Every year, U.S. News and World Report releases a list of the best colleges in the United States. "The Best Colleges" is designed as a tool to help students compare colleges using defined statistics. Now the legitimacy of the list is in question because it is based on surveys sent out to college faculty asking them to rank their institution and surrounding colleges.
Director of Admissions Louis Hirsh said trying to rate a university in this way is impossible because there are so many.
"If you think about it, there is no way that any university administrator can possibly know enough about another institution to evaluate it fairly and accurately," Hirsh said. "The analogy I sometimes give families is this: imagine that you had to rank each and every one of the high schools in your state. How could you possibly respond to such an exercise?"
Freshman Lona Garner said in addition to the lack of knowledge about other colleges, teachers and administrators tend to have biases toward their own college, viewing them in a better light than competing universities. These types of lists are often about the prices, names and reputations of colleges, she said.
Conversely, Robert J. Morse, director of data research at U.S. News and World Report, said the data they receive from schools is accurate.
"The statistical indicators that we use in the rankings are accepted in academia as being valid measures of quality and are among the same indicators that the schools themselves use to measure their own performance against their peers," Morse said.
"The rankings are accurate based on the weights that we have assigned the indicators and the specific educational variables like SAT scores, graduation rates, financial resources, class size, et cetera that we have chosen to use."
Despite this, Hirsh said he advises students to not pay attention to surveys and ratings.
"Another problem with the rankings is that they assume it is possible to line colleges up in some precise order of excellence," he said. "The truth is that a particular college can be terrific for one student and a disastrous choice for another student."
Freshman Andrew Bross said students should look on their own and rate the school according to their own criteria.
"Students should look at the other students' reviews of colleges and what the college offers, not just a list," Garner said. "They should figure out what they want from a college and then research the colleges they are interested in."
Hirsh suggested students research colleges online to find out some basic information. After narrowing down their initial list, students could visit those colleges and talk to random students on campus, he said.
"If you are really adventurous, try e-mailing the chair of a department in which you are interested in studying," Hirsh said. "Then see what kind of response you get. That's a great way to see how interested they are in undergraduates."
Although the university has sent surveys of this kind, Hirsh said they are usually thrown in the waste basket. He said the university does not try to raise its ranking on these surveys because one of the strongest aspects of the college is how happy students are here.
"We are among the highest levels of student satisfaction in the country," Hirsh said. "Most visitors to our campus are impressed by how positively our students speak out about their University of Delaware education."
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