College admissions officers and high school guidance counselors could face a new challenge once college-bound students catch wind of the latest school ranking list.
Forget U.S. News & World Report’s guide to “America’s Best Colleges” of the Princeton Review’s annual list of top schools. In this month’s issue of Boston-based The Atlantic Monthly, all traditional rating factors are tossed aside, leaving a list of colleges and universities ranked on one factor alone — selectivity.
Comprising three criteria, including regular-decision admit rate, early-decision admittance rate and average Scholastic Assessment Test scores, The Atlantic’s “Selectivity Database” lists the 50 most selective American colleges, beginning with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and ending with Colgate University. Northwestern makes the list at number 26, with an admittance rate of 33 percent and a median SAT score range of 1300 to 1480 points of a possible score of 1600.
The publishers of The Atlantic said the ranked chart, which is accompanied by an article titled “The Selectivity Illusion,” was compiled to call attention to the dangers of choosing a college solely on the basis of selectivity.
“The Selectivity Illusion” illustrates the increasing obsession of top students to attend the most elite college possible. To these students selectivity makes a school elite, and elitism makes a school better. Or does it?
“There is something inherently attractive about trying to rate schools based on their selectivity,” according to Don Peck, author of “The Selectivity Illusion.” “Such a rating seems to provide clarity. But clarity is an illusion.”
In an interview with The Daily, Peck explained that the chart is intended simply as a “foil for the article, to prove the point that selectivity is a slippery statistic that should not be used in making college decisions.”
Nevertheless, The Atlantic’s list has proved controversial among parents and educators who worry it could be misinterpreted by students and used to promote elitism and competition.
Debbie Marshall, parent of a prospective NU student, said she understands the pressures faced by students and parents at her son Zach’s competitive private high school. Though Marshall said school selectivity will not be a major factor in Zach’s college decision, she admits “there is no question that people (in our community) would choose a school based on prestige.”
Marshall said that out of Zach’s top college choices — including Cornell University, Duke University, and Tufts University — the school he chooses will be the one that can provide him with the best student body, location and choice of majors. Marshall said she worries about parents and students who pick schools on the basis of prestige or “snob appeal.”
Lara Jacobs, a Weinberg sophomore, transferred to NU from Bowdoin College even after being admitted to several colleges ranked higher than NU on the “Selectivity Database.”
“I wouldn’t choose a school based on ratings,” Jacobs said. “They are not an indication of people’s happiness or the quality of the education.”
Rebecca Dixon, NU associate provost of enrollment, said although she was “very unhappy” when The Atlantic asked her to participate in its survey, she is not especially concerned with how it may portray NU.
Dixon said a recent survey given to NU freshmen indicated that the major factors they considered when deciding to attend NU included choice of majors, post-graduate placement and quality of faculty.
Selectivity proved to be of minor importance with only 22 percent of students listing it as an important factor in their college decision.
“We’re not worried about this ranking,” Dixon said. “I can’t just forget about surveys when they come across my desk … but I think the college-going population (are) considering Northwestern views (selectivity) as a minor factor in their college decisions.”
