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college rankings exposed
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only the first step (and not as hard as many students think.) What
really matters is not the letter of acceptance, but what happens over
the next four or more years. Harre drives this point home whenever
he speaks to prospective students visiting his campus. "What I say to
them is that what matters in the end is whether or not you as a student
fit the institution that you're going to attend. What you need to know,"
he continues, "is that each college or university is what it is. We're not
going to change for you. You're going to have to determine what you
want to be and how you're going to live your life and then figure out
which institution comes closest to that."
Finding the right fit need not be a process of random investigation.
Rather than immediately focusing on particular institutions, the college
search should begin by exploring different kinds of colleges. Knowing
that there are big universities and small colleges, as well as public and
private, is only the first step. Different categories of institutions have fun-
damentally different histories, different missions, and different campus
climates. Understanding the rich menu of options in the savvy college
search is the subject of the next chapter.
When students pick the right kind of college, they are ready to take
the next step and compare institutions. Although rankings do a poor
job of identifying what really matters in a college education, there are
meaningful differences between institutions. Knowing how to select the
best college or university is not hard when the right questions are asked.
Getting beyond the college tour happy talk and "three under a tree"
viewbook photos is simply a matter of focusing on a few key criteria of
quality, what matters in undergraduate education, and what questions
to ask.
