August 28, 2014

"For those at Northeastern, breaking into the U.S. News top 100 was like landing a man on the moon, but Freeland was determined to try."

"Reverse-engineering the formulas took months; perfecting them took years."
“We could say, ‘Well, if we could move our graduation rates by X, this is how it would affect our standing,’” Freeland says. “It was very mathematical and very conscious and every year we would sit around and say, ‘Okay, well here’s where we are, here’s where we think we might be able to do next year, where will that place us?’”
Via Tax Prof.

16 comments:

somefeller said...

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

Titus said...

My company would never hire a Northeastern grad...just saying.

We would not consider Suffolk either or any state school.

Mini Ivys-Middlebury, Smith, Connecticut College, Haverford, Bryn whatever, and Amhearst we do proceed with much trepitation and caution.

A Carnegie Mellon applied and we chuckled during our "debrief" on the candidate.

Any college from "the south" is dropped ASAP...natch.

Transcripts, writing sample are required natch. Anything that gets less than a A in macroecomics is disgarded ASAP.

But yet, we are open to Michigan (Ford Public Policy and Wisconsin Phd/Economist...go figure.

ALH said...

Goodhart's law

Titus said...

Northeastern students are 1/2 "locals" and 1/2 rich internationals that were unable to get into better schools.

A total recipe for disaster.

David said...

Titus, what is your company, just so I can be sure never to hire them?

Be said...

Northeastern is a good Engineering School. It doesn't surprise me that they might have found a hack.

Titus said...

Two of our "Senior Fellows" are from Dickeyville and Monroe Wisconsin. (No Kids)

Home of the Dickeyville Grotto and Monroe Cheese Fest, held every two years.

We have another Economist from Wisconsin who married a dot head (no kids natch).

And we have a fag Analyst from Ocomonowoc (UChigago Masters grad and UW undergrad)

Do you know 68% the employees in our Cambridge office are single or have no kids.

And in my fab loft complex 76% of the tenanats are single males and the other 24% our internationals.

And my hubby lives across the street...we are totally Mia and Woody.

We are totally the new U.S...and fab.....natch.

tits.

Patrick said...

Apparently writing and proofreading are not required for employment at Titus' company.

buwaya said...

Management consulting firm eh?
Dealt with a couple.
Not BCG because they aren't in Cambridge. I rather liked BCG. Some others were really dreadful.

Nichevo said...

Ah, Althouse, I was going to remark on your visitor but see that while you have turned off moderation, you are cleaning up on Aisle M. Might be ignorable, but am reminded "that's why we can't have nice things."

Titus, you write like you have brain damage. You dare to pronounce sentence on any college graduate what so fucking ever? Who did you blow to get whatever job you now have?

I do agree, all lawyers are is insects that creep around the corners of the room, thereby finding out exactly how deep the corners go. If you have another insect that can come along and game the system better, that's exactly and all that the best lawyers do. So why shouldn't they excel?

Smilin' Jack said...

“We could say, ‘Well, if we could move our graduation rates by X, this is how it would affect our standing,’” Freeland says. “It was very mathematical and very conscious and every year we would sit around and say, ‘Okay, well here’s where we are, here’s where we think we might be able to do next year, where will that place us?'

Yes! Take that, all you ignoramuses who think university administrators are just dumb money-hungry parasites who contribute nothing to the mission of education.

Larry J said...

A few years ago, a friend of the family was telling us about her daughter-in-law, a Northeastern law school grad. The young woman had passed the bar but couldn't find a job in the legal profession. A year after graduation, she said that none of her classmates had landed a law job, either. YMMV.

From Inwood said...

Paul Fussell, in his Class: A Guide Through The American Status System, written in the 1980s noted that 100 years before he was writing there were about 25 colleges & that in 1980 that was still true.

From Inwood said...

Patrick

You never heard of macro e-comics?

There's a course on them at Titus' Amhearst, a university founded by Citizen Hearst.

PB said...

All schools, whether you want to believe or not, pay attention to these sorts of rankings and react to it in one way or another. I actually have admiration for the presidents of Northeastern for accepting the game and pursuing it with vigor. There's nothing like clear objectives and rewards directly tied to achieving those objectives. If only we could apply them to government instead of having government dream up useless goals to impose on us that we are compelled to seek.

PB said...

It all goes to show that it is more the admissions department that selects the best and not the academic departments that produce the best.