How many times have you been asked the question, “Where do you want to go to university?”
How many times have you spouted the answer, “Harvard. MIT. Stanford.”
This is often the answer that one receives when one asks an Indian student where s/he intends to study abroad. But let the readers of this post beware: Just because a university is ranked #1 doesn’t mean that it needs to be ranked #1 on your list, too!
There are over 4,000 quality higher-education institutions in the U.S. While rankings can be valuable, it is important to note that each of these 4,000+ institutions is very different and offers a unique experience to their students. Different sized student bodies, faculty-student ratios, academic programs, study abroad programs, internship programs, athletic programs, and student life mean that these unique experiences can hardly be compared using one form of measurement.
If you are using rankings to choose your universities, take heed:
• Some rankings are manipulated by companies for profit; in other words, the universities that pay to be assessed are those that show up in the rankings.
• Keeping this in mind, not all universities believe and/or participate in the practice of ranking. Therefore, when you see the list of rankings, there are many valuable institutions that are not included.
• Rankings are created by the analyzing of certain data, including the reputation survey by college presidents, faculty retention rate, alumni giving, and the peer assessment of the college by other universities. This means that, in many lists of university rankings, there are many important factors that have not been taken into consideration.
We challenge you to go beyond rankings when looking for a university that is the right-fit for you. Take another step and explore the offerings within your field of study, internship opportunities, honors programs, service-learning, the scope for research …the list goes on and on!
With 4,000+ colleges and universities in the U.S., the opportunities to receive a quality education are limitless!
How many times have you spouted the answer, “Harvard. MIT. Stanford.”
This is often the answer that one receives when one asks an Indian student where s/he intends to study abroad. But let the readers of this post beware: Just because a university is ranked #1 doesn’t mean that it needs to be ranked #1 on your list, too!
There are over 4,000 quality higher-education institutions in the U.S. While rankings can be valuable, it is important to note that each of these 4,000+ institutions is very different and offers a unique experience to their students. Different sized student bodies, faculty-student ratios, academic programs, study abroad programs, internship programs, athletic programs, and student life mean that these unique experiences can hardly be compared using one form of measurement.
If you are using rankings to choose your universities, take heed:
• Some rankings are manipulated by companies for profit; in other words, the universities that pay to be assessed are those that show up in the rankings.
• Keeping this in mind, not all universities believe and/or participate in the practice of ranking. Therefore, when you see the list of rankings, there are many valuable institutions that are not included.
• Rankings are created by the analyzing of certain data, including the reputation survey by college presidents, faculty retention rate, alumni giving, and the peer assessment of the college by other universities. This means that, in many lists of university rankings, there are many important factors that have not been taken into consideration.
We challenge you to go beyond rankings when looking for a university that is the right-fit for you. Take another step and explore the offerings within your field of study, internship opportunities, honors programs, service-learning, the scope for research …the list goes on and on!
With 4,000+ colleges and universities in the U.S., the opportunities to receive a quality education are limitless!