Regarding my post earlier on an Elo rating for colleges, Douglas Bass has some additional notes. He concludes:

The amount of significant knowledge (as measured by patents, research grants, cited publications, awards, etc.) generated by a school only has a minor impact on these rankings. It also doesn't take into account that mediocre students want a college to go to as well. But this ranking might give a more accurate reflection as to the word on the street.

Do high school seniors -- even very talented ones -- care about the number of patents obtained by their professors, or the number of grants or refereed publications? Most of these students make visits and are sold enough to apply to the schools. If these things mattered, would this not be reflected in the choices students make?

And just as patzers like me can still carry a chess rating, so too could you extend the Elo rating scheme to schools for mediocre students.