| | College Rankings Undoubtedly every student that’s either in college or applying to college has seen the infamous list of US News rankings. They publish an annual list that ranks schools on everything from the total annual contributions of alumni to their academic reputation. The published rankings mean great things to the universities that make the top of the list. If a university is ranked near the top (say the top 10), they’re more likely to receive a number of top applicants. If a school is ranked lower (say only in the first tear), they aren’t likely to get applicants with as high of reputations and more admitted students are likely to choose other places. While I was in the Deans office one day, he explained to me why we had the problems that we were having with a larger than average freshman class and why there were students that were living in study lounges because there just weren’t enough rooms for them. In 1999 when my class (Class of 2003) was applying to schools, Cornell was ranked sixth in the country overall. There was a significant larger applicant pool because we were ranked just behind the "Big 3 Ivies" (Harvard, Yale, and Princeton). Not realizing just how much students looked at rankings, they admitted roughly the same number of students as the year before with the assumption that roughly the same percentage would choose another school and would go elsewhere, leaving them their ideal size class. Unfortunately, a lot of students believed that Cornell was a great school and decided to come here over places that students traditionally choose. This gave us a large influx of freshman and created all sorts of problems. This year, Cornell has dropped down to where it normally is at eleventh. As a result, applicant numbers are down and likely there won’t be as many students accepting their offer of admission this year. This little story brings up two questions in my mind: Was Cornell really a better school in 1999? And why do students (including myself) put so much into rankings? The first question is somewhat easier to answer. No, the education a student would receive at Cornell was not better in 1999 than in 2000. The rankings are based on so many factors that don’t directly relate to a student’s education, that you can’t really even look at these as giving "the best schools." Take the case of No. 7 University of Pennsylvania vs. No. 10 Columbia University (NY). Columbia has a better academic reputation, a higher freshman retention rate, has more classes under 20 students, and is the more selective school. So, why is it ranked lower? Because U of Penn has a higher alumni giving rate and more of its students were in the top ten percent of their high school class. Now ask yourself a question: should the school with the higher academic reputation be higher or the one with the greater amount of monetary gifts? I would undoubtedly choose the one with better academics. Unfortunately, more students will look at a college that’s ranked No. 1 and will think that it indeed is the best school without finding out how the rankings are made. The second question that I posed earlier is slightly tougher to answer. Why do students tend to pick the No. 1 ranked school just because it’s No. 1, rather than picking the school that best fits what they want to do? Someone that’s interested in marine biology, for example, would most likely get a better education at a coastal school rather than U of Penn (which is not only not near water, but is in a somewhat major city), but there are probably a handful of marine biology majors that choose U of Penn anyway because it is ranked highly and looked upon as a good school. That still doesn’t answer the question, however. People choose schools high on the list purely because of rankings for various reasons. Perhaps they liked that they get to say that they’re at the No. I ranked school. Perhaps they like to brag to their friends who are only going to the No. 3 ranked school. Perhaps they like that there’s a certain amount of arrogance and snobbishness affiliated with being the best. Whatever the reason, students should start considering how the rankings are done and not consider who happens to be No. 1 that particular year. In an attempt to find out how student really perceived the college rankings, I conducted a short online poll to see what students ranked the top school vs. US News’ top choice. Not a single person, including myself, said that this year’s US News’ winner – California Institute of Technology. In an attempt to provide a more "fair" ranking of colleges, I have derived my own top ten list below. I don’t know how much alumni give to each university and I certainly can’t tell you any trivial fact about them such as which has the most library books or which has the highest percentage of students receiving financial aid. All I can offer is what schools are perceived on the student level as being the best and what school’s graduates appear the most successful.
Contributed by Christine "Chrissy" Schneider About NW Advertising Contact NW Get Involved |