The College Ranking Delusion Pt. 1

By Andy Beaudoin on March 11, 2013

Michigan State University has always had its notorious rivalries: University of Michigan, Ohio State, etc. Students, alumni and dedicated fans have watched Michigan State battle these competitors up and down basketball courts, football fields and all the rest.

While school pride is undoubtedly healthy, it seems as though our sense of competition has bled over into academics as well. Universities have become obsessed with their academic rank and instead of trying to crush and/or badmouth the Wolverines in basketball, we’re competing for the who’s who in degree programs like engineering, creative writing, biology, etc.

This sense of competition is interesting, but it seems necessary to figure out who’s deciding all of this stuff and what exactly makes a school “better” than the next. After all, your education is more or less determined by how much you put into it, so why should we worry about our school’s ranking? And what does a ranking really imply?

The Ranking Giant

For years now I’ve heard of schools like University of Michigan and Northwestern “outranking” Michigan State, but I have never once felt like my education was less fulfilling than it would have been at another school.

I had questions, so I turned my interests to the U.S. News’ annual college rankings which high school students and parents use to determine what school fits them best. Luckily, I stumbled upon this article which explains their process for calculating a school’s prestige.

The news company judges colleges and universities based on a number of criteria: “assessment by administrators at peer institutions, retention of students, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, alumni giving and—for National Universities and National Liberal Arts Colleges—high school counselor ratings of colleges and ‘graduation rate performance.’”

The three largest factors that determine the ranking formula: 1. assessment by administrators at peer institutions, 2. faculty resources and 3. retention of freshmen students (about 20-25% each).

The assessment of administrators was most interesting to me. The article explained that of the 4,571 academic professionals that were asked to evaluate the schools, only 44% responded. It seems to me that such evaluation would be key for determining how a school is ranked.

I was perplexed. Why would over half of the academics refuse to participate in the survey? And why would something like student selectivity or the amount of money alumni give factor into a school’s worth? Check out part 2 of my article to find out more.  

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format