|
College Rankings: Just Entertainment?
A recent blog post on vox.com says yes. Colleges "decide what they value and then measure it". This article isn't the first to poke holes in the rankings system. Students still rely overwhelmingly on US News & World Report to clue them in on which colleges are best. And while US News has become more transparent with its metrics, it is still far from objective.
One of the major problems with their ranking is the use of acceptance rate as a marker of prestige. The Vox article doesn't levy this criticism but instead asks why other, arguably more important measurements aren't used. For instance-student engagement? What of that?
Forbes, according to the article, structures its own ranking system around student satisfaction and post-graduate earnings. Washington Monthly measures public contributions. US News, it claims, charts prestige.
The various ranking systems will appeal to different people precisely because of their different values. But such nuance is largely lost in most considerations of what constitutes a good college. It's hard for people to get past prestige. Even if prestige doesn't always equal a better education.
As Vox points out, student engagement should really be at the top of the list. After all, students can't learn well if they don't participate. If choosing a college is about finding the right relationship, this particular current is crucial.
Then again, if rankings of all sorts are based on too many metrics to be instructive, perhaps we shouldn't be paying much attention to them at all. Apart from their entertainment value, that is.
Labels: College Rankings: Just Entertainment?
|
|
|
|
