11–20 of 38 posts
It seems that this is yet another consequence of the bizarre split responsibilities universities hold—balancing the long-term goals of a large institution with the needs of its students, for whom the experience is much more ephemeral.
I agree, and I started a website to address this: http://www.collegeanswerz.com/ .
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-destler/the-ultimate-absu...
College rankings are bullshit, and anyone who doesn't realize that the difference between the #1 and #10 schools is negligible is an idiot.
I'd say, they're not bullshit, but presenting them in such a finely graduated ranking is harmful There is a huge difference between the top 100 schools and the 201st-300th best schools.
[1]: http://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/college-rankings-onl...
College rankings are bullshit, and anyone who doesn't realize that the difference between the #1 and #10 schools is negligible is an idiot.
The problem is that it seems to matter in terms job prospects. I'm a biomedical engineering undergrad, so I thought I made the right decision turning down Harvard to come to Hopkins. However, our recruitment is abysmal compared to Harvard even for biotech and I'm seeing peers who went to a much less rigorous undergraduate engineering program that also has grade inflation getting the jobs I want simply because those c…
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection...
a place where I've used this screen name I use here for a long time. But even better than my online list (which is alphabetical, removing the implication of a strict rank order of colleges) is the free website by Education Trust called College Results
which lets applicants or their parents dig into lots of data-based comparisons among colleges.
http://collegeresults.org/search1b.aspx?institutionid=166027
You can decide what outcome measure is important to you, and use that criterion to compare the colleges you are most interested in. People who are smart about shopping for colleges don't limit themselves to the U.S. News rankings, and you don't have to either.
AFTER EDIT: Another source of information for informed shoppers is the website of a consulting firm that advises colleges,
telling colleges how to improve their financials and their rankings with tricks like raising list price and then offering phony "merit scholarships" that just bring out-of-pocket cost down to somewhat above the actual spending by the college on student instruction.
"1. College rankings hurt low and middle-income students. "
It's hard to argue why offering aid on the basis of merit as opposed to need is a bad thing.
"2. The rankings ignore job prospects."
True, but mostly irrelevant. The rankings are broadly correlated with job prospects.
"3. The rankings don't care about learning outcomes."
College isn't about learning, and it's not clear there is much difference between colleges in this regard anyway. You don't go to Harvard because you think it'll teach you better than Penn State. You do it to associate with the other people who got into Harvard.
"4. U.S. News runs a beauty pageant."
The side-effect of the beauty pageant is that it tends to echo preconceived notions hiring managers already have. Arguably it does a huge disservice to say drive students away from Yale on the basis of a bunch of things like "learning outcomes" that nobody else cares about.
"5. College rankings fuel ever greater college costs.'
This is the real takeaway point. Overhead per student is a major component of the rankings, and it helps fuel the ridiculous construction craze that's happening with universities right now.
I agree with everything in the article, U.S. News' rankings are terrible and have hugely bad effects. There are better lists. For example, Affordable Colleges Online has a list of the best return-on-investment CS degrees [1]. It has it's own questionable methodological choices but it's a much better start for anyone thinking about getting a degree. [1]: http://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/college-rankings-onl...
But then again, RateMyProfessors reviews are a significant factor in that list. Every ranking is going to have its problems.