The new round of US News college rankings is out. The rankings have been, and will likely continue to be controversial. Is the school ranked number one (surprise, Harvard) truly providing the best education in the nation? It is easy to grade a test when all criteria is agreed on, but rating a school against different schools is not a sure fire way to gauge which institution provides the highest quality of education.
College presidents and admissions experts, according to the New York Times, believe that after the first 25 top rated schools, students fail to care. When schools move up the ranking they receive more alumni funding, according to the NY Times. That places pressure on schools to out rank their competitors for the much desired extra funding. For some students, the name and reputation of a university is important. It is assumed that if you go to a top rated and selective school, your education will also be top rated. It is true that Harvard did produce Mark Zuckerberg, but going to Harvard is not a sure fire way into a life in an executive suite.
It comes as a shock to no one that the University of Wyoming is not in the top 25, or even the top 100 of the so-called best universities. UW is rated number 156 for the 2013 school year. By comparison, Colorado State is number 134, Utah State is number 174 and Colorado University Bolder is number 97. Compared to the other public universities in our region, UW is about in the middle but the numbers say that UW is a worse school than CSU. CSU is bigger than UW, so it is natural that it would receive more funding, one of the ranking criteria, but the academics of two schools are remarkably similar.
When high school students are deciding on what school to attend, they should look at more factors than a hard to understand number. The ratio of professors to students, selectivity and alumni giving are all taken into account, but the percent of students who get in to graduate school or find a job is not taken into account. The rankings take into account freshman satisfaction, but fail to follow up on students after their first year.
I imagine most UW students did not choose to attend UW because of its college ranking. There are better-rated schools but UW is still a great school for many students. UW is affordable, in a beautiful location, has many excellent majors and division one sports teams. Students come to UW for their own set of reasons. The single number rating given by a national magazine with the intention of selling magazines should not be a significant factor in a student’s college decision.
