One of the biggest decisions in a young person’s life, especially nowadays, is deciding where to attend college. Questions abound about the quality of education and future career prospects, especially given the large time and financial investment that goes into higher education. Do any of these statements sound reminiscent of conversations you’ve heard about college?

• “You know, my coworker’s son got into Yale. They’re ranked #3 in the nation.”
• “My kid’s looking into business school. We’re looking at UPenn because it took the top spot in the rankings.”
• “He has his heart set on an Ivy because they’re so prestigious and highly ranked.”

U.S. News and World Reports. Princeton Review. Forbes. Wall Street Journal. They all publish annual lists of the top-ranked colleges in America. I may even be missing the names of a few of popular publications. Exactly how much decision-making weight should be placed onto “best college” lists and rankings?

Underneath the Hood

Many professional organizations of high school counselors, college counselors, and admissions officials disagree on the hyper-focus on rankings to the exclusion of other factors.

According to the National Association of College Admissions Counseling (NACAC), a majority of college admissions counselors hold a negative opinion of the rankings systems. Using the U.S. News and World Reports as an example, professionals were asked to rate their level of support for the rankings’ determination of top colleges. A scale of 1 (strenuously object rankings) to 100 (strongly support rankings) was used. The grand result?

High school counselors gave an average rating of 29, while college admissions officers were slightly more favorable with an average rating of 29. ^[1]

Part of the reason for this dissension is the methodology for how these lists are derived. If you’re a data geek like me (listen, I was trained to do this as a researcher), look underneath the hood and dissect the ranking system’s methodology, sampling techniques, response rates, and more. While some factors may be important to student success, others are more dubious. I could go on in picking apart the weaknesses, but I will save it for another post.

Truthfully, even if a different ranking system was developed and popularized, some of these issues would persist.

Best College for Whom?

As prestigious, well-regarded, and well-endowed as a college may be, annual college rankings lists cannot tell you whether your student will thrive there. It just isn’t that simple. Every student – even valedictorians, or those with perfect 4.0 GPAs or SAT scores – is not a perfect match for Harvard or whomever is positioned in one of the top slots. Every student has their own learning styles and academic preferences, as well as social and personality factors that will ultimately interact to influence their college success.

The Admissionisms way, shared by our peers in the college counseling space, is all about matching students to colleges where they can thrive – academically, socially, and otherwise. We adopt a holistic, long view of student strengths and then systematically research and analyze among the thousands of different college options to truly determine the best fit, and walk them through the entire application process.

U.S. News and World Reports and other rankings systems remain very popular. Colleges earning top marks proudly splash their rankings across every marketing channel available: websites, brochures, commercials, billboards, emails, and press releases, and the list goes on. To bank on rankings lists without using a student-centered method of determining “best colleges” is a missed opportunity in what truly matters in student success.

References:

[1] National Association of College Admissions Counseling: A View of U.S. News and World Reports Rankings. Link