A college degree is a major investment. Students can pay up to $40 or $50 thousand a year for their college education. Hence, deciding on where to go to college can be one of the most important and most difficult decisions in a person’s life. That is why various organizations annually rank colleges all over the world, aiming to help people determine which institutions will best provide them with a quality education.
Sometimes families utilize rankings to measure the prestige of a group of universities. That is because attending a high profile institution can be both a confidence booster and a ticket to a top job or graduate school.
Rankings may be based on several factors, including the average starting salaries of graduates, admissions selectivity, the level of alumni donations, and reputation among educational peers.
Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and institutions with similarly high international reputations always fare well. In fact, when they are left out of the top 10 or 20, as happened once this year, it is big news.
Rankings ofen help students and parents differentiate between colleges. They may also help families confirm their impressions of an institution’s overall quality.
When choosing colleges to consider, there is no such thing as too much information. And, because virtually all colleges offer students a solid education, it is often the sometimes small differences between colleges that can make the college decision making process easier. Here again, the ratings can be of significantt assistance to families.
All too many students choose a college without doing the necessary research. As you might imagine, such students are far less likely to earn a degree than those whose searches are more focused and more diligent.
Accepting any publication’s rankings of colleges without question is certainly not the way to choose a college. After all, not everything…including academic quality…can be easily quantified or ranked. But, it would be foolish to ignore rankings just because they may not be perfect. Your best bet? Use rankings as they are meant to be used, as a potentially, but not entirely definitive piece in the college selection puzzle.
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