Zac Bissonnette - The Comsumerist - 5 Reasons Why Every Single College Ranking Sucksp

College Search & Selection
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<p>5</a> Reasons Why Every Single College Ranking Is a Pile of Crap - The Consumerist</p>

<p>Zac Bissonnette is a college student (now graduate) who has managed to go through college debt-free, and he has written a book on it. He gives the following reasons why any college ranking is "a pile of crap"</p>

<p>In summary --

[quote]

  1. College rankings are often based on opinion and not actual data
  2. Rankings can be based on factors that have no demonstrated impact on academic results
  3. The benefits of attending a more selective college might very well be canceled out by the benefits of attending a less selective college
  4. Rankings that look at career earnings fail to consider the aptitudes of students<br>
  5. Real experts -- as opposed to people trying to sell magazines full of car ads -- who look into this stuff have realized you can't compare colleges in any meaningful way

[/quote]

Finally, he notes,

[quote]

A student's success or failure in college and in life will ultimately be determined by who they are, not which college they attend. Successful people attended all kinds of colleges - only three CEOs of the top 20 Fortune 500 companies attended "elite" colleges, and 12 of the top 20 attended public colleges.

[/quote]

Opinions? The article goes into the subject with a little more detail...</p>

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<p>Reaction? People who attend elite schools like rankings; those who do not, do not. People are selfish and insecure. We see what we want to see. That’s all there is to it.</p>

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<p>^Well put. </p>

<p>I think the only good reason a ranking list should be used would be to scout out potential colleges. There were some colleges I never heard of, and never realized that they were “good” in a sense until I saw them on US News. Not to mention, it’s a great way of checking out “top” schools for specific majors.</p>