By Brandon Nguyen
Four grueling years come to a culmination when high school seniors open their college decision letters. Some are dejected, some are ecstatic and others feel a tug at their heart with a sparkle of hope as they receive a spot on the waitlist. Once seniors have a list of all their acceptances, they make a list comparing all the different qualities: How much does tuition cost? What resources does the college have for my major? And the dreaded question of them all, how prestigious is the college?
The most popular way of comparing a college’s prestige is by looking at its rank in the U.S. News Best National University Rankings. However, the website provides little information about why a certain school is ranked above another and includes only small blurbs of information. As someone who got into the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) through the early decision round, an Ivy League college with a mere 5.9% acceptance rate, I have witnessed and can attest to how a college’s rankings lead to toxic judgment and may guide a student towards choosing a college that is not the best for them.
The first way the U.S. News college rankings misguide students is by smothering up which colleges have the best programs for their intended career path. The national news rankings disregard whether students are interested in pre-med, business, law, economics and more and squeeze them into indistinguishable differences. For example, the U.S. News ranks UCI #34, while UC Davis is #38. A student interested in becoming a researcher may choose UCI but may be unaware UC Davis secured a whopping $1.07 billion in external research funding compared to UCI’s $580 million for the fiscal year 2021-22.
While a student needs to do their due diligence, the power of word of mouth and impressions are very influential. The ranking and prestige of a college a student got into can lead to first impressions of academic ability, judgments of future success and rumors about what did or did not get a student in. This can translate into crippling associations of self-worth and can even deter a student from choosing a school that would be a better fit for them. Students have to keep in mind that you get to choose which college you attend for the next four years, not your family members or friends. College is a transformative place that is going to become a core part of your identity and it deserves due diligence.
Another way U.S. News college rankings show an incomplete truth is its disregard for a college’s environment. How happy are the students? Is the campus rural or urban? Do all the dorms have air conditioning? To be fair, this is a subjective rating based on each student’s preference, but tells another side of the story that should still be an important determinant when deciding which college to attend. Good avenues for students are watching college vlogs and checking websites like niche.com that rank different elements of a college’s environment before applying.
During March 2022, therapy appointments at Harvard reached 6 weeks long which can be too little too late given that a college semester is around 14 weeks long. God forbid you need a follow-up appointment which may lead you to fend with crippling anxiety and ask yourself for the sixth time in a day why you took organic chemistry.
Many colleges with high rankings also swamp the list for having the most depressed student bodies. According to Humans of University, Penn has the most depressed student body followed by UCLA as rank #2 and UC Berkeley as rank #12, both dream schools for many Barons.
A key factor students must consider that ranks do not show is how they fared during high school. How stressed were they with their workload? How was their time management? What subjects did they like the best? Every college is going to have a different academic support system and culture that surrounds it.
This even further extends to what students want to get out of the college experience. Do they like partying? Going out on the weekends? What type of people do they want to be around? Tons of student reviews and vlogs can be found detailing how a college’s architecture, surrounding city and reputation attract a different environment that can give you a very different experience. Students who are dead set on what they want to do may want a college pre-professional culture compared to an undecided student who may want a college more focused on a core academic curriculum.
Perhaps the most important reason why the U.S. News rankings are flawed is that they inherently favor universities that attract richer students. It is no secret that the colleges in the Ivy League and other elite universities have a student population skewed towards the rich. When looking at the U.S. News methodology, 22% is weighted towards graduation and retention rates, 20% towards undergraduate academic reputation and another 20% towards faculty resources.
Inherently, students with worse financial situations are more likely to drop out and have to go through college working multiple jobs to pay their way through. A survey done by What to Become found 51.04% of students who dropped out said it was due to not being able to pay. Furthermore, faculty resources come from university endowments that are funded by charging high tuition prices and a wealthy alumni base that was incentivized to donate for an increased chance of their child getting in. And then of course, the most exclusive colleges have the highest academic reputation which contributes to wealthy families paying for their children to go to tutoring, SAT prep, extra classes and generally being more versed in how the college selection process works.
When around 2/3 of the methodology is skewed toward richer families, some Barons may want to give a reconsideration of what U.S. News rankings mean and if it is worth it for them depending on their family’s financial situation. Only 5% of the methodology is weighted toward social mobility. Considering that Fountain Valley High School is a Title 1 School meaning that at least 40% of the student population federally qualifies as low-income, these “prestigious colleges” are either practically impossible to get into or are not necessarily the best bang for your buck.
When looking at the U.S. News’s ranking of colleges on social mobility, UC Riverside and Cal State Long Beach are ranked #2 and #3. Even UC Merced which may be disregarded by some ranks #5 out of all universities on social mobility. Students who come from more modest families should seriously consider these options when factoring in the cost of attendance and outcomes.
At the end of the day, the college a person attends is a short, but life-changing 4 years of their life. There are where lifelong friends are made, connections, internships and careers jumpstarted. It is a serious decision that should be taken holistically. Regardless of which college you get into, don’t entirely rely on the U.S. News to make your final decision.
