Top Ranked College

If you're a high school junior or senior, you might be wondering how much of a difference going to a top ranked college really makes. Should you put in the extra time and effort to maintain a higher GPA so you'll be able to get into an elite school, or can you afford to back off a bit and enjoy what's supposed to be the best years of your life? After all, as long as you get a degree from somewhere, you'll be set. Right?

Unfortunately, that's not the case. Studies have shown that both grad schools and employers still prefer applicants from top ranked colleges over those from second-tier or unknown schools. In addition, most of those enticing salary figures that you notice for recent grads usually apply to those people who have attended a well-known school. For example, when you read a newspaper article that says young MBAs are pulling down an average of $100,000 a year, you can bet that number is skewed in favor of people who went to schools like Harvard, Northwestern, or the University of Pennsylvania. Working hard to get into a top ranked college would definitely be to your advantage.

School rankings are calculated differently by different sources, so it's important to understand how the rankings were determined before accepting them as valid for your purposes. It's also important to note that the order of the top ranked colleges changes year after year. Sometimes these changes are for significant reasons, such as loss of funding, fewer academic programs, or lack of a distinguished faculty; however, sometimes the changes are for minor reasons that happen to carry weight with a particular ranking system. You should read the source explanations thoroughly in order to understand how the rankings were derived and which factors can change them.

Many students ask whether it's better to go to a top ranked college that's higher in overall ratings or that's higher in the particular subject area that they wish to study. For example, Yale might have the highest cumulative rating out of all schools in a given year, but MIT might have the highest rating for engineering programs. If you're fairly certain that you want to be an engineer, then by all means, you should go to the top ranked college in that discipline. But if you think there's a chance you might change your major halfway through your sophomore year, then going to a school that scores well in cumulative ratings would be the better choice.

Where can you find a current list of top ranked colleges? Well, you probably already know that a national magazine devotes an entire issue to this subject, so that would be a good place to start. Beyond that, there are several other sources you can check, including books, websites, and annual school guides.

Getting into a top ranked college won't be easy, but you'll be able to reap the benefits for a lifetime. So put in the extra effort, keep an eye on the rankings, and go for the brass ring.