What College Rankings Really Tell Us
In the article “What College Rankings Really Tell Us”
written in The New Yorker explains
how the ranking system works. It tells us what the variables are that determine
the ranking and each ones value.
1. Undergraduate
academic reputation, 22.5 per cent
2. Graduation and
freshman retention rates, 20 per cent
3. Faculty resources,
20 per cent
4. Student
selectivity, 15 per cent
5. Financial
resources, 10 per cent
6. Graduation rate
performance, 7.5 per cent
7. Alumni giving, 5
per cent
As compared to the Car and Driver this list is lacking price. The price of college is
on the rise and is becoming less affordable price should be factored in. The
graduation rate performance is important when looking at colleges as well and
it only accounts for 7.5 percent. Times have changed since when they first
began in the 1980’s and it’s time to revise it.
This article showed
detail, when describing Robert Morse, the individual that runs the rankings. I
had a clear image in my mind of what he looked like “middle-aged man with gray
hair who looks like the prototypical Beltway wonk: rumpled, self-effacing,
mildly preppy and sensibly shoed”. I also like how the author started with
talking about the Car and Driver
rankings. It gave me a good understanding of the ranking system before I
started reading about the college rankings. After it talked about the college
rankings it then jumped to suicides in the world, so if the comparison with
cars didn’t give you a good understanding hopefully the suicide comparison did.
I also liked how the writer used lists when telling us about the colleges and
where they rank on the list. It is easier to read it as a numbered list rather
than in sentence format. This is not a writing strategy that I have seen
before, but it is effective.
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