Look Beyond College Rankings For Good Schools

HomePlanCollege SearchLook Beyond College Rankings To Find Good SchoolsThis page may contain affiliate links.Jan 13, 2020 Heres some advice: Look beyond college rankings to find good schools. Why? Because it all depends on how you define â€Å"good.† And that’s the problem. How do you know what makes a college â€Å"good?† Is it the college where the good students go? After all, the colleges that admit only a small percentage of students with high GPAs and college test scores are the ones that show up at the top of the college rankings. But does that mean the school is good because itadmits good studentsor do good students go there because it is a good college? What to Look For Beyond College Rankings The Difference Between High Schools and Colleges Maybe looking at a different aspect of education might be helpful. Have you heard about something called â€Å"education reform† or â€Å"no child left behind?† The â€Å"declining† quality of public K-12 schools has everyone worried. High schools graduating less than 75% of their students are considered disgraceful, no matter if â€Å"good† or not so good students attend. One reason that schools often give for their poor performance is that public K-12 schools don’t get to pick their students. They can’t pick only those with a high GPAs. They can’t pick only those who have money to pay for private tutoring. They can’t pick only those whose parents have attended college. They can’t pick only students who took algebra in middle school. But for the most part, colleges (four years and particularly private) can. Yet colleges are considered successful when just half to 60% of their studentsgraduatein a six-year period for a four-year degree. Despite paying over $50,000 a year for some colleges, it is the students who are held responsible for their success or failure. Think about all of the books that tell the student how to succeed in college. Only recently as tuition and student debt have skyrocketed has the word â€Å"accountability† begun to be mentioned. People are starting to wonder what the student gets for her $50,000. Why Do Similar Colleges Vary In Graduation Rates? Why do colleges with seemingly similar inputs such as student quality and faculty expenditures, vary by as much as 20 percentage points in graduation rates? Why do some colleges with much lower â€Å"quality† inputs, produce just as many graduates as those more selective schools? What obligation do colleges have in helping students getting to graduation? Apparently, beyond picking as many of the highest percentage of â€Å"good† students as possible, there doesn’t seem too much consensus about the role of the college in student success. UCLA published astudylooking at factors in students’ success in college. All the factors focused on student characteristics before entering college. The few attempts to measure what happens to the students betweenentering college and graduatinghave limited participation by colleges and those participants often don’t release their individual results. Isn’t it strange that we demand specific results from our public schools but when we’re paying hundreds of thousands of dollars out of our own pocket we are content with reputation? Does this mean that colleges should be evaluated like public schools are under no child left behind? No. we don’t believe in one size fits all. But it seems that more information should be readily available so that families can decide for themselves what’s the best value for their money. How to Find a School Thats a Good Fit Fining a school thats the right fit can be a daunting task. but there is information out there to help you. John Palladino inFinding the College That’s Right for You! lists 15 college characteristics that families should consider in evaluating colleges. Some of these are readily available including graduation rates, total number of students, percentage of full-time faculty, percentage of faculty with doctorates, and student to faculty ratios. Of course, these still put most of the focus on the â€Å"inputs† but at least it’s not based on just the quality of the students. You know what you’re bringing to your college education. Shouldn’t you know what the school is bringing for its part (and your money) and if they’re going to make any difference to you? In other words, what good will it be for you to go there? You need to know what a college offers besides a higher ranking inUS News Best Colleges.