Penn State news

hereshoping
Fri, 02 Mar 2007 17:05:23 +0000

Everything you say is true, soozievt, however, I feel most people use rankings as a starting point in choosing colleges.

For example, say I wanted to start a search for my younger son. Say I heard from a guidance counselor that in her opinion a liberal arts college would be a good choice for him. I go to the web and plug “liberal arts colleges” in google. What comes up? USNews and World Report 2007 Rankings for liberal arts colleges!

I would certainly hate to plow through the College Board College Handbook without any idea as to ranking!

Most people use the rankings as a starting point to determine where a kid fits in gpa and sat and then work down to area of study, etc. If someone wants “snow,” like my younger son (!), I wouldn’t just look arbitrarily at every single college that has the most snow, would I? Wouldn’t that be a waste of time?

No, most people use the rankings to find where their kid fits in terms of gpa and sat at schools which have a snowy climate, and then work from there to other characteristics the kid may want in a college.

I don’t think “ranking” is a dirty word: it just makes college selection more efficient. In that way, cc is all about ranking.