The debate over whether college rankings matter is one that has been around for years. Some say that rankings are a reliable way to compare schools and make informed decisions about where to apply. Others argue that rankings are often misleading and can be manipulated, and it is hard to use any objective form of measurement to measure many of the subjective nuances of any school. So, what’s the truth? Unfortunately, there isn’t a simple answer. In this article, we’ll review the value of college rankings to help you decide how important they are when choosing your college.

The Value of College Rankings

College rankings are an important tool for many college-bound students, providing important guidance when researching universities and making difficult decisions. Rankings can give potential students insight into the quality of academic programs and research opportunities offered by different institutions.

They also help prospective students to evaluate the prestige and reputation associated with various schools, as well as consider factors such as faculty-to-student ratios and financial aid offerings. College rankings can provide a snapshot that facilitates comparison-shopping on a national level while digging deeper into the details of specific institutions to truly understand what they offer. Thus, college rankings can help college-bound students find the school that best aligns with their needs and interests.

Criticisms of College Rankings

Despite the value college rankings can provide, many experts have criticized their use in making decisions about post-secondary education.

“Too often, our best-resourced schools are chasing rankings that mean little on measures that truly count: college completion, economic mobility, narrowing gaps in access to opportunity for ALL Americans,” said Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona at a conference in August 2022.  “That system of ranking is a joke!” 

The main argument against college rankings is that they are often subjective and arbitrary. Rankings may not accurately reflect the quality of a school’s academic program or its overall experience for students.

“The biggest problem with the rankings, in my opinion, is that they’re really about input and not output,” April Paris-Joseph, founder of Paris Educational Solutions, told TUN. “So, you’re looking at data that’s brought together about the students’ high school GPA, the students’ test scores – everything that they’ve brought with them to the campus. And, really, what you want to know as an incoming student is, what am I going to be able to take away from the campus?” 

“So, how about learning about career services? How about learning about outcomes in terms of jobs that students are getting after they’re there? Are students happy on campus? Is this a safe place to be? What’s the social environment? None of that’s going into the ranking. And you can’t rank the social environment. You can’t rank high Greek life and not a lot of Greek life because there’s no empirical good or bad there. It’s what does the student want and how will the student be happy,” she continued.

Additionally, colleges can manipulate their rankings by engaging in strategic marketing campaigns and selective admissions processes.

The use of metrics to produce rankings also may not accurately capture the unique qualities that make one school superior to another. For example, a college ranking system might reward schools for higher numbers of students graduating within four years when this doesn’t necessarily reflect the quality of their educational programs.

Finally, college rankings fail to take into account that each student’s higher education needs are distinct. In Colin Diver’s book, “Breaking Ranks: How the Ranking Industry Rules Higher Education and What To Do About It” (2022), he contends that there is no such thing as a “best college” to suit all people because everyone has divergent backgrounds and stories.

The Temptation to Manipulate Data

Apart from criticisms about ranking, there has also been some controversy surrounding a relatively small group of schools that have submitted inaccurate data to U.S. News & World Report, resulting in discrepancies between their advertised performance metrics and reality.

In 2022, U.S. News downgraded Columbia University from 2nd to 18th on the list of national universities — not because of any perceived change in quality of education but because Columbia submitted inaccurate data to U.S. News, which was flagged by Michael Thaddeus, a math professor at Columbia.

And Columbia isn’t the only school to have misrepresented data sent to U.S. News. Other renowned universities such as Tulane, Claremont McKenna, Emory, and the University of Pennsylvania have all undergone college ranking controversies in the last decade alone. Villanova University was removed from its “Best Value” list in 2022 for misreporting its data. An internal University of Southern California investigation in 2022 verified that its school of education was indulging in a scheme to inflate its U.S. News rankings. And a former business school dean from Temple University was sentenced to a year and two months in jail for mail fraud in connection with manipulating data that was supplied to U.S. News.

As a result of these issues, many schools have become more cautious with their data submissions to U.S. News. In fact, several institutions have even decided not to participate in the organization’s rankings system anymore.

The Different College Rankings and How They’re Created

College rankings come from a variety of sources, including U.S. News, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education, and Niche.

Each ranking organization evaluates colleges differently based on their own criteria.

• U.S. News & World Report has modified its ranking formula in 2023. Now, it looks at factors such as graduation rate, first-year retention rates, graduation rates of students with Pell Grants and first-generation students, graduation performance of students with Pell Grants and first-generation students, average graduate indebtedness, peer assessment and faculty salaries when determining college rankings. The publication no longer considers class size, terminal degree faculty, alumni giving average, graduate debt proportion borrowing and high school class standing in its calculation. 

• Forbes considers alumni earnings, debt levels, graduation rates, expert opinions, return on investments, retention rate and more as key factors in their rankings.

• The Wall Street Journal/College Pulse rankings assess schools based on three key factors, with student outcomes accounting for 70% of the ranking, the school’s learning environment accounting for 20% and diversity accounting for 10%.

• Niche combines data from multiple sources to produce a comprehensive ranking system that considers factors such as academics, value, diversity, and campus life.

The bottom line is that each of these ranking systems can provide a valuable snapshot of the quality of higher education institutions; however, they need to be evaluated with an understanding of how the institution is measured.

The rankings scandals have led some to question the accuracy and reliability of college rankings. As a result, it is important to always do your own research into any institution before making a decision about where to pursue higher education. For tips on choosing the right school for you, check TUN’s interview with Dr. Eric Endlich, founder of Top College Consultants, here or watch the video below.

Ultimately, college rankings can provide helpful information when researching different educational institutions; however, they should not be the only factor taken into consideration in the decision-making process. It is important that students consider what’s important to them when choosing their school.

What is the College Scorecard?

The College Scorecard is the U.S. Department of Education’s alternative to the various ranking websites and can be an important resource for college-bound students to access when researching institutions. This tool was created by the Department of Education in 2015 as part of its mission to make higher education more transparent and accessible. It provides useful information about each institution including average costs, graduation rates and post-graduation employment outcomes. Additionally, the College Scorecard allows students to filter their results by factors such as location and the size of school.

While college rankings provide an overall picture of a school, the College Scorecard provides detailed information to help students make informed decisions about the institution that best fits their needs and interests.

Conclusion

Ultimately, college rankings can provide useful information to those weighing up their options; however, they should not be the only criteria one uses when applying or deciding which school to attend. Rankings cannot take into account all the qualities that make a university stand out for an individual student and therefore other considerations should also be taken into account.

For more resources on the college process, check here.