This year’s U.S. News & World Report’s 2011 Best Colleges issue, at 296 pages, is quite a piece of work. To give credit to the editors, a lot has been changed this year. Colleges that grant postgraduate degrees are no longer ranked alongside the schools that offer only undergraduate programs. And for the first time, high school guidance counselors helped create a new “Undergraduate Academic Reputation Index.”
But the central problem remains. It’s the claim that these US college rankings will help students identify the “best colleges” in America. That claim – both implied and stated openly – is what makes students, parents and even grandparents plop down $9.95 for this year’s issue. And it just doesn’t make any sense.
Photo by jrossol
The American people love to rank things. From cars to coffee, there are rankings for almost everything. Why do we like them so much? I think it may be because it is an easy way to get a quick overview of what can be very complex information. So it only makes sense that lists of US college rankings would be among the most popular rankings. They seem like the perfect way to choose which schools to apply to. After all, if a school doesn’t make the list, it means they’re not very good, right? Wrong.
From wind turbines that provide power to their campuses, to student-run organic farms that provide the produce you find in the dining commons; colleges all over the country are stepping up to the challenge of making their campuses more sustainable. But where do the colleges you are considering rank when it comes to their overall commitment to sustainability?
Photo by The Truth About…
A lot is said about US College Rankings and if they are in fact relevant to the college search. As a representative for a small, comprehensive, liberal-arts based university in Connecticut, I am constantly encountered with questions about how the University of New Haven “ranks” against other schools. As you begin (or even conclude) your college search, it is important to concentrate on a different word than “rank” … That word is “fit”.
Photo by Geo Pollack
