College Rankings

Each year, major media organizations publish rankings of colleges and universities. Schools that fare well in these rankings often trumpet that information on their web sites and promotional materials. But what do these rankings really mean? What is the "best" college? How can you tell?

These rankings can be useful, particularly in researching unfamiliar schools. However, it's probably much more important to decide what college is "best" for your student, rather than worrying too much about what college is best in any particular category.

How should you approach these rankings?

First, find out how the rankings were developed. Most ranking systems divide colleges into categories based on curriculum or specialty. Then, organizations collect a vast amount of data about each college and somehow compile that information to create an overall ranking. Although it is interesting to know which colleges are ranked in the top 10 or the top 50, it is probably more important to use the information to compare specific colleges with one another.

Second, determine which statistics about each college matter to the student. Some to consider:

· Measures of selectivity. What percentage of students who apply are admitted? This is a rough guide to how difficult it will be for a student to be accepted.
· Characteristics of the previous freshman class. Most rankings include a summary of the SAT/ACT scores and class rankings of the most recent freshman class. For example, if 85% of freshmen were in the top 10% of their high school class, and your applicant is in the middle of his or her class, it will probably be difficult for him or her to be admitted. Conversely, if your child is a valedictorian and only 65% of the freshmen were even in the top half of their class, your child will not find other students (and perhaps the school itself) as academically oriented as he or she is.
· Graduation rates or freshman persistence rates. This statistic tells you how many students who start at the college graduate or stay for the sophomore year. If that is a low number, it's worth finding out why students don't stay.
· Demographic information about the student body. How many women? How many men? How many belong to Greek-letter organizations? How many live on campus? How many belong to various ethnic minority groups?
· Percentage of students receiving financial aid. This statistic can tell you how committed the college is to providing financial assistance to students.

Finally, you may want to compare several schools head-to-head. Most of the ranking organizations have web sites, and some will allow you to plug in the names of several colleges and get a direct comparison. Looking carefully at these comparisons can highlight differences between the colleges that you might have overlooked. Finally, explore these differences by talking with admissions representatives or other students to determine if they are significant.

The bottom line: Your student should not choose a college based on its rankings in some national magazine. However, don't overlook the rich information available from these rankings in sorting and evaluating possible colleges. The number one college in the country is not right for many, many students, and a much lower ranked college may be "just right" for your child's particular needs. Finding the "best" college is not as important as finding the college that is best for him or her.

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