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college rankings exposed
TM
www.petersons.com
Harre is sympathetic to these fears in part because they are so perva-
sive in society. "There is a perception out there that if you pick the `wrong'
college you're going to end up wasting time and wasting money," he
says. What is a "wrong" college? It's an institution that "does not have
the level of prestige it needs to have monetary value in the marketplace."
In other words, its reputation is not up to snuff and it can't impress fu-
ture employers. The overriding fear is, "If I pick the wrong place--if
Valparaiso's reputation is not as good as they tell me it is--does that mean
if I want to go to San Diego and work that nobody is going to hire me
because they have never heard of Valparaiso University?"
The result is, quite literally, a nationwide recruitment effort in higher
education that forces most colleges to act like they are all excellent in the
very narrow way that excellence is defined--primarily though selectivity
and reputation.
You Rejected My Son--See You in Court
The pressure of elitism--the "Chivas Regal impact"--creates its own
problems for prospective students and their families. The first symptom
is stress. Every fall, stories appear in newspapers around the country
about the burdens placed on ambitious high school students who work
around the clock to impress college admissions counselors with top grades
and a rich extracurricular life. We read about high school juniors who
study late into the night, volunteer at social service agencies, lead school
clubs, play sports, and consider anything less than an "A" to be the end
of world.
At the same time we hear about parents who have gone off the deep
end. Indeed, seeing how some ambitious and demanding parents push
their children--at earlier and earlier ages--to succeed both academically
and extracurricularly, it's tempting to place the blame for all the stress
students (and admissions counselors) feel on overanxious busybodies. Ap-
