This article is quoted from and used by permission of The College Advisor Newsletter, produced by TheCollegeAdvisor.net.

When the various college rankings are release each fall, they get lots of attention and sell lots of magazines. Just how relevant is this information to the college selection process? Although families may look to the rankings as the “ultimate word," it would be more useful to look at how well the college fits a particular student.

Although schools possess certain qualities in common, they also have characteristics that are hard to measure. While it’s possible to assign a number to factors like selectivity, test scores, and percent of faculty with Ph.D’s, reducing all of a college’s qualities (community, facilities, success of graduates) to a single number is impossible. Applicants are most interested in traits that are important to them, and these may not be the same as those considered in the rankings.

Look to the rankings as a starting point when beginning your college search. They can help you find colleges that posses the qualities that bet fit you. Often, the statistical tables allow you to do a side-by-side comparison of a number of colleges in a way that may be more convenient than using traditional guidebooks. Keep in mind that the college best for you may not be ranked at the top of the list, or might not be ranked at all. Just aw you might not agree with any published “top ten” list because you are individual with unique ideas, the colleges ranked at the tope of these lists might not have been judged on the attributes most important to you.

Back to College Information