Published rankings are a common tool for high school students as they decide where to apply among the thousands of colleges and universities in the United States. What is meant as a way to simply the selection process has now turned into a complicated selection process of its own. After dropping 11 spots from the 2009 ranking, Miami University ranked No. 77 out of 262 national universities in U.S. News and World Report's America Best Colleges of 2010. Earlier this year Miami earned its best ranking in years in the Princeton Review's "The Best 371 Colleges" ("Miami gets best Princeton Review ranking in years," Aug. 25). With so many rankings published recently, students may find the discrepancies between how a university ranks on one versus another confusing. This confusion may ultimately lead to ranking the rankings themselves. The editorial board of The Miami Student believes both students and the universities must monitor their perceptions of such surveys.
Regarding rankings, we are near the saturation point. These rankings are in danger of multiplying beyond their use. When too many rankings are circulating, they become nearly meaningless. Students won't know which rankings to take into account when choosing where to apply, and universities will be able to ignore valid criticism (implied by a poor ranking) or won't know how to respond to so many different rankings. Students must understand that many rankings are subjective and based on criteria that can be problematic to measure. Students should consider rankings that take into account factors that are important on an individual basis such as class size, faculty-student ratio or financial resources.
Already, universities like Miami University find themselves ranked differently depending on the surveys' criteria. Of course, Miami should take advantage of the surveys on which it ranks highly and use the ranking to promote the institution. The instinct that logically follows though, is to downplay those rankings on which it does not appear in the best light. Universities need not publicize their poor showings, but it is counterproductive to dismiss them altogether or cover up the statistics. Instead, Miami should take the message to heart and investigate, in good faith, how to rectify its shortcomings, as in the case when in Miami ranked No. 4 in 2008 for having little race and class interaction and No. 20 for students dissatisfied with financial aid, according to the Princeton Review ("University receives low ranking for race, class interaction," Aug. 25). That being said, with so many rankings, no university will be able to perform flawlessly on them all. No one ranking is definitive, even though each reveals some truth about the university. So Miami shouldn't change everything based on a single ranking. Rather it should critically examine why it fell in ranking and consider whether action is merited or required. Miami must strive to find a balance.
With so many possible factors to take into account, rankings are multiplying beyond legitimacy and usefulness. A recent GQ survey provided a ranking of "America's Douchiest Colleges." Miami escaped mention, but Ohio University ranked at the No. 19 spot. This ranking means little and was probably intended as a joke, but it shows the magnitude of how many rankings are out there, muddying the waters and complicating decisions for high school students and college administrators.
