Top College Rankings

Most admissions officers view college rankings as a double-edged sword. While they are fully aware that these rankings are inherently problematic and serve as publicity and sales revenue for their publishers, they also know that if their school improves its ranking, it will almost certainly translate into increased applications.

For the record, Collegeadmissioninfo.com does not believe in the current system of college rankings.

Our purpose is not to publish an entire dissertation on the college rankings process on our website. However, we are asked many questions about college rankings each year and we would like to make the following two points:

1. There are no completely objective college ranking systems. All of the rankings are much better at generating publicity and revenue for their publishers than they are at ranking the colleges and universities. Click here to read a letter from the President of Stanford University to the editor of US News and World Report. Mr. Gerhard Casper provides a very eloquent analysis on the college rankings process.

2. College applicants, and future college applicants, should be seeking their best fit schools. The rankings often imply that these are the same as the best schools. This is just simply not so. It is absolutely silly to let the rankings determine which admission offer you choose to select, particularly since the schools flip flop in the college rankings each year anyway! Click here to read our thoughts about the college selection process.