Imagine you’re buying a new car.

Naturally, you may look up rankings to see efficiency, comfort, and overall visual appeal. Looking at these rankings wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing; unless the rankings were based on factors unrelated to the car, or written by a biased company.  This is what US News does to thousands of students each year. These rankings are published each fall and influence students in an unfair way. Choosing your university is a serious decision that should not be based off of biased and irrelevant factors.  Students should not let subjective US News rankings affect their college decisions.

US News bases 22.5 percent of their rankings on what they call “Undergraduate academic reputation.”

They take the opinions of Presidents, deans, and people in position, and use that for almost one quarter of their ranking.

Using these opinions makes the article completely subjective to the people who are most passionate about the school, or their employees. Of course the people in high positions at a school are going to say nothing but the best about their university, and may not be as thorough with a teacher review. Even if reviewing a bad professor, people in position at a college may only provide the best qualities of that teacher in hopes of raising their ranking.

Another method US News uses to rank schools is to look at the “Alumni Giving Rate.” Though this appears to be a small percentage at only five percent, US News weighs it only a few points less than “Graduation Rate.”

Basing even a small portion of a school’s excellence on Alumni wealth, and how they choose to spend their wealth, seems unnecessary. If a school’s “Alumni Giving Rate” is low, that has no relation to how good of a school it is. Would you choose a school based on the donations they got yearly?

Many highly ranked schools still recognize the unimportance of college rankings. “Make no mistake, the publication of college rankings is a business enterprise that capitalizes on anxiety about college admissions,” said Jeffrey Brenzel, former dean of admissions at Yale. Yale is ranked #3 but does not take their ranking into importance.

College rankings are continually acknowledged as an unreliable resource, yet each year thousands of deciding students look to them for guidance. If you’re looking for schools, try going on visits and talking to real, current students from each school. Do your own research and decide which university is for you. Looking to rankings will just provide unnecessary stress to the college selection process. Do your best to ignore these ratings when making your college decision.