What College Rankings Really Tell Us

The essay What College Rankings Really Tell Us was created by Malcolm Gladwell, who has a BA in history from the University of Toronto. In the essay, he states that though the college ranking system is heterogeneous and comprehensive, but rankings is benign because it is really difficult to evaluate and rank a university. The system is heterogeneous because it is able to compare two universities, such as Pen State and Yeshiva University, which are totally different. The system is also comprehensive since it considers various dimension about a school, and takes statistics on each of them and then analyzes them. However, U.S. News has to work on the variable with proxies, the result is puzzling and  not absolute. It may also miss something important.

After reading the article, the student engagement reminds me lot. Actually, I really care of the engagement. Compare to a good or bad result, the process and what I experience is more important. In my country, most parents plan to let their children stay in a high school with high college enrollment rate, they never consider about what the life is in the school. Indeed, some schools have excellent college-going rate, but the school life is very hard for their students, even like a nightmare! Students in these school have to follow the mechanical assignments every and they are alive as a robot. In this case, I prefer more free study style, I prefer the study style that I can plan my time and life.

Malcolm uses a lot of Assumption to explain the negative part of ranking system. In my opinion, the ranking system is made by the people who have strong ideology to evaluate a university. But those students who has the different or even opposite thoughts with these experts may miss some good school. Since the ranking system makers considered some distinctive dimensions which they believe are more valuable, they miss some basic aspects, such as price, which public groups care more. The best universities should care these qualified students who can not afford their college fee because these students can help the school gain more great academic result. The students graduated from prestigious is usually more popular with companies. To have a better future, a bright high-school senior chooses the highly selective university can create more chance to have an enviable job.

To the college value, it can help individuals improve themselves and make success in the future. It can also make some research results to improve social life quality.