Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education recently looked at the effectiveness of the US News and World Report’s ranking system.  Just as we expected, they concluded that to find a college that is the right match, students should look beyond the rankings. What the study found was that student success was primarily determined by the level of student engagement in their college experience. Considering that students have different priorities when it comes to their educational experience, it is no surprise that a standard ranking system is ineffective. Interestingly, the one factor that had predictive power on whether a student had a personally fulfilling college experience was emotional support through faculty connection.  We have found that while the rankings can provide some interesting factual information, when it comes to matching students to colleges students and families should look beyond the rankings.

For more information about this study click on the link below.