6 ms·

College rankings are bullshit, and anyone who doesn't realize that the difference between the #1 and #10 schools is negligible is an idiot.

gte910h 13y ago
I'd say, they're not bullshit, but presenting them in such a finely graduated ranking is harmful There is a huge difference between the top 100 schools and the 201st-300th best schools.
- deleted 13y ago
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- jrs99 13y ago
  There's probably a difference in the students at every level on average. if not strictly by intelligence, then by how hard they try and how much work they put in during high school. But I don't think the quality of teachers is going to change from top 100 to a community college. There are bad teachers at every school and good teachers. Some are famous in their field, and they don't teach or they can't teach well. And then you can go to a community college and find some really great teachers and small class sizes.
  - gte910h 13y ago
    However, if you only have solid B students, you end up teaching less material than if you have a class of A+ students (looking at HS grades). The depth of coursework is reduced the less esteemed the student body goes.
L_Rahman 13y ago
The problem is that it seems to matter in terms job prospects. I'm a biomedical engineering undergrad, so I thought I made the right decision turning down Harvard to come to Hopkins. However, our recruitment is abysmal compared to Harvard even for biotech and I'm seeing peers who went to a much less rigorous undergraduate engineering program that also has grade inflation getting the jobs I want simply because those companies are not hiring from Hopkins.
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- jrs99 13y ago
  There are lots of kids at harvard saying the same thing. They think (understandably) just graduating from harvard should get them some decent job in their field of choice somehow. I don't think it's completely a matter of hopkins vs harvard.
rz2k 13y ago
We should decide why we are above it all though, shouldn't we? Is it because all of the top-ranked colleges are essentially the same, or is it because the top-ranked colleges are different in ways that are not captured by a single number. Furthermore, if we are going to distinguish between, prestige, selectivity, learning outcomes, jobs out of college, careers 10, 20, 30 years out of college, or whether we measure that by income, or influence, etc, before even moving on to distinguishing between the paths chosen by graduates of Yale, Juilliard, or CalTech, shouldn't we at least identify which is the one true metric, and why it is better than this magazine's? In dismissing rankings as but one take on the distinctions, I don't think prospective students are better served by the contention that the schools are largely interchangeable.
ameoba 13y ago
Not idiocy, limited experience. The target audience for these rankings is high school seniors and their parents. When you're 17/18 years old you don't have a lot of experience with judging the merits of higher education. This is a major decision that is (generally) only made once & few people will bother switching to another school after enrolling. Compare this to any other purchasing decision that is made in life. If you buy the wrong cellphone, you've got 30 days to return it and, worst case, you need to wait 2 years before you can upgrade. Even a car, which is a 4-6 year purchase, will be done multiple times so you can learn from the experience. Even houses, with 20-30 loan repayments, can be sold. The only other things you can do at this age that are as significant are joining the military & having a child. Both of which, arguably, have far more transparent and well understood pros & cons.

gte910h 13y ago

I'd say, they're not bullshit, but presenting them in such a finely graduated ranking is harmful There is a huge difference between the top 100 schools and the 201st-300th best schools.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
jrs99 13y ago
There's probably a difference in the students at every level on average. if not strictly by intelligence, then by how hard they try and how much work they put in during high school. But I don't think the quality of teachers is going to change from top 100 to a community college. There are bad teachers at every school and good teachers. Some are famous in their field, and they don't teach or they can't teach well. And then you can go to a community college and find some really great teachers and small class sizes.
- gte910h 13y ago
  However, if you only have solid B students, you end up teaching less material than if you have a class of A+ students (looking at HS grades). The depth of coursework is reduced the less esteemed the student body goes.

L_Rahman 13y ago

The problem is that it seems to matter in terms job prospects. I'm a biomedical engineering undergrad, so I thought I made the right decision turning down Harvard to come to Hopkins. However, our recruitment is abysmal compared to Harvard even for biotech and I'm seeing peers who went to a much less rigorous undergraduate engineering program that also has grade inflation getting the jobs I want simply because those companies are not hiring from Hopkins.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
jrs99 13y ago
There are lots of kids at harvard saying the same thing. They think (understandably) just graduating from harvard should get them some decent job in their field of choice somehow. I don't think it's completely a matter of hopkins vs harvard.

rz2k 13y ago

We should decide why we are above it all though, shouldn't we? Is it because all of the top-ranked colleges are essentially the same, or is it because the top-ranked colleges are different in ways that are not captured by a single number. Furthermore, if we are going to distinguish between, prestige, selectivity, learning outcomes, jobs out of college, careers 10, 20, 30 years out of college, or whether we measure that by income, or influence, etc, before even moving on to distinguishing between the paths chosen by graduates of Yale, Juilliard, or CalTech, shouldn't we at least identify which is the one true metric, and why it is better than this magazine's? In dismissing rankings as but one take on the distinctions, I don't think prospective students are better served by the contention that the schools are largely interchangeable.

ameoba 13y ago

Not idiocy, limited experience. The target audience for these rankings is high school seniors and their parents. When you're 17/18 years old you don't have a lot of experience with judging the merits of higher education. This is a major decision that is (generally) only made once & few people will bother switching to another school after enrolling. Compare this to any other purchasing decision that is made in life. If you buy the wrong cellphone, you've got 30 days to return it and, worst case, you need to wait 2 years before you can upgrade. Even a car, which is a 4-6 year purchase, will be done multiple times so you can learn from the experience. Even houses, with 20-30 loan repayments, can be sold. The only other things you can do at this age that are as significant are joining the military & having a child. Both of which, arguably, have far more transparent and well understood pros & cons.