Remember the saying . . . “If you can’t beat them, join them.” I have a similar love-hate relationship with the annual college rankings. Several of my client families love to refer to college rankings despite my warnings that college rankings do not make a college list. There are so many colleges available and with different qualities. A primary reason that I visit so many campuses throughout the year is to understand these nuances and support families with making a more informed choice beyond the rankings. But back to my original quote, if families are going to reference the college rankings anyway, what I can do is give them some different perspectives on those rankings.

For example, the Washington Monthly just published its annual college ranking. Unlike the popular US News and World Report Rankings, Washington Monthly looks at the colleges from another lens:

We rate schools based on their contribution to the public good in three broad categories: Social Mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), Research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and PhDs), and Service (encouraging students to give something back to their country).

via National University Rankings 2012 | Washington Monthly.

That definition sounds good but it certainly generates a fairly odd list of colleges. Also, these categories are so broad that you’re bound to get some colleges/universities that rank high in one area and very low in another. When I first saw the general list of colleges, I expected to see more Catholic universities at the top of the list since the “Service” component is so strong in their mission. Instead, the general list of “National Universities” included many University of California system institutions that would be “off the radar” for many families. They are “off the radar” in some cases because of the enrollment size, limited financial awards, extended time to graduate, etc.

2012 National Universities on Washington Monthly’s College Rankings

1. UC, San Diego
2. Texas A&M
3. Stanford (CA)
4. UNC, Chapel Hill
5. UC, Berkeley
6. UC, Los Angeles
7. Case Western Reserve (OH)
8. UW, Seattle
9. UC, Riverside
10. Georgia Institute of Technology
11. Harvard (MA)
12. UTexas, El Paso
13. UMichigan, Ann Arbor
14. UC, Santa Barbara
15. MIT

Case Study

So, in this case, when you look at the list from a different perspective (through sorting :-)) the rankings tell a different story.Let’s say that you have a teen who is interested in a college with a liberal arts curriculum and many opportunities to get involved in community service. Here are the colleges that rank in the top 15:

1. Bryn Mawr (PA)
2. Warren Wilson (NC)
3. Rhodes College (TN)
4. Emory and Henry (VA)
5. Illinois College (IL)
6. Knox College (IL)
7. Central College (IA)
8. Macalester College (MN)
9. Williamette University (OR)
10. Hobart William Smith (NY)
11. Davidson College (NC)
12. Pitzer (CA
13. Oberlin (OH)
14. Whittier (CA)
15. Washington and Lee (VA)

So, do you accept the rankings as is . . . . or do your own sorting?