<p>"The choices are so many and the institutions themselves are so complex that there is simply no practical way for time- and resource-limited individuals (or foreign ministries of education) to gather complete information about every possible choice. It cant be done. So theyll rely on some other, larger, self-proclaimed expert institution with greater resources to do it for them. And that gives the self-proclaimed expert, the evaluator, the ranker, enormous leverage in defining the terms of quality in higher education and as such the incentives under which decisions are made. Things are only going to keep moving in this direction more mobility, more information, more choices, more institutions or higher-education providers, more people all over the world having to make choices...</p>
<p>Moreover, Im not convinced that the traditional hands-on approach to college choice works so well. The minority of college students who actually choose among a signficant number of institutions generally seem to identify a band of colleges that theyre likely to be able to attend, and choose among them in signficant part based on the campus visit and the feel of the institution.....</p>
<p>If students are making college choices based on whether they got a good vibe from walking around the campus for a couple of hours or if they happened to be assigned to a charismatic tour guide with a knack for storytelling, theyre probably going to end up making a lot of sub-optimal choices, which might go a little way toward explaining why transfer and dropout rates are as high as they are. They might be better off sticking with rankings. "</p>
<p>The good news is most kids will just attend a fairly local public or private college they know something about one way or another and can afford. I think maybe 10% really look at lots of choices and agonize over choosing one.</p>
<p>I’m probably the only person on here who will argue in favor of rankings, but I do believe they have a definite place in higher education.</p>
<p>Why? Because we need standards.</p>
<p>For instance, most without USNWR and other sources would not realize the true academic quality of universities with which they are unfamilar. Many in the midwest or south never even think of places like Johns Hopkins, Tufts, or Colgate being particularly good schools, but yet when they pick up a copy of the latest rankings they will see otherwise. Same goes for those on the coasts for WUStL, Emory, and Vanderbilt, etc.</p>
<p>Rankings are also helpful for evaluating job applicants. Without them, many U South Carolina International Business majors may have a much tougher time searching for work in NYC at companies that are not aware of the university’s stellar program, and Bentley grads would have a much tougher time selling the reputation of the school to potential employers in Houston or Phoenix. Also, it would make it easier to see that not all conference schools are created equal, and that the Final Four left in March Madness are not necessarily the best schools/programs out there.</p>
<p>States rank public schools in groups by effectiveness, and USNWR does the same through its system. If a school is satisfied with its ranking, it knows to keep up the good work, and if it is not, it has a great statistic to point to when asking for alumni donations for new labs, facilities, etc ;). This way, we judge colleges on a broad level, and ensure at least some degree of consistent thought throughout the general population toward college quality, not just local biased cow-town perception…</p>
<p>^ that would all be well and good except that puts the establishment of academic standards into the incompetent hands of a profit-driven publishing company.</p>
<p>^True, but there are multiple ranking companies.</p>
<p>Forbes, Businessweek, Princeton Review, Ruggs, College “lurker” (LOL that word is blocked), random unqualified internet sites, etc. also rank. It would help if colleges could just agree on using one benchmark standard guide like they use for us students when we are subjected to ACT/SAT testing, but whatever…</p>