Which rankings are most important?
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Anonymous
All the points you make and the points in the linked article are valid. It doesn't change the fact that when someone refers to a Top 25 college they are almost always referring to the U.S. News ranking. One reason the US News rankings caught on is that they generally track what most people think (partly due to the methodology). When someone tries to introduce a new ranking that puts Wisconsin ahead of Brown or Cornell ahead of Princeton it just doesn't feel right. |
Anonymous
You're right. As a researcher I know that more good research comes out of Wisconsin than Brown, and I hear the undergrad experience at Wisconsin is pretty good too (although Brown's undergrad experience is apparently fantastic, like going to summer camp for four years). And yet it still feels odd to have Wisconsin over Brown. |
Anonymous
Who goes around talking about "top 25" colleges? I have a DC starting the process and the only people I hear "bragging" like that are insecure. |
Anonymous
+100000, says this UCSD grad who had no idea he attended such an awesome School until way after graduating. |
Anonymous
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Here's a somewhat dated look at US News rankings over the years:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070908142457/http://chronicle.com/stats/usnews/ |
Anonymous
I'm not sure where you get bragging. College is a big investment for many people. Most people check reviews, reputation etc before making a big purchase or investment. US News itself says the rankings are just a starting point. |
Anonymous
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The other posters have made good points so I won't repeat them. Just wanted to add one other item into the mix from my own experience. In my case, I was looking at a mid-level school .. probably in the top 50-100 (that was also offering a partial scholarship) versus a top-25 school with no money. The mid-level school had a top 10 ranking for my particular field of study, while the top 25 school was considered a leader in the field.
I thought about it a lot, and ended up choosing the top 25 school, because the overall academic rigor was better, and I'm glad for it. You don't want to be the smartest person in the class, or you're not getting your money's worth. Same situation with a friend of mine doing his MBA in this area. One school offered him a really good scholarship but was not well ranked. He chose them over another school in this area that did not offer money, but was higher ranked. He regrets the decision, as he really was the smartest person in his class by choosing the poorly-ranked school, and that's not a challenge. |
Anonymous
Of course you should be careful. Not just because its a big investment but more importantly because your DC will be there for four years. In fact I find it weird that you are focusing on the idea of an investment instead of the fit. Regardless, that is precisely why the rankings are bunk. Ranking cannot tell you anything about the culture, rigor, quality of life-- whether or not it would be a good fit. For that you need much more effective research -- visits, talking to actual students, even reading actual reviews is better than rankings. There is a ton of information out there that is so much more reliable than gimmicky rankings. Even as a starting point, rankings are bunk. There are guide books that will talk more generally about things like academic rigor, academic philosophy (another thing not taken into account with rankings), culture. Thats where you start. Then you talk to actual students and go on visits. |
Anonymous
EVERYONE has some sense of rankings in mind when they start the process - no one researches the thousands of school options with a completely blank slate - let's see ow Harvard? Montgomery College? Kentucky? I must get information on these schools. It doesn't happen that way. You go into the process with a general sense of rankings and select schools for further investigation. Whether you know it or not, the US News rankings play a role in your selection. |
Anonymous
You have set up a straw man. Nobody makes important decisions, especially not the college decision, based on a single statistic. Would you buy a car simply because Consumer Reports gave it high marks, without bothering to test drive it, to see if it can accommodate your six-foot frame, or if the shift is in some inconvenient location? Of course not. For big decision like this, we all research lots of different variables. Of course we all look at academic philosophy, culture, undergraduate experience, cost, feel during the actual visits. And yes, rankings for what PP called the investment aspect (there was a recent thread linking to an article on which schools had higher rates of return in terms of finding jobs afterwards, but I don't have time to find it). But rankings are only as one of the many factors we are all looking at. |
Anonymous
Actually we don't. We remember the rankings from when we are in school. That's why I think all the fuss over rankings is sort of funny. Unless your kid is applying to school, you are not checking us news, unless maybe to see where your alma mater falls. |
Anonymous
Please, you don't need US News to tell you there's a difference between Montgomery College and Harvard. EVERYONE, as you put it, will look at schools that offer the rigor/philosophy/culture they prefer and rank them accordingly. If you are a top student you probably won't look at Montgomery College. If you are interested in studying mining, you might start with Kentucky since they have a great mining school. If you are your basic high achieving DC area student, you will probably learn where others within your school with your interests have gone, surf the web, talk to folks, whatever. I have gotten no sense that kids start or even look at US News rankings. My DC certainly hasn't. Parents might, but parent shouldn't be making these choices anyway. And, frankly, I haven't heard any parents talking about focusing on a school based on rankings. Its a novelty item, a gimmick. Most people who take the college search seriously will not outsource this process to US News. |
Anonymous
The point is this: hiring managers (like me) recognize the *brand names*. I'm pretty sure you believe in the power of a brand name (see that other thread on easiest "brand names" to get into) even if you don't believe in the rankings. But there's a ton of overlap and similar goals between the "brand" concept and US News and other rankings. Call it a coincidence, but US News is all about the brand names. The whole point of US News is to perpetuate brand names and to brand new names. And that's why colleges invest so heavily in marketing. So they, the colleges, can attract better and more applicants and boost the brand -- which will be successful, or not, if they advance in the US News ranking and other rankings. The point is not that hiring managers can rattle off that Princeton is higher than Yale, or vice versa, this particular year. They probably couldn't tell you that Duke is higher than Brown. But they have a general sense that Duke is higher than ... insert 3rd tier school here. And that's what's important to managers. For example, I know these "brands". I don't know their USNWR number (1, 6, 23). But I know the top schools rank highly by some measure that's out there. I bet if you did a poll of managers, you could get a pretty good sorting of "top 10" and "next 20" and "next 50" colleges. We'd all rank on different criteria, but we'd all have ranking. Also, you can't avoid US News. Their results are reported everywhere else. That's the problem, and that's why your child's employers may actually be aware that, say, U Chicago has scaled the heights from their own college days and is now way up there. Could they say whether U Chicago is #3 or #5 or #10? Of course not. Don't be ridiculous. But employers are likely, if they read rags like the Post, to know that U Chicago is now playing in the major leagues. |
Anonymous
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Hey, how many times can you use the word "brand" in one post?
I'm pretty sure the best schools don't think of themselves as a "brand." |
Anonymous
You can disagree without being an asshole. You need to learn that. |