NRC Rankings - are S rankings a leading indicator for R rankings?

[Simfish]

Here's some more interesting information: http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/2010/09/nrc_the_rankings.php

Roughly speaking, the S rankings measure which schools have the most of what professors look for, whereas the R rankings measure reputation. Reputation, however, takes time to develop (one must prove oneself first). And it also takes time to lose (with institutions, at least). If a university scores high on S rankings relative to the R rankings, then can you usually expect it to move up on the R rankings?

 

[twofish-quant]

Roughly speaking, the S rankings measure which schools have the most of what professors look for, whereas the R rankings measure reputation. Reputation, however, takes time to develop (one must prove oneself first). And it also takes time to lose (with institutions, at least). If a university scores high on S rankings relative to the R rankings, then can you usually expect it to move up on the R rankings?

I really think that rankings are rather bogus. One reason that the NRC rankings took so long to come out is that you had fierce battles behind the scenes over how to process the numbers, and you can basically get whatever order that you want by changing the weights.

There is this odd obsession with rankings that I find absurd.