The Real Problem with Rankings

A message for parents

On September 23 , US News will release its annual college rankings. You wlil do your student a big favor if you keep them in perspective.

You will hear a lot of admissions professionals bemoan this annual publication for various reasons, most of which are sound. My intent here is not to discredit the rankings entirely--colleges at the top of the list do correlate with higher graduate salaries, for example. But causality is a complex matter. Also, unless US News makes some significant changes to its algorithm, a big chunk of that formula is a high-stakes version of a 7th-grade slam book--or whatever the modern-day equivalent of that might be. Key administrators for each institution are asked to rate their peers--aka, competitors--and the result constitutes 20% of a college's fate. At best, this is a reputation measure. At worst, it's something to be gamed.

Regardless, even if the rankings were 100% objective, their value to any student's college search is pretty limited, or should be. Why? Because--like so many things in the world of college admissions, US News rankings are delivered as a one-size-fits-all determination of the best colleges.

In other words, if fit were a monolithic ideal, the rankings frenzy would make more sense. But fit has three parts--admissibility, affinity, and affordability. For the vast majority of students, the top-ranked schools will be out of reach, either because they can't afford it, they can't get in, or both.

The real problem with rankings is that, all too often, families are told to ignore them but are given nothing to focus on in their place. The lack of stepwise directions for finding the right college seems to allow rankings more than their share of attention.

True North, a very brief curriculum for families which offers such guidance, is coming soon! It's not an overview of the whole process--just a manual the family can keep at hand and reference throughout the college search.

Look for it soon and please share the word with any families you know who are either about to embark on the process, or find themselves already in the middle of it.

We'll keep you updated in emails, so be sure you have subscribed.

Caution: True North can take your students on lots of adventures! It's always given me pleasure to consider how different our kids' colleges were--3 very different experiences. Just for fun, I include pics of their entering classes below.

The world awaits your awesome applicant!

Annapolis, MD

Spartanburg, SC

(Starkville, MS: just half the class, actually!)

'Til nex time,

Leigh