How good is that college - really?

In a WSJ article, Hidden Knowledge, college rankings are taken to task. Not only doe the author suggest that higher education may be passing the buck:

"For instance, a majority of students spend less time studying than their teachers say they should, and 44% reported that they crack the books no more than 10 hours a week. But their grades aren't suffering: More than 80% earn mostly A's or B's. (Looks like grade inflation is alive and well.)"

But later in the article, he points out that the study cited - the NSSE - doesn't list results by college. Wouldn't want to give parents or students anything substantial on which to base their decision, now would we?

Actually, avoiding certain cold facts is the name of the entire game. Think about it: If colleges wanted us to make fully informed choices, they wouldn't just publish data on how their freshman class did in high school. They'd also tell us how seniors fare as they leave, on tests for law school, for instance, or in getting jobs. Until that time comes, one can only hope that a survey like Nessie helps colleges and universities make improvements on the sly.