The best colleges, or are they?
My college is better than yours.
U.S. News & World Report says so.
Does that win the argument? Do the magazine's much-publicized but increasingly controversial rankings really provide a reliable guide to the quality of the nation's institutions of higher learning? Should you and your college-bound kids pay attention when deciding where to apply and enroll?
The answers to those questions, it seems to our Editorial Board, are: no, not necessarily and why not?
Before going further, we'd have to congratulate Duke, Carolina, Wake Forest, Elon, Davidson and High Point, North Carolina schools that ranked highest in their categories. Their boosters probably think there's a lot of value to these ratings.
But if we're all honest about it, we'd have to acknowledge drawbacks. U.S. News paints with a broad brush. There's no way, based on its manipulation of various statistics, to capture the likely experiences that students will find on each campus. While it's easy for anyone to recognize the academic quality at Duke, that doesn't mean every student there will receive a better education, or derive more value, than he or she could get at a lesser-ranked school. Certainly, not every department at Duke is better than every department somewhere else. Not every Duke professor is more professionally accomplished, or a better teacher, than every professor elsewhere. Besides, don't they take into account how many games the football team won last year?
There are a lot of college guides and rankings in addition to this one. They all have strengths and weaknesses. What's a parent to think? We'd say read them for the information that seems important but with some skepticism. Do plenty of independent research. Try to find out how well graduates have done. Visit each campus and get a feel for the place. And hope for the best.
What's your experience with colleges and your advice for high school students and their parents?
Oh, yeah, and why isn't my college better than yours?
Comments (4)
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The shortcoming with the U.S. News and World Report rankings is that they are easily manipulated. My previous University used to pull out every trick in the book to move up in the rankings (e.g., you can move up in the rankings by getting lots of students to apply and then turning lots of students down), all the while pursuing other unmeasured policies that actually worked to students' disadvantage (e.g., trying to relabel 3-hour classes as 4-hour classes without changing the content, resources, or effective contact time).
There is a very serious issue here and that is that students and their families can't easily compare the strengths of different schools. While there has been a big accountability movement in elementary and secondary education, no such movement has made its way to the post-secondary environment. At present, the U.S. News and World Report rankings are all that people have to go on.
One year ago, Secretary Spellings called for an accountability plan for higher education. See the announcement at http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/hiedfuture/actionplan-factsheet.pdf and the report on the future of higher education at http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/hiedfuture/reports/final-report.pdf . A positive position for the editorial to take would be for colleges, and especially the UNC system, to begin implementing these recommendations.
Posted on August 17, 2007 11:27 AM
Thanks, Dave. Good suggestion.
Getting lots of students to apply and then turning lots down ...
That's so perverse.
Posted on August 17, 2007 11:32 AM
I thought I remembered recent surveys showing the majority of high-powered CEOs did not attend prestigious schools, nor were they necessarily stellar scholars.
The best fit for any one particular student depends on factors including but also beyond any the magazine tracks.
I intend to encourage my progeny to go where they feel safe, challenged and inspired. Fun may come into it, but it isn't #1. Reputation matters more if they want to become scholars or surgeons, physicists or philosophers. But businessmen and women, that appears to take initiative not the property of very exclusive colleges, a far as the surveys of real-life experience is showing. In my own fields of art and acting, while it helps to get your training from well-respected teachers, it's the connections and proximity to opportunities to ply your craft that matter.
Posted on August 22, 2007 11:02 PM
The rankings are a rough guide of quality but no more. The school you attend may make a difference in that first post-graduate interview but after that you are on your own. The best ranking would be one related to the weather. Warm is good, cold sucks.
Posted on September 2, 2007 1:07 PM