<p>The school I like is well liked by the students but ranked poor in USnews and some other programs based on it's individual programs which I would probably go into. I want to get a good job after college, but not sure if it can provide it. Does having a bad individual program rank mean it's not as good as a college with high rank in certain fields?</p>
<pre><code> WABASH COLLEGE
</code></pre>
<p>Based on PR</p>
<h1>11 Best Overall Academic Experience For Undergraduates Academics</h1>
<p>#5 Professors Bring Material to Life Academics
#10 Professors Make Themselves Accessible Academics
#8 Their Students Never Stop Studying Academics
#2 Best Bargains - Private Administration
#9 School Runs Like Butter Administration
#9 Students Happy With Financial Aid Administration
#18 Lots of Race/Class Interaction Demographics
#3 Everyone Plays Intramural Sports Extracurriculars
#7 Major Frat And Sorority Scene Parties </p>
<p>And on Campusdirt.com it's ranked #2nd best college overall.</p>
<p>Do you mean to say it's Wabash you're talking about? Wabash is ranked "poor?" What edition of US News could you possibly have gotten your hands on?!?</p>
<p>I will say this much: There is only room at the top for a few institutions when you rank them the way US News does. If you want to follow their ranking religiously, you will draw false conclusions about the many fine schools who didn't get one of those top rankings. </p>
<p>If you think the Wabash rating is "poor" then you may also be misunderstanding the methodology. </p>
<p>Rankings are a tool, but you can't rely on them in the way that you seem to be.</p>
<p>Please don't get hung up on USNews rankings. They are very based on arbitrary, sometimes irrational and certainly unvalidated criteria. They need to be taken with a very large grain of salt. If you spend a little time browsing/searching threads on ranking you can find a lot of discussion and analysis of the different rankings out there and decide for yourself. More importantly, what is it that you find attractive about Wabash? Generally speaking it's more important to start with a consideration of colleges that have a campus and culture that is most attractive to you: size, pvt vs public, rural vs urban, suburban, part of the country, climate, diversity, liberal vs conservative and so on. When you do this you can also simultaneously direct yourself to schools based on their selectivity and your academic achievements, in terms of realistic expectations of admission. Then you can take into consideration the strengths of individual programs of each college in narrowing it down. But keep in mind that many students change their major/interests after starting school and getting exposed to interesting classes in fields that they might never have imagined making a carrer of. But it probably is a reflection of USNews' inadequacies if you are finding a school well respected and received by a number of guides and other evaluations but not especially highly ranked by USNews.</p>
<p>Kinglin, Wabash is a great school. Do not trust either the USNWR or PR. PR is a joke and the USNWR is too formulaic. Look at those rankings (and others) as just one of the many tools that you should use to decide which university you end up going to, but do not let them cloud your judgement.</p>