College ranks

Answered

So whenever anyone mentions colleges ranks I always write this somewhat rant-y post whether irl to my mom or online to other CV users:

Rankings literally a money grab and relatively worthless. US news makes millions but it adds little information already known.

Also a rank typically is either very subjective as either it relies on rival schools ranking it in a peer review or some (IMO) stupid measurables that don’t give an accurate indicator of prestige and is easily manipulated.

For example one of the fairly common statistics used is full time teachers pay. So if a school raises teacher pay by 1000 dollars that affects rankings but provides very little if any affect on education. Also a school that’s equally as good as another would have very different salary as a school in rural midwest would contrast greatly with a school in urban LA.

Furthermore rankings usally mean sh+ about specific programs. For example Nebraska Lincoln has a top ranked agriculture program but if you just look at overall institution ranking you don’t see that. It’s somewhat better if you look at a specific college but it’s still flaws due to many other aspects. Some of them may be (and after are) better than ivies.

Additionally some schools are very good schools but rankings don’t reflect it. Princeton is great but you can also get a great education at Weber State university.

Lastly rankings don’t reflect subjective reasons for attending a school whether that’s how close a campus is to your home, cost, financial aid, student life among dozens of other things you may value.

This also doesn’t include what you do in college. I forgot where ai heard this but if a Harvard engineering graduate did nothing in college and just got his degree I wouldn’t hire him over a UMASS student that’s president of an engineering society and had multiple internships.

A very extreme example is this:

My mom knows someone who graduate from if I remember correctly Harvard. He ended up working as a valet. Not to be rude but that wasn’t what he wanted to do as a career. Joe Biden who love or hate him is very influential has household name recognition and is leader of the free world graduated form University of Deleware.