Most students will agree that the college application process is neither pleasant nor memorable. Writing essays, filling out applications and sitting for interviews add unnecessary stress during the year of high school that should be the most enjoyable.
And perhaps most tedious of all is what precedes the lengthy application procedures – the college selection process.
U.S. News and World Report’s publication of “America’s Best Colleges” has aimed to “provide an excellent starting point for families” in the selection process, according to the publication’s editors, Robert Morse and Samuel Flanigan. But the publication’s pointless rankings of national universities and liberal arts colleges undermine the students’ goal in choosing the right college.
These rankings often have undue influences on prospective college students. A survey of over 250,000 college freshmen by the Higher Education Research Institute located at the University of California at Los Angeles found that 8.6 percent of respondents named the colleges’ rankings as very important in selecting a college.
To be sure, the publication is full of SAT scores, acceptance stats and other important figures and numbers that will help any college-bound student find a school that fits with their own academic potential. But the magazine’s seemingly quantitatively calculated and “objective” rankings are deceptive and unnecessary.
The rankings are, in many ways, subjective. First, a peer assessment of the schools for the “reputation” section of the survey accounts for 25 percent of the rankings. “Presidents, provosts and deans of admission at peer institutions . are asked to rate peer schools’ academic curricula,” according to U.S. News.
Donald Honeman, director of admissions at the University of Vermont, stated in The Guardian, “That element is most subject to gamesmanship among the schools. There is a tendency for any college president to low-ball the competitor. If the Yankees and the Mets are playing one another in the World Series, and you ask the manager of one what they think of the other, do you expect a terribly objective answer?”
Additionally, alumni giving is measured as a mark of “satisfaction” and therefore ranked into the “objective” analysis of the survey.
And while the publication’s editors do caution against “simply focusing on the top-ranked schools,” reminding readers that though the rankings “offer the opportunity to judge the relative quality of institutions based on widely accepted indicators of excellence . many factors other than those we measure will figure into your decision.”
The problem is, however, that the magazine would still offer the opportunity to judge the relative quality of institutions without the “beauty-pageant” style rankings. By grouping schools in different tiers (as the publication does for schools below the “Top 50”), the publication would better inform its readers of “America’s Best Colleges,” without pointing to any single school.
The title alone as “America’s Best College” is misleading, as neither Princeton (which won the top rank for the 2003 edition) nor Caltech (who took the honor of No. 1 in 1999), nor any other of the premier schools named are the “best school” for everybody.
While the magazine separates national universities (dividing doctorate, masters and bachelors-conferring schools into separate categories) from liberal arts colleges and regional colleges, few distinctions with regard to major, or even a broader field of study, are made beyond this.
Nonetheless, U.S. News Managing Editor Brian Kelly admits that the system is not perfect but asks, “Is it better than anything else out there? We think so.”
If Kelly is speaking in terms of publications that provide guidance for the selection process, he is mistaken. While no other publication makes the same attempt to objectify and quantitatively measure the strength of colleges and universities, many other publications provide a better “starting point” for prospective freshmen.
One such publication is Rugg’s Recommendations on the Colleges, which, however subjective (and not claiming to be otherwise), breaks schools down by fields of interest, naming the top tier, second tier and third tier schools for a given field of study or major. This approach allows students to research different schools based upon their academic interests.
Even better is the book Choosing the Right College: The Whole Truth about America’s 100 Top Schools. Published by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, this book provides detailed overviews of 110 schools, examining academic life, political atmosphere and student life by compiling opinions of students, professors, administrators and alumni. The ISI guide notes trends, controversies and other unique aspects of the school through school publications, university Web sites or first-hand sources that won’t be found in the 332-page edition of America’s Best Colleges.
Statistically speaking, the U.S. News guide is quite thorough and very informative without the rankings. Yet the absence of rankings would have only one result for the company – fewer profits. Magazine and book sales have been fueled largely by the rankings. Therefore the rankings remain, often with colleges vying for the elite top spots. No doubt, the college application process will continue to become more stressful, and, of course, more competitive.
Unfortunately, the U.S. News rankings of “America’s best colleges” make the selection process all the more tedious.
Nick Timiraos is a freshman in the College.
