It’s that time of year again: publications of every description are coming out with their college rankings. Some are insightful; others are fun; a few are meaningless. The real question is how can they help you?
The granddaddy of all college rankings is the U.S. News annual rankings of “America’s Best Colleges”. It’s been around since 1983. The Princeton review has been surveying college students for years to generate Top-10 lists of characteristics that often mean more to students – such as quality of life, political activism, and sex-drugs-and rock-and-roll, (My favorite is “Dodgeball Targets.) Forbes, Newsweek, have weighed in with their versions. And of course, there is Playboy’s annual pronouncement of the best party school.
Whether they like to admit it or not, college administrators jump though hoops to improve their ranking every year.
Why? The answer is simple: money and bragging rights. Colleges which rank higher attract more applicants. That, in turn, means less pressure to control tuition increases. It is simple supply and demand. But an equally significant reason colleges make substantive changes, tweak their statistics, and sometimes lie outright in order to improve their ranking is that a higher ranking means better bragging rights. And inasmuch as most colleges and universities are not-for-profit organizations, bragging rights are the equivalent of …well, something.
Be forewarned: many thoughtful people – those without an axe to grind or a place on the list to explain or defend – think the rankings are just plain wrong. Edward Fiske, the long-time Education Editor of the New York Times and creator of the best-selling Fiske Guide to Colleges probably makes the clearest case. He says, “There are two fundamental problems with the rankings. First, they lead parents and students to ask the wrong question. Instead of asking, ‘What’s the best college?’ students and parents should be asking, ‘What’s the best college for me?’ Second, the rankings are compiled based solely on inputs; really they are just a measurement of institutional wealth. And this works against the entire public sector. Although U.S. News separates public from private colleges, you would never get the sense from their rankings that the University of Michigan or Berkeley were among the great universities of the world. And that’s a disservice.”
So should these rankings make a difference to where you go? Or at least to what schools you consider?
The honest answer is: probably. And there are two reasons for this.
First, some of the rankings – the Princeton Review’s for example – give a pretty good insight, from students’ perspective, of what a place is really like. These subjective assessment and candid comments can be useful.
Second, you will be paying a lot of money for college. No, modify that: you’re not just paying, you’re investing a lot. And, after four years you will want a return on your investment. Part of that ROI will be a function of what you put into your college experience: how hard you work, what courses you take, what experiences you take advantage of, and what friendships and connections you make. But part of it is also “brand” equity. When, after graduation, you say, “I went to X College,” does that statement elicit recognition or a blank look?
Here’s the not-so-secret “dirty little secret”: some colleges do open more doors – at least initially – than do others. If you don’t think that having a Harvard-Yale-Princeton-Stanford-or-other-“prestigious”-college degree makes a difference, you are being naïve. More doors are opened more quickly. But they don’t guarantee anyone a job. And not having a degree from one of these “top” schools certainly doesn’t reduce one’s chances of a successful, fulfilling career. But as a first step along the career path, they can provide a bit of a head start.
Brand recognition should not be the determining factor in where you choose to go to college. But we’d be fibbing if we suggested it shouldn’t – or won’t – be a factor.
One important reminder: do not get hung up on whether a particular school is number 17 versus its cross-town rival which is number 14. Don’t get into the minutia; try to keep a big-picture perspective.
