BY THE time this column is printed, U.S. News and World Report will have published its 2012 Best National University and Liberal Arts College rankings. It will again be time for high school kids to check to see how their prospective colleges and universities rank in comparison to everyone else's. College students likewise may be interested in the lists to see if their schools have fallen, risen or remained the same in the ranks.
Indeed, the U.S. News rankings have become a powerful force. Institutions with high rankings now are using them to their advantage. For instance, the University's academic rankings can be found under the "Discovering UVa" tab on the virginia.edu main site. Above the rankings, there is a disclaimer noting that the University currently is ranked second among public universities and never has fallen outside the 25 overall best schools. This is certainly good publicity for the University, but it is unfortunate that so much weight has been placed on a list of schools that does little to highlight what a student's college experience actually will be like.
I admit that I was a big follower of the U.S. News rankings when I was applying to colleges. It seemed like a natural starting point to narrow down the college search, as well as a way to initially gauge a school's academic merit. Like so many others, I mistakenly began to think that the beginnings toward success in life were dependent on how "highly ranked" my future school was. I never really stopped to realize, though, that my college experience ultimately was going to be decided much more by my actions and decisions than by how highly a school was placed on some list.
Books like the Fiske Guide to Colleges and The Princeton Review prove much more helpful in determining what life at a school will be like. Instead of ranking colleges, they review them holistically. Academics, quality of life, campus social life and many other categories are rated, but not necessarily listed from best to worst. The Fiske Guide, for example, gives the University five academic stars, five quality of life stars and four social stars. In addition, the Fiske review includes several pages worth of well-rounded opinions about the University. It touches upon all main aspects of student life. This is more helpful than the U.S. News assessment. In-depth reviews like those included in the Fiske Guide give prospective students a glimpse into the lives of students at a particular college. Such notions are skewed by the U.S. News rankings.
The opinions from guides like Fiske are what the University should advertise on its website, and they should be valued more than the U.S. News rankings. The fact that the University is ranked 25th does not mean that those who come here will not be presented with the opportunity to do everything that a student going to a top-ten university could.
The University is rated by Fiske as having five academic stars, putting it on par with the best colleges in the country. Rating colleges individually on a one to five scale is much better than ranking them comparatively because the former accurately puts forth the message that the student is in charge of his or her academic pursuits. Just because one school is ranked more highly than another does not mean that all the students at that school automatically are exposed to better teaching or academic life. The five star rating system presents a baseline for each school in terms of academic potential. For instance, the University's five-star rating signifies that a student will be offered the best academic resources available, should he choose to take advantage of them. A person who is dedicated enough can achieve success at a multitude of colleges, not simply the school with the most impressive ranking.
The U.S. News rankings present the mistaken idea that a student is better suited for one college rather than another based on what is deemed more prestigious. Although it is true that not all institutions of higher education are academically equal and some do provide a better education than others, it is not guaranteed that a student will receive a better education from one school versus another school that is ranked five or ten spots ahead. Undergraduate education does not teach one everything he needs to know.
Last year when the U.S. News rankings were published, its website got 10 million hits in one day. Let us hope that not all of those people believe that the rankings they viewed meant the difference between success and failure.
Alex Yahanda's column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at a.yahanda@cavalierdaily.com.
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