Finding The Love Beyond The Rankings

A college list that works has little to do with any list you can find online

Families with high school students know better than most that the recent news in college admissions features quite a lot of headlines about the highest numbers of applications and the lowest acceptance rates “ever.” While these may be the facts, we encourage parents and students everywhere to step away from the ranking lists and take a different approach to building college lists.

Read on for our key advice for where to look instead–

What’s really behind increased application numbers and ever shrinking acceptance rates?

Colleges benefit from increased applicant numbers because they drive the perception of prestige, exclusivity and excellence, and higher rankings. With college rankings and our public perceptions about what makes a college highly desirable tied to low acceptance rates, colleges are in a race to depress those numbers. The more applications a college receives, the lower that acceptance rate will plummet. The lower the acceptance rate, the higher the college moves on ranking lists that prioritize this factor, and the greater the college benefits from an air of prestige and exclusivity.

You’ll note that this ranking is devoid of a discussion of quality of education received, life and career experiences of students, dedication of faculty, or any other meaningful measures of the value of a student’s time on the campus. Furthermore, the businesses that publish these rankings have their own interests and financial gains to protect in preserving the perceived importance of the ranking lists they produce. These are among the many reasons we are skeptical of building college lists that factor the ‘ranking’ of the college as a key factor.

If not ranking lists, how do we assess a good college for a student’s list?

We believe strongly that a college list should be a personal and personalized endeavor. Rather than looking to the rankings to tell you what belongs on your list, look inward.

The happiest, thriving students who succeed academically and build strong communities on campus are those who have thought deeply, with the support of trusted adults, to identify the factors that are most important to their own experience.

• Identify the academic experiences, opportunities, and ways of learning that will set you up to enjoy your education to move towards your goals. Look for these within your majors or departments of interest, in internship, research, and mentoring opportunities on campus, and in the course experiences and academic supports and enrichments available to you.
• Don’t forget about the aspects of college life that will help you to find and build your community and put down roots in the place you will call home for four years:What do you need in the housing, the campus culture and student life? How about student clubs, organizations, and activities that will support and challenge you and give you outlets to pursue your interests and passions and bring joy to your days?
• Once you’ve identified these factors, seek out colleges that match this vision. Not every school on your list is likely to be a 100% match — often there will be compromises in size, location, or some of the other factors on your personalized list– but knowing what you want sets you up to assess if those compromises are worthwhile. A balanced college list should have a mix of schools at each admissibility level that resonate with your academic and community factors.

No ranking list can tell you if you will be happy, thriving, or successful on a campus; only you can do that.

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