Is ranking really necessary?

Harry Han

When choosing a college, rankings come to a consideration. Some attend colleges of their interest, while others blindly aim for the top-ranking, prestigious schools. But what do these rankings mean?

US News represents one of the most reliable sources of United States college rankings today. According to the rankings, Harvard tops the United States national colleges, and then follows Princeton, Yale, Caltech, MIT, and so on. But how reliable are these ranks? According to Robert Morse, the undergraduate business and engineering programs “were ranked based solely on a peer assessment survey.” Student best notifies the quality of educations of US colleges as they are the experiencing the education. However, as Athens Banner-Herald points out, the surveys are targeted on students of 18 to 24-year-olds who are looking forward to attending college and yet have not experienced the education.

Another point to make, when ranking colleges, is the standards of majors. For example a student got through Stanford University as a golfer while the other got through UIUC with a mechanical engineering major. Rank-wise, Stanford outweighs UIUC, however academically mechanical engineering of UIUC is much credible than Stanford golf. In contrast, if we have similar majors such as mechanical engineering of Carnegie Mellon and biomedical engineering of Georgia Institute of Technology, it becomes a more difficult ranking situation as consideration, such as of the average GPA or the education level of the department of each school, must be made.

Each college has their own weaknesses and strengths, and considering which a better school is, is an arduous task. The list on US News may be the most reliable but it is only a reference for people to consider and never a rank which people should completely agree. Finding the right college is finding the best-fits, and within those choices that suit the best, people may find their own list of top ranking colleges.