Does College Ranking Matter?

Last Updated on October 18, 2021 by Jill Schwitzgebel

We are inundated with college ranking lists these days, from US News and World Report, which is probably the most popular, to Niche.  And no two lists are quite the same.  Is one better than another?  What should you consider as you look at the rankings?  A better question might actually be, “Does college ranking matter?”

As college application season really heats up, publications are lining up to tell us the best values, the best party schools or just the BEST schools overall.  When you visit colleges, the admissions officers will tell you that they don’t pay attention to rankings. Don’t believe them.  At some schools in fact, they have an employee whose entire job is dedicated to doing what needs to be done to help a college maintain or better their ranking.  So here are some things you need to know:

1. The Rankings Can Be Manipulated

What is one way a school can look more selective for rankings?  Get a lot of applicants and then turn them down!  Colleges will market to students who are unlikely to get accepted, and then those students take the marketing as a sign that they’re a good candidate for that school, so they’ll apply.  And the college will then turn them down, lowering their admission rate.

Or, how about sending students a special “fast app” that is a shortened application to use to apply?  Or maybe making the application free, to encourage more applicants.  Again, more applicants will make the school appear to be more selective.

Or, what about the schools that have become “test-optional”?  Colleges want you to think it’s all about holistic admissions, but this is another way to manipulate their rankings. Typically, the students that will submit scores in a test-optional scenario are the ones with strong scores.  Colleges then only need to report those strong test scores to publications that rank schools.

Lots of schools have figured out how to game the system to climb in the rankings. One of those is Northeastern University, which climbed 140 places on the US News list in a relatively short time.  They hired a president who understood the importance of ranking to perceived prestige, and he maintained a single-minded focus on improving their rank. It worked.

2. It’s a Popularity Contest

In the US News ranking for instance, three administrators at every college are asked to assess peers on a scale of 1 to 5.  Why would an administrator from Oregon State necessarily know anything about what is happening at Brandeis in Massachusetts or any of the other 300 schools on the list?  Basically, administrators are often evaluating other colleges with absolutely no firsthand knowledge of what really goes on behind those college gates. The only thing they may have to rely on is name recognition, in many cases.  As a result, fewer than half of them even respond.

In some rankings, student and alumni-submitted responses are used as part of their ranking consideration. While those rankings take into account the school size, logically, they will not have as many submissions from schools with 2000 students as compared to schools with 40,000.

3. Rankings Encourage Cheating

Rankings have become like high stakes testing for colleges.  And just like elementary and high schools feel pressured by those tests, colleges feel pressured to do well in rankings.  Colleges that have been caught submitting false data include places like Claremont McKenna, Emory, and even the US Naval Academy.  Chances are that there are others that are also manipulating data to try to raise their ranking.

4. Factors Used in Ranking Differ

Every rankings list uses slightly different factors as part of their rankings. For instance, some include admission rates, others do not.  Some factor in four-year graduation rates, others do not. And even if they use the same factors, they may weight them each slightly differently, resulting in different scores.  When you see substantial shifts from one year to the next in a college’s ranking on the same list, that’s usually because the publication changed the weight they give each factor in their rankings. It does not mean that the school changed substantially in that year’s time.

What’s In the Rankings for YOU?

That’s how you want to think about rankings.  Your student’s list of colleges should not be based on anything other than what is best for THEM, not a publication’s editorial opinion about what makes a college the best.  Maybe use the various rankings to gather ideas as you begin looking at colleges, if you need a starting point. But then you need to take into account your student’s needs, their learning style, their goals.

Remember that just because a college is #1 on the list for a student’s intended major and your student meets all the usual standards for accepted students, does not mean that school’s instructional style, culture, or professors are right for YOUR student.  Two colleges that look the same or very close on paper as far as size, ranking, or perceived prestige, may not be at all alike under the surface. Rankings cannot measure the types of learning that is going on at schools. Rankings can’t replace touring a campus and getting a feel for whether that college just feels like the right fit.

My advice: Keep rankings in perspective.

You may also be interested in US News and World Report Best College Rankings Considerations