<p>In Korea students at elite colleges recently began a campaign to oppose newspaper college rankings. They reason that college rankings are subjective, tend to strengthen the status quo, do harm to "real" college education, mislead high school students/parents, and are ultimately beneficial only to the newspapers themselves. I believe the situation in America is not very different when we look at the underpinnings and influence of, say, USNWR rankings. What do you think?</p>
<p>I’m not sure why this is posted in the Vanderbilt forum, but I’ll bite.</p>
<p>Yeah, I do agree that way too much emphasis is placed on the USNWR rankings. What really scares me is that I have seen posts on here saying “my parents won’t let me apply to any schools outside the top 20 USNWR rankings” or “I want to go to the highest ranked school possible even though it doesn’t have my major.” While the schools themselves are great, I think what many people don’t realize that it changes every year (which rarely says anything about the program). It also doesn’t say anything about “fit,” strength in particular major, or the general climate of the student body. There is very little you can actually tell from the rankings themselves and there are some great schools that offer fantastic educations that aren’t included in the top ranks of the USNWR rankings. Just because one school is a good fit for someone else does not mean it will be for you.</p>
<p>I could go on and on but there are many people that have stronger opinions about this than I do. Basically, while it could provide a good place to start in your college search, much more research needs to be done (visits, talking to current students, looking in departments, ect) to determine if a school is a good fit.</p>
<p>Oh, I posted this here because I am a Vandy alum and this is the only forum I regularly visit. No offense intended whatsoever.</p>
<p>I think rankings can be a useful tool to get a general sense of a university’s standing such as the differences between Northwestern and Southwestern (which are significant).</p>
<p>However, I think rankings become a problem when students chose the #7 school over the #12 school (even though #12 is a better fit).</p>