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401:, but do not assert the opinions themselves. Editors should not be trying to "sell", "spin", or otherwise convince readers of the quality of the school. "One of the" and "widely recognized" are canonical weasel words: how many are among the best, what specific recognition, best on what criteria, how recent in the recognition, etc. If the statement can't stand without weasel words it lacks a neutral point of view. If a college or university was ranked 4th internationally in the most recent
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to known authorities or substantiate the facts behind an argument by using facts and statistics. If a college is consistently rated among the best, who is doing the rating, how long or often is consistent, and what threshold constitutes the best? If a university is selective, whose criteria are being
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As above, simply and neutrally state the facts. The statements above could likely be changed to "…is ranked A by X, B by Y, and C by Z" and "…was ranked A by X in 2007, 2008, and 2009" which is a neutral and substantiated presentation of verifiable facts without any POV, weasel words, or peacockery.
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to verify them. Recontextualizing or narrowing the criteria may increase an institution's standing in a ranking, but unless the source explicitly offers recomputed rankings of universities on their public or national basis (for example), it is inappropriate to perform these calculations yourself as
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representing current consensus about articles of higher education institutions. Motivated editors should direct their energies towards describing all the various aspects of an institution to a broader audience rather than emphasizing its quality using imprecise, context-free, or otherwise ambiguous
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in the first sentences of the lead paragraphs: it doesn't help the reader to know a university was ranked highly if he or she doesn't even know what or where it is in the first place! Moreover, the lead is not a section to astonish readers by establishing the quality of the college or university,
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Rankings should be neutrally worded without modifiers or disclaimers. Similarly, do not exclude notable rankings simply because they are inconveniently low or you disagree with their methodology. An article about a university is not the appropriate venue to debate the merits of various rankings'
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and let the reader decide: a college or university is not necessarily "good" because it excludes a large number of applicants, nor well-reputed simply because it is old, nor prestigious simply because of its alumni. For example, admission to a military academy or music conservatory might be more
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Claims that an institution "places highly" in rankings are just as vague as claims that it is "prestigious", "highly selective" and "excellent", and are more dishonest in that they seem to cite an authoritative source. Limit rankings to a single section rather than spreading them throughout the
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Just as there is no single, indisputably preeminent college or university, there is no single metric which definitively establishes the quality of a college or university. Every institution is different and its
Knowledge article should emphasize these differences by summarizing what an academic
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reported as numeric values with publication years and verifiable sources. Do not attempt to include every ranking by every publication for every school or program since some rankings are more notable than others. However, do not exclude notable rankings on the basis of not being in the Top X.
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only to serve as a summary of the rest of the article. Nor does the lead of the article have to include a preponderance of rankings and superlatives to establish the notability of a college or university since all accredited colleges and universities are inherently notable.
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Likewise, an encyclopedia article is not the appropriate venue to play out intercollegiate rivalries over who has more and better: describe information and statistics in absolute terms rather than relative to your rival institution(s) or in abstract
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It is tempting to replace claims of prestige or academic excellence with a cascade of related or unrelated facts intended to generate the same impression. While this is a large improvement over the vague claim, remember that a university article's
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Boosterism is particularly unpalatable to some
Wikipedians when describing institutions whose "elite" status is already widely acknowledged elsewhere. For instance, in an opening summary paragraph, simply noting that a university is "in the
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rely on undergraduate-only data and are only intended to rank or classify the undergraduate program, not the university as a whole. In this case, it is inaccurate to say that "University X is the 27th best university" when UX's
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respective methodologies. If a reader wants to know about the methodology, they can follow the citation that should already accompany any ranking or the wikilink to the
Knowledge article describing that ranking in more detail.
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Knowledge articles on colleges, universities, and other academic institutions are often written by editors who currently or previously attended the institution or who work for the institution. Editors are often motivated by
362:. "Prestige", "reputation", "excellence", "exclusivity", and "selectivity" are often used imprecisely in order to create a positive impression of an institution's quality that cannot be verified or falsified.
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cannot be verified. Similarly, making historical statements or analyses about rankings without providing reliable sources stating the same is also original research, even if they are true.
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551:"…has the second-largest student body, third-largest campus, fifteenth-largest faculty, seventh-largest research expenditures, sixth-most applicants, second-most award recipients …"
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Incorporate information from university reports, faculty handbooks, or course catalogs to describe the administrative organization, academic programs, and research centers
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superlatives. There are many useful and reliable web resources published by an institution and other sources that can be incorporated into college and university:
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rather than serving as a shrine to its various accolades and superlatives. Notable distinctions and recognition have their place in the article, but they
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516:"State University ranked 34th in publication X which only considered Y and Z. However, it ranked 3rd in publication A which considers B and C."
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For the prevailing consensus on descriptions of reputations in higher education institutions' lead sections, see the request for comment at
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548:"…has 65 Laureates, 102 Award Winners, 165 acres of land, 72 academic programs, 15% admissions rate, 13 national championships, …..."
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It contains the advice or opinions of one or more
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of the article. Knowledge is an encyclopedia to summarize and contextualize information about these complex institutions,
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No public or private university in the (region) can match the breadth and quality of the university's research endeavors
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Finally, do not use rankings in the lead as these are specific facts that should appear later in the article and give
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is the #3 ranked public university by
Magazine X. It is a public research university located in X,Y,Z."
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used for this classification, how many students apply, and what percentage of students are admitted?
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competitive than an Ivy League university, even if the latter has higher average admissions scores.
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should be a summary of the most important facts about that institution in accordance with its
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