<p>I doubt that many adults would say that rankings are a good basis for finding a school that works well for a particular student. However, like anything else, rankings can be a useful tool. They can actually help you discover things about schools you did not know and do allow an “apples to apples” comparison on some statistics. How you value those statistics is up to you. You might discover a gem of a school looking at these things. The problem comes with the overweighting of the statistics that the publications use and buying into the importance of these.</p>
<p>That said, I do think that students, more so than adults, can find themselves influenced by rankings. To the extent that talented students apply in greater numbers to top ranked schools because of their perception that they are getting value, it becomes sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy that those schools will have stand-out students at them. Once those schools have great numbers of talented students, others flock there. It’s not to say that a smart student cannot do famously well at many places, but as students look to be with the best and the brightest classmates–which can translate into stimulating activities in and out of the classroom–certain schools stay at the top of the rankings. So rankings do become a tool for finding these places. </p>
<p>People are equating looking at and considering rankings with buying that you’re lesser if you don’t go to one of the ones at the top. It’s not that rankings are so terrible–they’re just horribly abused by misguided students. Students do not realize that they just tell a small part of an elaborate and rich story.</p>