George Washington University in Washington, D.C., was moved to the unranked category of the U.S. News and World Report college rankings after university officials admitted they sent inflated admissions data to the magazine.
University President Steven Knapp said that data about the “percentage of incoming freshmen who rank in the top 10 percent of their high school class” was inflated in reports to U.S. News to 78 percent instead of the actual 58 percent.
GWU had been ranked 51st.
Emory University and Claremont McKenna College in California also reported providing inflated data to U.S. News. Those schools maintained their rankings, according to the publication, because the incorrect data would not have affected their placement. Meanwhile, the correct data would have moved GWU lower in the rankings.
GWU will be eligible to be ranked again in the fall 2013 rankings.
