There are more than 2600 accredited universities in the US, therefore there has to be a way to rank them. Since the early stages of Higher Education in America, there has been a ranking that encourages development, competition, and helps compare the quality of the institutions. When choosing universities, most students base their decisions on the rankings; however, many people no not agree on the rankings and say that the student’s performance will depend on other things and not on the university they attend.
Since the foundations of Higher Education Institutions in America, rankings have been the key factor to compare universities. An article from Campus Corner states that to create their school rankings, “U.S. News rates schools on seven unique criteria: peer assessment, student retention, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, graduation performance, and alumni giving.” This may sound accurate, but these most popular rankings have the reputation of not being that precise.
The peer assessment category for examples bases its decision on subjective opinions, making it illegitimate. Another example is the faculty resources. Like an article from StateUniversty.com states: “Many students can tell you that grad assistants or TAs teach about half the classes for full time professors. Judging the quality of professors by how well they are paid or what degrees they hold is extremely superficial and often misleading. These rankings do not, in any way, give you information on the quality of the instruction you are likely to receive.” A research made in UCLA about 'How important are college rankings in students’ demonstrated that only 16.4 percent of the student's decision was made because of the rankings, compared to 57.4% given to the good academic reputation that the university had. There are many factors that affect the quality of Higher Education Institutions, but definitely the rankings are not the most important.
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