Malcolm Gladwell (b XXXXXXXXXXhas a BA in history from the University of Toronto. He is a staff writer for the New Yorker magazine and has written a number of best-selling books, including Outliers:...

Malcolm Gladwell (b. 1963) has a BA in history from the University of Toronto. He is a staff writer for the New Yorker magazine and has written a number of best-selling books, including Outliers: The Story of Success (2008), Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking (2005), and most recently, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants (2013). He also hosts the podcast Revisionist History and has given several TED talks. He has received the American Sociological Association Award for Excellence in the Reporting of Social Issues and was named one of the hundred most influential people by Time magazine. “What College Rankings Really Tell Us” (2011) evaluates the popular U.S. News “Best Colleges” annual guide. You may be familiar with this guide and may have even consulted it when selecting a college. Excerpted from a longer New Yorker article, Gladwell’s evaluation focuses on the U.S. News ranking system.

Before you read, think about the criteria that are important to you for choosing a college.

As you read, Gladwell’s review, consider who, besides prospective college students, would be likely to think the criteria U.S. News uses to rank colleges are important, and why.