Welcome Back! It’s a new school year and hope, excitement and good intentions fill the air. It’s also that time of year when US News and other publications come out with their updated college rankings and a lot of students, parents, grandparents, etc. like to look at these rankings to determine what the “best” colleges are. Columbia University went from #3 to #18 in this year’s rankings because they got caught reporting false information and numbers to help their rankings. Is the quality of education, facilities they have and opportunities they provide any different than last year? No. However, some will think they are getting a worse education because they are 15 spots lower in the rankings. I’m not defending Columbia at all. I wish they were taken out of the rankings for what they did. I’m trying to prove the point that the rankings are useless. My advice- don’t pay attention to these rankings because they are manipulated and “gamed” by the colleges. How? Let’s dig a little deeper.
I’ve been asking my juniors in class, “how do you know whether a college is “better” or one of the “best” schools? A few of them came up with what I think are the top 4 reasons but most could not.
- Admission Rate– If it’s really low (<20%) then that means they take the “smartest” students and if they have the “smartest” students they have to be one of the “best” schools, right? I guess that depends on how you define “smart”. Also, let’s keep in mind that colleges can control their % acceptance rate. Here are just a few examples. First, they never accept significantly more students year after year because if they did, their acceptance rate would go up. Second, they don’t build more dorms and increase their freshman class size because if they increased their freshman class size, their acceptance rate would go up. Third, they market to students who have no chance of getting accepted and tell them they should apply because “they don’t just take students with perfect scores and are at the top in their class”. This is a lie because outside of athletes, students who come from influence and if you fill a big need, you pretty much have to have all A’s in the most rigorous courses at your school. Plus, over 93% of incoming freshman at the colleges with the lowest admission rates, are top 10% of their class. These colleges spend millions of dollars marketing to students who never had a chance of being accepted, because they need 40,000 + applications so that they can deny 95% of them.
- Rankings- For those that think the rankings are an accurate reflection of how good a college may be, you are the ones that keep the rankings alive. For those of us in the college counseling profession, we despise the rankings because we know it’s just perception, not reality. For additional thoughts that I have regarding rankings please read my posts titled “Perception vs. Reality in College Admissions” and “View College Rankings With Skepticism”. You can also read how an actual college “gamed” the rankings to boost their application numbers and perception here.
- Cost- Is true that if something is more expensive, it is better quality? Yes. When it comes to goods and services, you obviously have to pay more if the product you are buying was made with better quality materials that cost more. We also know that a lot of products get priced higher because of a “shinier” cover or case or a “sleek” new look even though the product is the same. When it comes to college costs, when you are paying more tuition for one school over another, what are you really paying for that’s “better”? I understand it costs more to live in a city than the suburbs or the country, but we’re just talking about tuition, not room and board. The answer is…not much. The majority of four year colleges have similar dorms, meal plans, major options, nice recreation facilities, nice academic buildings, etc. I know that some schools are larger than others and therefore have more resources but my point is that for what a college student needs and even wants in order to have a successful and enjoyable college experience, the overwhelming majority of colleges provide an excellent education on a nice campus with nice facilities. So what are you paying for when Harvard (without any financial aid) is $100,000 total per year and University of Pittsburgh is $30,000 per year? You are paying for their “reputation”, their “name” and I guess the opportunity you have to say you “went to Harvard”. This is exactly the reason Mark Salisbury started TuitionFit. I would encourage you to check out what TuitionFit is all about.
- Who You Listen To– In the majority of college planning meetings that I have with students and parents, when they think that the higher ranked colleges are “better”, most of the time it’s because one of the parents went to one of these schools and they believe their success in life is due to the fact that they attended their alma mater. I also meet with parents who say they don’t want their child to think they should attend their alma mater because it wasn’t the “great” experience they thought it would be. I often hear that there is a lot of pressure and anxiety students feel on a daily basis to “keep up” or succeed at a highly competitive admission college. I understand that this isn’t true for everyone though. It’s when a student or parent tells me that their neighbor, friend, co-worker, etc. told them that a certain college is better so therefore they think so as well that frustrates me. Nobody should form an opinion about a college without doing research for themselves and understand what all of their options are. First, know what environment you may thrive in spiritually, academically, socially, emotionally and then look for colleges that fit what you need. Don’t apply to a college because it’s more “popular”, “well known” or your friends and family think it’s “better”. If you are looking for websites that will provide you with very helpful information about any college, go to CollegeData.com, College Scorecard, or College Board Big Future.
