How can faculty and departments use the rankings?
These rankings may help programs identify characteristics of their students, faculty, and program features, in comparison to other programs in their field. For example, one can determine whether the program had more or fewer female faculty members, or how their mean time to degree compares. Even so, this should be done with caution. Be aware that each of these data items is very precisely defined by the NRC, and that the definitions are not necessarily intuitive, or the same as those used in most University of Oregon data reports.
