名校，对于ta们来说，榜单是一个推广上比较高效的方式... the rankings are perhaps more meaningful to lower-ranked institutions, which often advertise them prominently and depend on them to attract students, than to schools in the top 10, or even top 30, whose reputation and brand recognition are well established.
所以对于Yale 和Harvard 来说，没有什么牺牲，一定程度上还赚到了一些大众好感。毕竟学校在说自己退出理由的时候是慢慢的正义凌然：
招生办的措辞（个人吐槽）：
1. 因为这个榜单，我们不能招更多的来自于普通家庭的学生了（招生决定都是你们招生办定的，怎么就怪榜单了呢？真心恳请Yale 这届以后招普通家庭出生的可以多一些啊） In her letter, Ms. Gerken called the U.S. News rankings a “for-profit” and “commercial” enterprise that is “profoundly flawed.” She said the methodology does not give enough weight to programs like Yale’s “that support public interest careers, champion need-based aid, and welcome working-class students into the profession,” and as a result, skews the rankings of law schools that emphasize that work.
2. 榜单太在乎分数了，对于不能考试培训的同学不公平（法学院招生里活动，本科院校，实习，工作什么的，对于学生更不公平啊，普通家庭孩子是参加考试考个高分的难度大，还是有个机会去顶级律所实习，给总统竞选助力的难度大啊？） She said that 20 percent of a law school’s overall ranking comes from grades and test scores. “This heavily weighted metric imposes tremendous pressure on schools to overlook promising students, especially those who cannot afford expensive test preparation courses,” she said in her letter. “It also pushes schools to use financial aid to recruit high-scoring students.”
3. 榜单里毕业生就业的指标让学生毕业就只想找工作挣钱啊（说句实话，反对这个指标就有点自己打自己脸了，高概率来说，需要毕业马上就业的应该是普通家庭出身的学生吧，这个指标高才能说明学校招生的普通家庭的孩子多啊，所以这个指标学校应该好好努力做下啊。） Moreover, she said, the rankings were misleading in the way they portrayed the employment rate of Yale law students after graduation, an important metric for students who are acutely conscious that they have to start making money to pay off often exorbitant student loans.
第二，对于名校来说宣布退出，很不代表榜单上就不见这所学校了。
一个最近的例子就是Columbia 本科排名：学校前面刚宣布退出US News 本科排名榜单，过几天公布的最新一年的榜单了还是有Columbia Over the summer, Columbia announced that it would no longer participate in the rankings of national universities... U.S. News kept Columbia in the rankings nonetheless but dropped it to No. 18.
关于Yale 会不会在列以后的榜单，US News 也没有给出明确的回答。
Asked whether U.S. News would continue to rank Yale, Eric Gertler, chief executive of U.S. News, said that the organization was reviewing options.
而 US News 如果要收集排名相关的数据还是很容易的，毕竟大多数排名的参数都是公开的数据。
...even though U.S. News asks schools to provide their own data, much of the information is publicly available.
两所法学院在美东的周三宣布这个消息后，我们看下其他几个前十院校的态度（Yale法学院排名第一；Harvard 和Columbia 并列第四）排名第二的Stanford 法学院的态度：你们真棒，我们内部再讨论下。
“Dean Gerken has made some very salient points, and like many, we have long been concerned about the U.S. News law school rankings methodology and will be giving this careful thought,” said Stephanie Ashe, a spokeswoman for No. 2-ranked Stanford Law.
第三的Chicago 和 第四的Columbia 不想说话。
Representatives from No. 3-ranked University of Chicago Law School and Columbia Law School, which tied with Harvard at No. 4, declined to comment on whether they might pull out of the rankings.
第六的宾大表示两所学校很有大哥范，我们再评估评估。
The University of Pennsylvania law school applauded Yale and Harvard “for their leadership” and said that it was “evaluating this issue,” but it did not immediately offer to join in.
第七的NYU: 热闹是ta们的。
New York University officials said they were aware of the action by Harvard and Yale, but “we haven’t made any determination on the matter yet.”
排名15的UCLA 法学院比较实在：我们只有同一梯队的学校退出排名的时候才会考虑，他们这些精英学校的热闹，我们参与不起的。
Mr. Korobkin said that because UCLA competes so hard against a handful of other schools that are elite but not in the top tier like Yale and Harvard, “we can’t afford to unilaterally in our part of the market opt out.” However, he said, “I would suspect that we would be very seriously considering it if other schools in our band were to drop out.”
总结
不管是考试还是排行榜，都不是高等教育的核心。如果高等教育真的如学校宣传的那样要去推动教育公平和每个个体进步的话，光怪这些体制外的因素意思不大，本身学校的录取是一个很大的问题。比如，至少可以先把录取过程透明起来...
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