Each year my interest in the US News rankings diminishes. I’m not going to analyze ranking importance or anything like that, but to attack US News on a more practical level: Why are they called "2005" rankings when, in fact, it’s still 2004? Automotive manufactures do this a lot, but their cars are actually supposed to be marketed and sold for the majority of the following year. Surely US News isn’t trying to say that this is how "good" schools will be next year. A lot of the data used is actually from 2003! Isn’t it a bit misleading to apply it to 2005? I’ll make sure to post date this post to give it the same breaking news feel. (actually written April 6th)

Secondly, I wonder why more magazines don’t jump on the bandwagon here. US News is a big brand, but surely there are some other publications that could make just as much money off rank-crazy pre-students and their parents. Imagine how well the New York Times Law School Rankings would sell. (Okay – I would never hope for such a thing.) The Atlantic Monthly entered the college ranking market last year. I’m surprised more publications haven’t followed.