From NOTICE News Daily for March 29, 2023
If you’re deciding on a college, you need to know about this new tool.
TRANSCRIPT
If you were asked to name the best college in the country off the top of your head, you’d probably say Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, or maybe MIT, right?
There’s no denying that a degree from any of these schools is a useful tool, but how did they gain this reputation?
An unofficial ranking of U.S schools maintained by U.S News and World Report is one of the biggest reasons for that.
U.S News ranks about 1500 schools each year on a variety of criteria.
But, the U.S Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona recently criticized the list saying it creates a quote “unhealthy obsession with selectivity.”
Most of the top-ranked schools have extremely low acceptance rates, usually hovering around 4%. But does a low acceptance rate alone make a school great?
In response to this system, the New York Times has created a new build-your-own college ranking tool.
The tool allows users to create their own rankings based on what they think is important.
The interactive tool allows you to choose how important things like diversity, sustainability, sports teams, cost, and safety are, and then gives you your own personalized ranking.
The tool is a significant signal in changing the culture of exclusivity.
When it comes to choosing a college, one size certainly doesn’t fit all and it’s important that individual priorities and goals are taken into account when selecting one.
