Sunday

Blog #6



What is your “case” or chief example to explore in order to illustrate your argument?

My argument:
College rankings are not a true indicator of a college’s quality.  A school ranked higher on a ranking list is not necessarily a “better” school than a school ranked lower on a ranking list.
My “case”/chief example to explore in order to illustrate this:
The business of college rankings has become an example of consumerism.  If a school is more concerned about its reputation/how it’s viewed to the consumer, and ultimately, if the consumer will buy it, data will be altered in such a way that the odds are in their favor.  Even if the data used to calculate ranking is not untruthful, it may not be relevant as a deciding factor as to whether or not a college should be considered more valuable, or if it should be placed higher on a list.

Briefly summarized:
College rankings have been driven towards appealing to a consumer audience, where privatization also has a part.  College rankings may be untruthful in their data. However, it is still presented, as people base their decisions on what is presented to them, rather than question and search for other options as to how to judge and compare the quality of institutions.  People trust what is shown to them, so they buy it. Privatization also plays a role in this insufficient data.  Ultimately, college rankings are “selling” their quality or reputation to the consumer. The question is what it is ultimately that students want to “buy” from the college, which is its name or reputation, as they assume it is a determiner of the quality of education they’ll receive, and the respect it is given by future job hirers.   College rankings have to be viewed as business advertisements, rather than true facts, as colleges use these as a way to grab the consumer’s attention and display the best qualities of the university in a way that might cause the consumers to view other colleges as inferior to them. 

How does it speak to the debate you have identified in your proposal?

The debate I have identified in my proposal is that most people value college rankings, as they rely on them as true indicators as to whether or not colleges are of good quality.  However, it seems as though people are very ignorant as to what goes in to creating these rankings.  It can be assumed that people trust college rankings and do not consider them to be unreliable or examples of business advertising.  It speaks to this debate in that by students and parents relying on college rankings to the point where they are using them as a determining factor as to whether or not they should attend (or even apply), they are acting like consumers of a business choosing whether or not to buy a product.  

What research have you got on the case?

Through my research I have discovered how college rankings are made and how based on the process there is a great chance of unreliability.  First, people who work in admissions offices in higher institutions are the ones who submit the school’s data.  They can choose what to include or not include.  They can also even choose whom or whom not to include.  For example, they might choose to share only good statistics, so that what people are seeing are the very best of their data.  They might also choose to share only the data of students with a higher score on something, and not include data of students with lower scores, or in a particular program, etc. .  Second, they can also choose how to calculate certain aspects such as acceptance rates.  They might put a certain amount of students on a waiting list, so they can more accurately account for who was accepted, and who was not.  However, if students from a waiting list are accepted after a certain period of time, they might not choose to include them in the data, as this would make them appear less selective.  Third, they can spend a lot of money on advertising, or pay more than other schools to College Board, so they can reach out to more students, and in turn possibly have more students apply.  With a bigger application pool, they can make it look as though they accepted fewer students, and make themselves look more selective.  In reality though, they might not reveal how many students applied, or more importantly, how many spots were available in the first place (how many students they intended on having in a class).  Fourth, admissions directors of Ivy League schools are likely able to get away with the most, as Ivy League Schools are always regarded as being valuable, so they are not as carefully watched or questioned.  Fifth, there are some years that might have more applicants than another year based on the success of a sports team, or recognition of a professor, and this in turn might result in more applicants.  These determiners are of course not mentioned, but admissions directors are quick to use this in their statistical data.  If more people apply, there is a greater pool of students who are rejected, so the admission directors can say that there was an increase in selectivity, making it seem as though the college is becoming more competitive.  Fifth, schools can appear high on a list of a ranking regarding specific programs, when their program cannot be well compared to school’s programs, as they have different credentials.  Some programs at one school may not even exist at other schools. Sixth, data might be presented in an order that appeals to the consumer, but not in one that particularly makes sense, or is even relevant to the school. Seven, people who control college rankings do not and also most likely cannot prove statistics of colleges to be untrue.  There is no way for them to ultimately check on their data, and more importantly, there is no law that states one cannot submit false information to college rankings. 

What other details might be useful to know?

In sum, college rankings are reported to be data that is measured selectively.  The research presented above are seven examples in which admissions directors use students’ ignorance to their advantage and choose to also submit selective data.  Something also to keep in mind is that even college rankings that are 100% truthful (if there are such) might only include data of program offerings, not data of program outcomes, or only include data of student success on SATs, and not data of student outcome and performance. 

If there are online materials related to the case (including online articles, websites, or videos), please give those links in your post to help your readers and me learn more:

This article displays an example of how some colleges are misrepresenting exam scores, such as the SATs:
This article discusses how some view college rankings as unreliable.
This article explains that students should not use college rankings as a determining factor to where they will attend or even apply.
This article discusses how some colleges only include data of offerings, rather than include data of the outcomes.



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