Best Values in College not Valuable

There is a new college “ranking” that is getting attention – the Kiplinger’s “Best Values”. As with all the lists and rankings, they are designed to sell magazines and they don’t help give students and parents get the proper focus. On the surface this list appears to be a valuable resource for students and parents in this time of economic downturn. The problem is that the input variables do not reflect the reality of the college selection process or of college quality.

One example of poor research and statistics is the use of SAT/ACT scores in rating colleges. The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) just released a year and a half-long study -- The Use of Standardized tests in Undergraduate Admissions – stating that the use of test scores to evaluate institutional quality is an improper and misuse of the tests, and the Commission called upon media and other organizations to cease this practice. Also, the use of “admission rate” is not a reflection of quality; it reflects too many factors for it to be of great value in determining “value”. Finally, the calculations take into account scholarships as a measure of value, and those can be skewed by many factors that make them out of reach for most students – athletics, arts, etc. – and thus are not good measures of college value.

Unfortunately, Kiplinger does not post anywhere the weighting or formula they use, only the criteria. Much of the criteria come from ratings taken by The Princeton Review, which is an excellent test prep company; but their method of gathering “quality” data is not truly scientific.

What does this mean for students and parents? It means that the college selection process is not one that can be made simply by looking at some list. It requires students to know themselves as learners and to have a good sense of why they are going to college – and to know each college well enough to recognize the different opportunities that college offers. A simple “to gain maturity” is much too nebulous a purpose to drive a student forward towards a wise college choice. As an example, all NFL teams begin with the plan “to win the Super Bowl”, but none of them begins without specific objectives each practice and each week. Students need to outline not only their goals but also the steps they must take in order to reach those goals –week by week, year by year.