Why do we care so much about college rankings?

High school students, under pressure to impress others, can become obsessed with building their social status and prestige by being accepted into an elite college.

The public’s perception of a college’s prestige, in large part, is determined by how it is ranked by US World News. Without diving into every component of US World News’ methodology, I will point out several underlying flaws in how the rankings are determined, presented in the The Order of Things, by Malcolm Gladwell.

Graduation!

First, several of the ranking’s subcategories, such as a college’s “reputation score” (worth 22.5 percent of its ranking), and “faculty resources” (20 percent) are not accurately conceptualized by the data intended to measure the categories.

Second, colleges strive for success in different ways, while US World News rankings numerically evaluate hundreds of colleges by the exact same criteria based on what they think is most important.

For example, one college might strive to provide a quality education to a large number of young adults, accepting more students, and ensuring its tuition is affordable.

This model is not valued by US World News, whose ranking system rewards colleges who spend lots of money on each of their students, have large endowments, expensive tuition fees, and substantial faculty salaries.

Ultimately, a student is able to have a high quality educational experience at a variety of colleges all across the US World News rankings.

They will gain valuable knowledge and human capital by studying hard, applying themselves, and investing lots of time into their education, at any college they attend.