College Rankings Are in Trouble. Do Their Users Care?

[LevelUP]

College Rankings Are in Trouble. Do Their Users Care?
https://archive.vn/Kg9uH#selection-1739.9-1739.62

[ss20ts]

Personally, I find all of these lists to be crap. Most don't really explain well how they came up with the rankings. You can look at 2 different publishers and they'll have entirely different rankings. If you want an MBA, you will research the internet and find a program that suits you. No one needs these goofy publications anymore. Let colleges spend money on advertising directly to potential students.

[PrettyFlyforaChiGuy]

I work as a college counselor and I'd begrudgingly say that rankings do have a place. Just like the article says, we use them in practice as a statistical starting point/shortcut to initially gauge where a student is likely to be admitted, but we still focus on best-fits around that range after establishing other factors that are important to them. 

Times Higher Education and U.S. News always publish their methodology. To me, a portion of it is garbage-in-garbage-out. For example, I'd agree with the student in the article that asking respondents to rate their peers and including this as an outsized portion of the criteria is pretty silly, and that it's basically an indirect method to keep the top of the list pretty static over time. But the reality of my meager existence is that there is huge external pressure from other stakeholders to produce results. My current international school is still building up a college readiness atmosphere, which according to parents and higher administrators, should naturally imply offers at higher-quality institutions. Our enrollment would decrease if families feel the school doesn't prepare students for higher education, just as uni students would disenroll or fail to graduate if their program wasn't preparing them for a career.

Like the article suggests, some factors that ranking lists include are very useful for students, like freshman retention, graduation rates, and career outcomes. Most students aren't like the people in this forum. Getting the support they need is a great way to avoid throwing their money into a bottomless pit and grow into a more productive member of society. It's probably in the public's best interest to have resources that can somehow quantify and qualify these and other data points beyond random blurbs on Niche or Ratemyprofessors, so I give rankers credit for that.

With all that said, I also agree that ranking lists can be the bane of many people working in my field. I'm a member of IACAC and ChinaICAC, who just released some illuminating (and highly conflicting) data. A full 95% of counselor respondents feel that rankings should not be the biggest factor when applying...while 94% of parents surveyed argued it reigns supreme above all else! Meanwhile, counselors report feeling stressed by the overemphasis students and parents place on Almighty Rankings...yet they also report that one of the key things they encourage admission officers to present on when they visit schools or attend college fairs is rankings! There is just such a clear discontinuity between stakeholder groups, and I think it goes beyond the lists themselves, hinting at a focus on popularity instead of fit.

[Vle045]

I find the rankings interesting, but I also don't know *how* they decide to rank some of them. My school is frequently among the Top 10 on several lists, including CEO Magazine, Poets & Quants, and the Princeton Review. Specifically for *online* MBA programs. I can say that I am extremely happy with my choice so far. They give us every tool and support that we need. They have a bunch of ways to remain connected. One of their mottos is "Learn Today, Apply it tomorrow," meaning that students can apply what they learn in class to their workplace immediately. Some assignments can be written utilizing your current work situations, if applicable. If the rankings factor in student satisfaction, then I can see how they would continue to rank highly. But I don't have enough inside info to know what else would impact the ratings. Are they looking at the employment prospects after graduation? Or are they looking at the caliber of the students before enrollment? Or all of the above? Maybe the answers are there, but I just didn't look closely enough.

[Alpha]

There are inherent problems with any college ranking system.  Despite that they can be interesting to look at.  As soon as the stories started coming out of schools falsifying the data then the usefulness/meaningfulness of the rankings dropped sharply.  Then some high ranking schools started dropping out of the ranking system.  Still, if you were a parent and didn't know much about colleges then I suppose it would be a decent place to start to figure out how to think about these things.  I'll give it a C+ or maybe a B-

[ReyMysterioso]

The common rankings have a lot of issues. So how SHOULD we measure schools to tell a good one from a bad?

[Pats20]

I think the rankings are probably a decent place to start. Keep in mind though that just because a school is ranked 1000th or something doesn’t mean it’s a “bad school” at all. It could actually be a very good school.

[Alpha]

I like the online articles that highlight the cheapest online degree programs in a specific subject.  I also like the articles re the best online grad programs in specific subjects.  They are often incomplete and not 100% accurate but, again, they can be a good place to begin a search.  Many people might prefer the test-out option or the competency-based or accelerated options that some schools offer but it seems that most people prefer some sort of course-based and semester-based program.  There are so many of them now it's hard to keep them straight.  As always, it's good to have the choice.  I always caution people not to overpay when there may well be a more affordable online option across the country.