Colleges, Ranked by ‘Media Buzz’

A savvy enrollment manager once told me that a crucial part of his job was getting his college’s name in newspapers and magazines. After all, he said, the more people see an institution’s name, the more familiar it becomes, and the more attractive it seems to prospective students.

He was describing “buzz,” something most colleges crave. In case you didn’t know, the Global Language Monitor will measure it for you.

A media analytics company based in Austin, Global Language Monitor tracks the frequency of words and phrases on the Internet. The company’s “TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings,” according to a news release, “measure near real-time movements of an institution’s reputation or ‘brand equity,’ using the same techniques used to measure the appeal of any other branded product, such as luxury automobiles, or consumer electronics.”

So if your alma mater’s name appears in a news article, a blog posting, or a Tweet, the company’s tracking system will collect it, analyze it, and rank it against the names of other institutions. In the most recent rankings of American universities, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology took the top spot.

Why? The “global buzz” about the institute’s OpenCourseWare project, according to the Global Language Monitor.

It’s about time M.I.T. put itself on the map, don’t you think?