There's Only One College Rankings List That Matters

[Zorro]

Within a few months of joining the faculty at Duke University in 2021, I could spot them: the high school seniors, juniors and even sophomores on their pilgrimages to our verdant and coveted wonderland, with its Gothic Revival spires, ecstatic basketball fans and acceptance rate of 6 percent.

They stood out less for their youth than for their yearning. Sometimes they walked alongside parents every bit as rapt as they were. Sometimes they wandered alone, in a trance. Sometimes they showed up at my office door, not because they were looking for me but because they were looking around, and they liked to peek in on the professors in their path.

We were diamonds, rubies and sapphires in a Cartier display case.

Did they plan to study specifically with one of us? Was our institution particularly strong in the academic disciplines that interested them? Most of them couldn’t really tell me why they wanted Duke. They just knew that they should want it. It would validate them. It would impress their friends. Translation: It was highly ranked — currently tied for the 10th-best university in the country, ahead of half of the Ivy League, according to the justly embattled but perversely enduring bible for such matters, U.S. News & World Report.

To many anxious teenagers making what feels like the most important decision of their lives, that marker must mean something, so they let it mean almost everything. They come to believe that the luster of the institution they attend, as established by its ranking and its exclusivity, will not only define their place in the world but also determine their professional success and contentment. And they minimize other, better criteria for choosing a college.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/27/opinion/problem-college-rankings.html?unlocked_article_code=NK3OICP1aRmc01l8gd35305fP-_D7iisaZjZatOYbDFa_cYoMiGmFfyDY2tNVkPPXW67onxhxKGe9g2sirleCX_2rygJmCOTj9XKf3Z65Ptpo6m7bJ5EkYT6tjKYW9C2bWDCWCDjiM0qYAJwymLXlozCBr0VZtcBr5xMhPLF-SrqyIL67gHwdaxNEYjXAherb5b8Ld4v4mhx_n3Xu8vPSp-7RuRlj8TaO0kmsDo9gXxeeR8vHppHi-C_lmnzn7Chi3YmZXdT0b0BpM_O22Fz3vxQtQfuCNpl8NycNg9MvWkUAa6By1IuOLlt86xuUjDpSTcITtOUMDP9fQhnMP5RhWoh&smid=url-share

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. It's unfortunate that too many parents and their college bound kids have bought into

Last edited Wed Mar 29, 2023, 11:20 AM - Edit history (1)

the BS of needing to attending a prestigious school. There are thousands of colleges and universities in this country, and many of them are very good to excellent.

If you're a parent of a kid who will be going to college, please, please, please read Colleges That Change Lives and Looking Beyond the Ivy League, both by Loren Pope. I had the good fortune to discover them when my older son was in 8th grade, and they made the entire college decision easier and more straight-forward.

Also, I'm a rare person who has attended more than one college or university. Six actually: University of Arizona, Northern Virginia Community College, George Mason University, University of Minnesota, University of Colorado Boulder, and Johnson County (Kansas) Community College. So I feel that I can do a certain compare and contrast about colleges.

I'll say this. Community Colleges are possibly the best thing out there. They are inexpensive. They offer lots of degrees or certificate programs that can lead to actual jobs. Most people have no business getting a four year degree in some esoteric field. They really are going to need to get a job, work for a living, and that should honestly be pretty much front and center during their college years.

For what it's worth, My Son The Astronomer has himself attended six schools, two of which are the same as mine: Reed College in Portland OR, Johnson County (Kansas) Community College, Kansas State University, University of Missouri Kansas City, Missouri State University Springfield MO, and George Mason University.

[masmdu]

2. Um, isn't Secondary school highschool?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. Yeah. Sigh. Careless word choice on my part.

I'll go ahead and put an "added on edit note".

Thanks for the correction.

[Johnny2X2X]

3. Elite schools don't provide the connections some go there for

People think Harvard, Yale, Duke, and Stanford are not only elite, but that the connections they will make there will lead to the best jobs. Those connections are there for certain families, if you aren't from those elite old money families, most of those doors are still shut to you.

And I am not so sure you're getting any better education at some "elite" school than you can at any other college. I work in aerospace, I've worked with "bad" engineers with MIT and Stanford degrees, below average ones from the service acadamies, and brilliant ones from tier 2 state schools. Basically, at a school like Stanford, you're getting students who competed in high school and had little time to goof around.

And once you're in your career, your college becomes less and less important. No one cares where you went to college after 5 years, what you've done those first 5 years will matter about 10 times as much as the name on your degree does. One thing you should judge a college by is their relationships with companies you may want to work for for internships, that can make a huge difference in getting in the field you want to.

All college should be affordable, but the fields that we really are short of grads from should absolutelty be free. STEM should be free. We need engineers, scientists, mathematicians and technologists in this country badly. They're what drives innovation and keeps us competitive. These are the last people we should be saddling with debt to get through college.

And voerall, we need more college gradfs, not less. The skilled trades can be a great alternative for some, but those jobs aren't as great as they once were either. Grew up in the 70s and 80s, from the first day I got to kindergarten, they have been telling me I will need a college education to be middle class, and they turned out to be right in my case.