Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series by David Borst on college rankings.
A locally ranked engineering school told their students at orientation freshman year to look to the student to their left and to their right….as only one of those will be present at graduation.
This highly ranked school was proud of the fact that their graduation rate from freshman to senior year was only around 33%. Touting the concept that only the best make it through our program may be great if you are the lone person standing, but if you are the tuition payer among the 67% not remaining, it is very bleak indeed.
Which concept do you think the accreditation and ranking bodies will like better? You can put your money down on the more selective program.
I get it. If I am going in for brain surgery, I want that doctor to be well-trained, well-vetted, and at the top of their class. Funny, though, I have never asked my doctor before or during the exam where they went to school or where they finished in their program. Perhaps it is out of mortal fear that they tell me they were a “C” student just as they are giving me the morphine…zzzz…
Another piece to college rankings involves money. If we are true with ourselves, doesn’t everything college related come down to two things: money and ego?
College sports is a perfect example of the impact of ego on the public perception of a university. My school is better because they finished the basketball tournament in the Elite 8. So what? How is their accounting program? Putting a ball into a hoop or running or passing for more touchdowns does not one bit a brighter student make. It gives the school notoriety, and it builds ego. The rankings for the top 20 athletically have nothing to do with the rankings academically.
Besides ego, money is the next issue when it comes to college rankings. One ranking system I am aware of gauges the quality of the school by how many graduates give back to the school upon graduation. Another looks at salaries 5, 10, and 20 years out to judge which student got the better bang for the buck and thus the higher ranking in the scores. Still another ranking looks at the employers and how much they are paying for students coming out of that college. Apparently, money is how we judge the quality of an academic program.
For most of my 39 academic life years, I taught business. Within the business school there is plenty of discussion about which accrediting body we should have. There is AACSB, ACBSP, and IACBE. If you have one accreditation, that school will tell you they are the best and tell employers not to hire those inferior grunts with that other accreditation. Some years back, I got to meet the genesis of all three business accreditation bodies, Dr. John Greene. He started one body, got disgruntled and founded the second, only to experience the same thing before founding the third. All three organizations basically do the same thing, holding business schools to the highest standards of teaching and education possible. What bothers me is when employers refuse to hire someone from the wrong accreditation organization just because their alma mater told them to do so. Remember what I shared at the beginning of this discussion: money and ego. Don’t be that employer.
Understand that the federal government has a huge say in this matter too. There are six main accrediting regions and seven main accrediting bodies that have been trusted by the federal government with handing out financial aid. Going to a school that is not accredited by one of these bodies may result in your inability to qualify for grants and student loans. The best thing the consumer can do is ask the school about their accreditation status.
College is a complicated issue with the average student going to two different schools and pursuing three different majors. For the student or their parents, this adds up to cost, a cost the prospective employer doesn’t need to proliferate with artificial requirements for their future employees.
At the end of the day, what is it most of us want from a college degree? An inflated ego? A spouse? Or that first job?
