U.S. News and World Report made splashy headlines last week with the release of their 2024 college rankings list. Some colleges are celebrating their ascension, while other big name institutions are decrying the results after plummeting down the list.
The real question though is does it even matter?
Read on for a quick summary of what’s changed in the rankings and our perspective on whether students and families should care at all –
What’s Changed –
U.S. News and World Report produces the most consumed rankings of colleges and universities in the country. They’ve also faced growing criticism for their ranking methodology which historically emphasized factors that are often a proxy for the wealth and privilege of the institutions and the students they enroll, rather than measures of quality or outcomes. As a number of prominent law and medical schools have dropped participation in the rankings all together, the company changed this year’s methodology in an effort to remain relevant.
Changes include:
What remains the same:
What’s the impact?
As a result of these shifts, some public universities such as Fresno State, San Diego State University, CUNY’s City College, and Rutgers University climbed the ranking list. Meanwhile, some private colleges that had become expert at positioning themselves to earn high marks saw precipitous drops. These included Washington University in St. Louis, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, and Tulane, which fell from No. 44 to No. 73.
Should you care?
At the end of the day, we place little to no importance on rankings as a tool for building a college list or informing a student and family about whether a college is a good fit. U.S. News & World Report, just like the several other businesses that publish ranking lists, have their own interests and financial gains to protect in preserving the perceived importance and relevance of the rankings they publish. These are among the many reasons we are skeptical of building college lists that factor the ‘ranking’ of the college as a factor.
Where should you look instead?
The most important measure of a college’s worth is your own values. Students and families have myriad different priorities in determining the criteria that matter to their own decision making in determining college fit. When the rankings were initiated in the early 1980s to revive a publication that was struggling to compete with Time and Newsweek, families had difficulty accessing much data to compare colleges. Today? Almost an endless supply of data is available at our fingertips on our computers and phones. In seconds you can find any given college’s graduation rate, student teacher ratio, job placement rate, and access information on the academic and community resources available to you.
To us, the rankings are little more than noise. We are much more interested in determining the qualities that will enable you to build the experience you want to have, and identifying the colleges that will prioritize those opportunities and approaches.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: no ranking list can tell you if you will be happy, thriving, or successful on a campus; only you can do that.
TBU Advisors are experienced in supporting students to navigate their college choices and personal best fit; our passion is helping you make a plan that takes the overwhelm out of the process and empowers you to become your own best you.
If you’d like to explore working with a TBU Advisor, get in touch here and we will look forward to connecting with you.
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