How accurately do the USNWR rankings reflect a school's strength?

Parent Cafe
17

One of the college admissions counselors told us that rankings don’t tell the full story,

Here is what he said heavily determines choice for a student:

  1. Weather on the day you visited school. Crisp, sunny, fall day with leaves turning gold vs rainy cold day in early April with muddy/soggy quad and bare trees.
  2. Quality of your tour guide and overall presentation.
  3. Personality of your host for the overnight,t.
  4. Cleanliness or smell of dorm rooms on the overnight.
  5. Experience sitting in on a class and/or and talking to a professor.
  6. Food in cafeteria on day of visit.
  7. Someone really cute smiled at them. :wink:

At best, #5 and #6 are somewhat indicative of the overall college experience one can expect over 4 yrs, but also may be subject to dumb luck. The rest…well…largely luck of the draw.

So yeah USNWR is one many ratings systems. There’s Forbes, there’s Washington Monthly.

The strength of a particular program is really important.