How to Play the Game
It's educational. The Ranking Game allows you to see the effects of changing the weights applied to various criteria.
It's an applet. Keep in mind that the game runs in its own window, but if you return to the web and change pages the game window might close. If that happens and you want to read these pages while playing the game, open a second browser window.
Enter any numbers under "your weight". In the initial weights, I gave equal weight to five categories: student/faculty ratio, reputation, student credentials, job placement, and library. Other criteria are not initially weighted, but the game allows you to give them any weight you feel they deserve. The column labeled "Your Weight" is where you do this; it has nothing to do with your mass and the Earth's gravity. If you place a "1" next to all of the factors, then they will all have equal weight in the analysis. If you give one factor a ".5 ", it will have half as much weight as the factors with a weight of "1". The weights do not have to add up to anything in particular.
You can rerank and resort the schools. After supplying your weights, hit the "ReRank now" button. If you want to sort by the current ranks, hit the "Sort " button. If schools have the same score, the game sorts them alphabetically.
Explore the examples. At some point, try the pull-down "Examples" menu. The "Reset to initial weights" button on that menu restores the initial weights. The "Zero weights" button sets all weights to zero. If you sort when all weights are zero, the schools are sorted in alphabetical order.
Find by sorting. If you wish to find a law school, hit the "Reset to initial weights" button, then the "Zero weights" button, then the "Sort" button. The schools will appear in alphabetical order. Find your school and note the number in the "before" column; that is the location of the school as they are loaded.
"Close" is goodbye. Quit the game using the "Close" button.