Every year
US News releases a College Ranking issue that ranks colleges by many categories including the overall best. The purpose is to show which colleges are the best value, and is designed to make college searches less stressful. Believe me this is a bitter lie. Coming from a community where from birth we are expected to go to college, once high school hits it is something that sits heavy on our minds. Told by counselors that we should go where we feel most comfortable, and where we will be best fit in with the new community. This ranking system is the very contradiction to all college searching should be about. Below I have posted the link to the
US News College Ranking database:
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities
The first sentence of an article explaining
US News methodology towards these rankings states, "Certainly, the host of intangibles that make up the college experience can't simply be measured by a series of data points". Say no more, stated in the first sentence is the solid truth. You cannot rank the "best colleges" for someone based off of a set of data points. The "host of intangibles" are the most important part of ones journey to finding the right college, and one can't simply find this information from a plethora of data points.
On top of its unreliability and extremely non-personal appeal, it carries a very dangerous affect that pertains specifically to New Trier High School. Being from this extremely competitive High School i can tell you that the last thing we need on top of the abundance of information we already have, is a college list ranked from best to worst. With colleges being thought about and looked at this list is the very hinderer of ones college search. What if your favorite college isn't in the top 25? What if your fifth choice is ranked ten spots ahead of your first? This ranking system does not help the stressed out student, but rather pounds them with a mental break down.
In your opinion, is this ranking system useful? Could it be of some use to the confused college bound student?
Here is the link to the article on its methodology:
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2011/09/12/how-us-news-calculates-the-college-rankings-2012
I agree with you Doug. I am a notorious college researcher, and I'm constantly looking through books and checking statistics about the hot new schools. The way I see it, these lists do nothing for the student. They are merely a bragging list. A way for students to say: "Oh, you got into Notre Dame? Well I got into Brown, and Brown is ranked higher than Notre Dame"
ReplyDeleteBOTH of those schools are exceptional institutions, and who has the authority to make one higher than the other? These are dangerous lists to New Trier because 99% of us WILL go to college. The question is, who will go to "best" one?
I agree that the individual stigmas associated with each specific college greatly influence the mind of a New Trier student. Compulsively and borderline subconsciously, New Trier students think about their futures and how if for whatever reason they don't play their cards right, they can negatively affect the rest of their lives.
ReplyDeleteThis, for one, is not true because each of us have the power to make our lives as bad or as good as we want them to be, and going to one college over another is not going to mess the grand plan up. In response to Bridget's comment, I think the "best" college is the one where the individual feels comfortable, challenged, and happy. If that college happens to be a community college in the middle of nowhere, which would more times than not rank lowly on the so called "master list", that's ok.
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