<p>That was the title of a great sermon I once heard given by the now deceased chaplain of Yale University, William Sloane Coffin. Essentially, he said that for most people, things like money, power, prejudice etc tells them who they are - very bad. Putting aside his belief that love should tell you who you are, this past Thanksgiving, I had to listen to one of my nieces (applying to college this year), my 50 year old sister, and a guest argue about college rankings. Who was 4th vs. 5th. Why you can't get the same quality education at a school ranked 25th vs . 2nd or 3rd. All I could think of was that for these people rankings told them who they were. It was pathetic. To have your self esteem actually influenced by Newsweek rankings etc. is a true shame.</p>
<p>It happens way too much on this site. Way too many parents and kids let perceived rankings influence who they are, what they feel, what they say to others, advice they offer.</p>
<p>Amen, Parlabane. When I hear my child rave about how happy they are at their first choice, non Ivy League university I am so grateful that we made that choice, ED. Hope to find the same great match for the next child. The same principal works for choosing a prep school. You will know after revisit day. Go with the fit and not the name.</p>
<p>Ranking is what it is - a “dramatic” way of presenting the relavent numerically presentable stats. Take the prep school rankings, most of them apply a certain formula and take into consideration of endowment, college matriculation, selectivity, advanced courses offered, class size, students/faculty ratio, etc. and come up with a ranking. Does it tell us some things? Sure it does. It tells some important things about a school’s “hardware” compared with its peers. The “software” part - which many argue is more important - is not factored in the ranking system. For example, is one person’s learning style more compatible with a certain school’s teaching style? Does one feel more comfortable and motivated as a top student in a less strong pool of peers or more energized among highly motivated and bright peers? </p>
<p>Reading the rankings the wrong way, you may end up narrow-minded and stress over whether a school is number 5 or 12 while you should be more concerned which one is a better fit for the individual. Without these rankings, people - especially those new to the scene - would need to spend a lot more time to dig out the stats to find the information about the “hardware” in different schools within the context of “industry standard”.</p>
<p>I just came back from Church. Today the homily was about how we should not let the things of this world distract us from God. Kind of made me feel a little guilty. I’ve been focusing a lot on the application process recently and made me think about where my focus ought to be.</p>
<p>DAndrew, let’s say (for s & g), that the only stat boarding schools would produce is the number of graduated students who got into one of their top 3 college choices. You knew nothing more than that. Everything else you’d have to gather through visits, word of mouth, written materials etc. Do you think you could make a good decision? Do you think it would be different than the decision you make with stats? Do you think one approach is superior to the other? What would be the differences in outcome, do you think?</p>
<p>^^I don’t quite follow your questions, but as I said, the rankings describe an overall picture with one or more numerically measurable benchmarks about the schools relative to each other. Reading them “loosely” instead of literally, and combining several if needed, you get a good idea on schools’ “hardware”. It could be a good starting point for some not so sophiscated school researchers to get focus with an initial filter on hundreds (in college scene, thousands) of choices.</p>
<p>Practically, for those as sophiscated as many of you on CC, you may not need the rankings at all. Some of you may have been attending boarding schools for generations. You do your reserach diligently, and have your perspectives and firm belief on what an education your children need. I just wanted to point out that the rankings do help some others in some ways although they mislead sometimes as well.</p>
<p>DAndrew - I am asking, generally, if boarding schools only published one stat, the number of their graduates who were admitted into one of their top three college choices, would you as a potential boarding school parent or child still be able to make a sound decision about where to attend? If you could only base your decision on visits, word of mouth, written materials etc. do you think your boarding school choice would be different? What would be the differences in outcome for your child, do you think, between a stats-available decision and a stats-free decision? Do you think you’d do a better job getting the “fit” right with or without stats?</p>
<p>I get your questions now. Yes, I think I could reach the same or similar decisions with a lot of research on my own. I’d probably compile a list myself by looking for pieces of information I think are important to me - again, endowment, college matric stats, admit rate, attrition (if possible), class size, students/faculty ratio, etc. I’d then look into a short list of schools that meet my expectations on “hardware” and seek the “software” fit among them. I think - for me - some of the rankings did the first part of my job.</p>