They should also deploy a more sophisticated analysis of data to identify colleges that rise above the rest. Scott’s approach should be fully embraced by philanthropists and foundations looking to have a transformative effect on institutions. The final gifts were given upfront with no strings attached, allowing the colleges to spend the funds however they saw fit. Her team had conversations with dozens of industry experts before deciding which institutions to support. Among the factors she used to make her choices were strong and consistent leadership, potential for high impact, and a dedication to helping others. Our story highlights the arbitrary nature of these rankings and the problem of factoring them into decisions about where philanthropists direct their dollars.Ĭonsider, instead, Scott’s simple but ingenious approach to giving. News made a decision that created a wild swing in our rankings, potentially costing Dillard millions. But in our case, by listing our data for that year as N/A, or not available, U.S. Those who run the college guide insist they don’t penalize schools for not participating in the rankings race. The problem was corrected the next year, and our ranking jumped eight points, but the damage was done. News staff members didn’t hear back from us, they penalized Dillard for not participating. News had sent its request for data that year to one of our former staff members, even though we had provided the guide’s staff with updated contact information.

We eventually learned the cause: a clerical mix-up. News had ranked us higher.Īs it happened, our ranking inexplicably dropped 11 points two years ago. But I couldn’t help but wonder whether our gift would have been larger if U.S. As the third-smallest school to receive funds from Scott, we saw our gift as proportional to our size and an enormous blessing. When the second group of donor recipients was announced, Dillard received $5 million - our largest private gift ever. Not surprisingly, those six colleges, all outstanding institutions, also have the six largest endowments and fewest Pell grant students among HBCUs. News uses wealth as a major factor in determining which HBCUs rise to the top. I noticed something immediately, though, about the first six HBCUs to receive donations - they were the top six in the U.S. Very thankfully, Dillard University was in that group. MacKenzie Scott led the way by giving more than half a billion dollars to 23 HBCUs. In the wake of 2020’s racial reckoning, philanthropists and corporations started to give more to historically Black colleges and universities like Dillard, recognizing that we provide tremendous opportunity to the students we serve and were overdue for financial support. Fully 80 percent of our students receive the federal Pell grant, a primary source of aid for low-income students, dooming us from the start in a rankings race that designates endowment size as a primary qualification for moving to the top of the list. It harms institutions such as the one I lead, Dillard University, because we don’t have a lot of rich, white, full-time, traditional students who as alumni will be able to make the mega donations that swell endowments. I’ve written essays and given interviews - including on Malcom Gladwell’s two-part podcast on the subject this summer - to point out that the most popular college-ranking guide is little more than a measurement of wealth and privilege. News rankings for a long time and haven’t been shy about expressing my feelings.

That’s a problem - both for the students who miss out on excellent schools that don’t make it to the top of the rankings, and for less well-known colleges like mine that not only see our reputations hurt by the problematic rankings list, but also potentially lose millions in philanthropic dollars. Getting into a top-ranked school on the list is the ultimate goal for countless students. As high-school seniors finalize their decisions about where to apply to college this fall, many are likely scouring the pages of the U.S.

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