Selecting a college is traditionally viewed as the most important decision a student can make in their educational career. One wrong decision could change the course of their life, or so they think. Students and their families place a lot of pressure on the college decision and there are many influencing factors.
Sandy Robbins, Emmanuel College’s Dean of Enrollment and Admissions and Pam McDonough, a guidance counselor at Exeter High School, offer counseling to graduating seniors during their college decision making process. Robbins, who has been at Emmanuel college for 16 years, highlights aspects of Emmanuel College that students might not see through a typical college search. McDonough, who has been at Exeter High School for 34 years, has intimate knowledge of what seniors are looking for in colleges and the application process.
“I do think that there’s the cerebral part of the search,” said Robbins. “Does it have the academic programs that I’m looking for, is it the location that I’m looking for–it’s just sort of cerebral–is it small, is it large, can I afford it, can I get in.”
The question for graduating seniors remains, what is the most important factor when selecting a college? Students are faced with the daunting task of determining which college is right for them based off of information they receive online, through the mail, and if they’re lucky, on tours of the institution. Sorting through this information and determining where ranking falls could make or break a student’s final decision.
This is true. Out of twenty students interviewed, twelve indicated that they looked at rankings during their college decision making process.
“From a school counselor’s perspective, I help kids to direct them away from rankings because really it’s about helping them find an academic fit, a social fit, and an economic fit and each student is individual,” said McDonough. Students are given a laundry list of items to consider when applying for colleges such as academic programs, sports, class sizes, and overall happiness of current students.
“Looking at rankings about what is a good school, what could be a good school for one learner or a student with academic expectations might be different for another,” McDonough said.
Ranking websites may not paint the entire picture of the college either, showing prospective students only the numbers side of the college rather than the more personable side.
“I, as a professional, would much rather tell a story about a student than I would to say we rank somewhere because we’re trying to make a difference to individuals lives,” said Robbins. She is a firm believer in visiting the prospective college and seeing current students on their campus.
Colleges do offer alternatives to an in person campus visit. Emmanuel College has an online tour, though it is not a video tour as some colleges have. Prospective student can click on each building on campus and learn more about them. Images of both the insides and outsides of these buildings are shown.
“[Rankings] certainly gives students an idea of the name brands of schools but I encourage students to get beyond the branding,” said McDonough.
It’s not just administrators who feel this way about college rankings either. Current college students, reflecting back on their admissions process, realized there was more to selecting a college than where they fall rank wise.
“At first, I thought rankings were an indication of how good a college was,” said freshman Hugmaelle Jean. “But doing more research on a college, although it wasn’t in a high rank, made me realize ranks don’t really matter. Ranks can’t be the only thing that makes you like a certain college.”
Sites like the US News & World Report are responsible for generating these ranking lists that prospective students see. They create these lists based off on “U.S. News’ researched view of what matters in education” as well as “quantitative measures that education experts have proposed as reliable indicators of academic quality,” according to their website.
These indicators are graduation and retention rates, undergraduate academic reputation, student selectivity, faculty resources, financial resources, alumni giving, and graduation performance rate. The most important of these factors are undergraduate academic reputation and graduation/retention rates, which hold 22.5 percent weight. Faculty resources follows closely behind with 20 percent.
According to US News’ Communications and Public Relations Coordinator Enxhi Myslymi “U.S. News does not receive funds from colleges that impact their rankings.”
This does not mean, however, that schools do not use their own money to try and impact their rankings. According to an article in Boston Magazine, “from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s, for instance, to lure students with high GPAs and SAT scores, private four-year schools increased spending on merit-based aid from $1.6 billion to $4.6 billion.”
In their decision making, US News looks to data sourced directly from the colleges themselves as well as the National Center for Education Statistics, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Council for Aid to Education and the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, according to their website.
Emmanuel College is listed as “Rank Not Published” on US News. According to Robert Morse, Chief data strategist at US News, schools labeled at “Rank Not Published” are in the bottom 25 percent of their ranking category. For Emmanuel, this would be the National Liberal Arts Colleges category.
These schools like Emmanuel go through the ranking process, but an editorial decision is made not to publish the ranking.
“Not all rankings are created equal,” said Robbins. “They also change what they rank on and so that has an impact to it. For instance… the US News and World Report, they recently changed their classifications and we had been classified in one classification and now we’re in another.”
US News also has four categories for ranking colleges, National Universities, National Liberal Arts Colleges, Regional Universities, and Regional Colleges.
Emmanuel College’s direct competitors when it comes to accepted students are Suffolk University, Stonehill College, Assumption College, the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst), and the University of New Hampshire (UNH) according to Robbins.
“I consider our competitors people who we share accepted students with and we sort of split what happens for people who are accepted to both,” said Robbins
Not all of these institutions are ranked in the same groups.
Were Emmanuel College to be ranked, it would be in the same group at Stonehill, which is tied for 108 in the National Liberal Arts Colleges category. Suffolk, UMass Amherst, and UNH are all considered to be National Universities and are ranked 188, 74, and 107, respectively. Only Assumption is in the Regional Universities (North) category, tied for 23.
This differentiation between institutional categories makes cross comparison of rankings difficult for students. They cannot compare colleges side by side if they are in different categories because they are held to different standards depending on the programs offered.
Location was a determining factor for twelve of the twenty students interviewed, followed closely by the majors and course offerings of Emmanuel College.
“Location,” said alumna Anastasia Yogas. “To gain as much internship experience while in college as possible, I wanted to attend a school that had easy/possible access to internship locations. Attending a small school (which I wanted) in an inaccessible location seemed like a wasted opportunity.”
“Definitely the reputation of the major and professors within the department,” said senior Katelyn Belmonte. “I was at an advantage knowing my major, and it influenced my entire academic career, from required courses to internships. Emmanuel had the best composition of a well-rounded four years.”
These kinds of factors are what admissions officers and guidance counselors like to see students paying attention to.
“There’s the very emotional part, the gut,” said Robbins. “It’s the way you feel when you visit that college.” For Emmanuel, most students are drawn in by the campus feel that is created in the city. Emmanuel’s campus features a quad with recently added picnic tables and brick architecture that appeals to prospective students visually.
“I really think that it’s really important for students to self reflect about what they’re looking at in higher ed and what values that they have,” said McDonough. Only the student themselves can know which college is right for them based off of what they want to glean from their time in higher education. Rankings cannot determine those factors for students.
“The most important factor was how it felt to be there when I was touring or visiting for accepted students day,” said Jean. “I think how you feel when you are on campus is the most important thing because it gives you an indication of how this college will be for you.”
Abbi Matheson 