It seems like just about everything is ranked these days. Best dog park, best 10 all night diners, and best sweaty workouts seem to appear weekly in every news outlet. Of course there are also best and worst dressed at the Oscars, what is in and what is out listings, and all manner of ratings of food, song, movies, people, and ice creams that invariably get turned into a ranking by someone. Some rankings matter to those being ranked. Take the BCS in college football, for instance. This matters to the colleges whose post season depends on it. But does it really matter if Indian cuisine is ranked a notch below Thai cuisine by those stopping for gas in Levan?

Higher education used to operate in a world where potential students came to campus, met an advisor, met the professors, took a look at a dorm room, went on a campus tour, and looked at the catalog to see what courses were offered. Potential students weighed programs of study, talked to current students, and looked for a campus that was the right challenge and the right opportunity. There was a sense of prestige associated with each campus, but the rankings were high, good, and they will let me into the program. Mostly, students looked for a “good fit” and an engaging campus experience. The research showed individuals generally matriculated at a campus they had visited, and students were happy with their choices.

It is a totally different world when it comes to applying to college today. First, you can hire a consultant to help you manage the application process. Does this strike anyone who actually went to college as strange? Second, applicants need “a strategy” made up of aspiration schools, target schools, and fallback schools. Looking over the advice on application strategies is strangely reminiscent of the portfolio allocation advice that comes with retirement planning materials. And do not even get me started on the financial planning that needs to accompany the college application process. I hope you started before conception.

There are quality differences across educational institutions, but the differences that matter for students are the programs offered and the range of learning opportunities. But these are not what the rankings measure. Most rankings are devised to sell magazines, who are the great rankings proliferators, and the people doing the rankings have a story to write on deadline, which precludes any type of serious effort to evaluate the actual education offered. So instead of evaluating schools based on actual education offered, the rankings predominantly use “beauty contests” that are little more than asking a bunch of people who do not know the answer what they think. Ask enough people to pretend the results are “significant,” put the data into a statistical meat grinder to produce some variance, and you have yourself a ranking. But of what? And does it matter?

The other twist on this that never ceases to amaze me is when individuals talk about going to a school, taking a job, or pursuing a career based on “prestige.” We talk about these choices as if prestige is something an institution bestows on us. A few years ago I had an epiphany that continues to serve me well: prestige is something an institution gets from me. It is the work I do, my accomplishments, and my dedication that is the institution’s prestige, and I bestow it on the institution every day. The same is true for students who attend any university. “Prestige” is what alumni achieve based on the quality of programs and the educational experience, not something that comes with every sweatshirt sold at the bookstore.

The rankings game is reality for everyone in higher education, and we live with it. But being in the game does not require playing the game. If we focus on providing great programs and an exceptional learning experience, I figure the rankings will take care of themselves. Yes, it is possible to put funding into PR and marketing efforts to affect the rankings, but what does this accomplish in terms of the educational mission of a university? True quality is enduring, it is what matters, and it is what we do in the classroom, not what we put in the brochure.

Picking a college is a major life choice. It is a commitment of a significant chunk of lifetime and a major investment of financial resources. It is a choice that should be informed by an understanding of what the experience is going to be and what the student will learn. It should be about the program and the education, because this is what students take into careers and adult life. I fear for the young person who is picking 12 over 34 for the “prestige” as if the college choice was all about the logo apparel once wears to the gym.

Later.