For years when the dean of the graduate school at Washington University in St. Louis wanted to know how its programs stacked up to their peers, he was at a loss. He resorted to using U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings of graduate programs, even though many in academe pooh-pooh them as unscientific. The National Research Council’s rankings of doctoral programs, considered the gold standard in academe, have not been updated since 1995.