The Order of Things – What College Rankings Really Tell Us by Malcolm Gladwell
The Order of Things – What College Rankings Really Tell Us by Malcolm Gladwell
The main argument of this article is that it doesn’t matter who comes out first place in a certain ranking, it all depends on who’s doing the ranking and on what variables the ranking is taking place. Malcolm Gladwell believes that a ranking can be heterogenous (diverse in content), as long as it doesn’t try to be too comprehensive (including all or nearly all aspects of something). He also believes that a ranking can be comprehensive as long as it doesn’t try to measure things that are heterogeneous. Also even if the ranking is trying to be both heterogeneous and comprehensive at the same time, it’ll only work properly if the subjects being ranked are similar.
This argument is supported by the ranking of sports cars, where the Lotis Evora, the Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport, and the Porsche Cayman S were rankes based on four categories: Vehicle (driver comfort, styling, fit and finish etc); power train (transmission, engine, and feul economy); chassis (steering, brakes, ride, and handling); and “fun to drive”. According to these categories, the Porsche was ranked first, the Cheverolet was ranked second and the Lotus was ranked third. However if the grading system was changed to only sports cars, then the styling and driving experience would count much more and the ranking was changed making the Lotus first, the Porsche second, and the Cheverolet third. If the grading system was again changed and incorprated the price of the cars heavily, the Cheverolet would be first, the Lotus would be second, and the Porsche would be third. This supports the main argument of the article because this shows that the ranking of the cars can changed depending on what the cars are being ranked on and by who. A difficulty with rankings is that it can be quite hard to measure the variable you want to rank, even in cases where the variable seems perfectly objective. In the article the countries
The main argument of this article is that it doesn’t matter who comes out first place in a certain ranking, it all depends on who’s doing the ranking and on what variables the ranking is taking place. Malcolm Gladwell believes that a ranking can be heterogenous (diverse in content), as long as it doesn’t try to be too comprehensive (including all or nearly all aspects of something). He also believes that a ranking can be comprehensive as long as it doesn’t try to measure things that are heterogeneous. Also even if the ranking is trying to be both heterogeneous and comprehensive at the same time, it’ll only work properly if the subjects being ranked are similar.
This argument is supported by the ranking of sports cars, where the Lotis Evora, the Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport, and the Porsche Cayman S were rankes based on four categories: Vehicle (driver comfort, styling, fit and finish etc); power train (transmission, engine, and feul economy); chassis (steering, brakes, ride, and handling); and “fun to drive”. According to these categories, the Porsche was ranked first, the Cheverolet was ranked second and the Lotus was ranked third. However if the grading system was changed to only sports cars, then the styling and driving experience would count much more and the ranking was changed making the Lotus first, the Porsche second, and the Cheverolet third. If the grading system was again changed and incorprated the price of the cars heavily, the Cheverolet would be first, the Lotus would be second, and the Porsche would be third. This supports the main argument of the article because this shows that the ranking of the cars can changed depending on what the cars are being ranked on and by who. A difficulty with rankings is that it can be quite hard to measure the variable you want to rank, even in cases where the variable seems perfectly objective. In the article the countries