In an earlier post - US News America's Best Colleges 2008 - 8 Questions in Need of Answers I listed up 8 questions that were passed around to the business writers of the KnowMoreMedia network.
I'd like to take a stab at the questions one by one. Perhaps readers and visitors will share their answers.
4 - How does the US News college ranking help schools get better or worse students—help them attract customers?
Dan Tudor at LandingTheDeal writes "..a bad ranking on the U.S. News "Best Colleges" list can
He continues - "As a society, we love rankings. We love surveys. We are a competitive culture, and love to see who is "winning" and who is "losing".
And, "Like it or not, as buyers, we use rankings to make buying decisions."
All those things are true, I think...but do the college rankings matter? I am not convinced.
Students go where they can get in, and colleges take who they can get.
My experience is, the colleges that don't have full classrooms, have lower entrance requirements....it's a business....one that most colleges do not do well.
In short...more students = more money in the coffers for the colleges/universities to squander.
The rankings do not attract students. Rather, good students make for better rankings. Taking good care of students (retention, faculty resources, etc) make for better rankings. And the schools with better rankings are already have full classrooms...which is what most colleges want so they can still NOT make their budgets. But, that's a different post for another day.
What do you think?
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