Education benefited from the focus. He admitted that the most relevant data—what the students had learned at each school—was inaccessible. But the U.S. News model, constructed from proxies, was the next best thing. However, when you create a model from proxies, it is far simpler for people to game it. This is because proxies are easier to manipulate than the complicated reality they represent. Here’s an example. Let’s say a website is looking to hire a social media maven. Many people apply for the job, and they send information about the various marketing campaigns they’ve run. But it takes
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