Most College ‘Rankings” are . . . um, er . . . Rank!
The college admissions process can be both confusing and exhilarating. It can be frustrating and satisfying at the same time. But among most of these apparent contradictions is some underlying logic. Upon examination, most pieces of the admissions process make sense. There is one exception; college rankings. Students and parents are constantly bombarded with ranking lists. There’s only one problem. Most college rankings make little or no sense and many of them are just plain frauds.
That’s right . . . most of those lists that you’ve been treating as the holy grail of college evaluations are nothing more than nonsense. Like some snake oil elixir from a traveling side show, you might think they have value but they don’t. Are they all completely worthless? No, many of them are worthless, maybe even most of them but a couple have some value. Unfortunately, while they aren’t completely worthless, even the best of the lists aren’t nearly as valuable, useful or accurate as they claim. The others are nonsense, money making frauds or both. Let’s take a look at college rankings, how you should use them and how you can avoid painful and expensive scams.
The best of the bunch is the US News & World Report annual ranking of America’s top colleges. It’s one of two rankings that have any value whatsoever but even it is mostly nonsense. That’s right . . . the best of the bunch isn’t very good. In fact, because of its widespread popularity, it has actually become dangerous for many high school students!
What’s the purpose of college rankings? The obvious answer would be to help students find the best college. Unfortunately while it might be the obvious answer, it’s not the right answer. The nasty truth is that the real purpose behind college rankings . . . the driving force . . . is actually just to make money for the people who publish the rankings. But the news gets worse. If it was simply a company offering a good product at a fair price, rankings might not be a rip off. But the information from which the rankings are built is often nonsense and the average consumer has no idea how many times they pay for the rankings after they buy it at the newsstand! That’s right, when you buy the list of rankings at the book store . . . that’s only the first time you pay for it!
Take a look at whatever college ranking list you might have available. You’ll immediately notice two things. First, there are a lot of ads trying to sell you anything and everything regarding the college admissions process. Colleges advertise. Admissions counselors advertise. Essay writing services advertise. SAT test prep companies advertise. And student loan lenders always advertise! All of those ads cost a small fortune and you’re paying for every one of them.
The next thing you’ll notice is that most of the companies who offer you ranking lists also offer you a premium product of some sort for just a few dollars more. Of course the detailed information promised is nothing more than what’s available for free on the college web site.
You’ll also notice that many of these companies offer you a ‘free’ college matching service. That’s a great idea . . . except for one small thing. The goal of these matching services and college search engines isn’t actually to match you with a ‘good fit’ college! The real goal is to provide you with the names and additional information regarding many colleges, most of which you’ve never even heard about. Why? Well, because for every college the service ‘matches’ you with . . . the list provider gets paid! That’s right; the colleges pay the companies who assemble the lists for the chance to ‘sell’ you. They don’t care if you’re a good match . . . they care about obtaining your email or that you ‘click through’ to learn more. Of course in the end . . . you’ll be the one who pays for that sales scam!
And it won’t stop there. Once you ‘register’ for any of the free services these companies provide, your name and email will be sold again and again to anyone looking to reach college students. Good luck closing that floodgate once it’s open!
Maybe all of that would be worth it . . . if the rankings were actually of any real value. Unfortunately they’re not. There are nearly 4,000 colleges and universities in the United States. Trying to decide which is #78 and which is # 79 is absurd. It’s about the same as looking out at a field of flowers blooming during the spring and trying to decide which one is the 78th prettiest and which one is the 79th prettiest. Or how about thinking back to the weather every day last year . . . which was the nicest? If you’re an avid skier then it was probably sometime in January but if you like to surf then maybe it was in July. If you like warm pleasant weather and live in Boston, the nicest day might have been in September. If you like the same thing but live in Florida it was more likely sometime in March. Now rank each of those days so that you can reasonably tell me which one was the 56th nicest and which one was the 57th nicest. Get the idea?
Understanding the preferences and needs of an individual student should determine the ranking of America’s ‘best’ colleges for that student. Do they want a quiet suburban campus with warm weather? Then Harvard is definitely ‘out’ but Emory could be ‘in’. Do they want great academics and a rural campus near snowboarding? Then Yale and Columbia are ‘out’ while Dartmouth and Middlebury are ‘in’. No ranking list understands any individual student . . . so much of the ranking criteria is worthless!
Moreover, the criteria used to establish the rankings are . . . well, crazy! For instance, let’s consider average class size. Whether a class is small or large might be important and it might be irrelevant; it depends on the class. For instance, a workshop class in creative writing is more valuable if there are only a few students. But in a lecture course presented by a famous economist, who cares how many other students are in the class? What’s relevant is not the average class size, but the average class size in the courses you plan to take and which will be substantively improved if they only have a few students. No ranking list has the answer to that question. A small class size may only mean that the professor’s lectures are boring and the class is unpopular!
It gets worse. One prominent ranking list, Forbes, uses awards won by students as important criteria. Of course this means that any very small school with even one award winning student will outpace many larger schools. But would you really rank Wabash College in Indiana or Centre College in Kentucky well ahead of Stanford? Using that very gauge, the editors of the Forbes rankings did! Another misleading criteria is ‘acceptance rate’. The US News & World Report rankings give this one quite a bit of weight. Unfortunately many schools now try to build applications, whether students are qualified or not. Why? Because more applications means a lower acceptance rate and a lower acceptance rate means a higher ranking! Building applications from unqualified students is particularly easy for colleges in large population centers or with nationally recognized athletic programs or with large marketing budgets. Unfortunately a lower acceptance rate doesn’t necessarily mean a better college. It might . . . but it doesn’t always. If you can’t rely on the value of the information . . . what good is the ranking?
Then what good are the rankings? They can be useful if viewed correctly. For instance, if a student has carefully thought about their goals and preferences and has also done significant research and investigation of colleges that match those preferences, a ranking list could be helpful. Let’s say this student has come up with a list of colleges of 3 or 4 colleges that ‘match’ their preferences in size, location, and style. Looking at the US News & World Report list might show that the schools are ranked 17th, 23rd and 114th. (By the way, this is an imaginary example so we haven’t looked at what colleges are actually ranked 17th, 23rd or 114th . . . so they probably aren’t similar!) Our experience has been that similar schools ranked as close as 17th and 23rd are not very different in the ‘real world’ so the ranking list would be of no value. However, there might be enough of a gap between being 17th or 23rd and being 114th to make the student think more about the last choice. That school might be different enough from the other two that the student should do more research and carefully consider the selection.
Sadly, there is a growing trend for students to apply to a college or university because it ‘ranks’ well and not because it makes sense for them. Don’t fall into the ranking trap!
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