‘PLANNING Zsa Do College Rankings Make The Grade? (NAPSA)—Each year, high school students and college administrators eagerly await the fall release of the annual college rankings. Administrators (although they often deny it) want to know how they stack up. Many people believe these rankings have a disproportionate influence on students’ college choices. The false assumptions behind rankings compilations mislead parents and students and manipulate the entire college admissions landscape. Schools’ reputations are helped or harmed based largely on subjective numbers and easy sound bites like “best party schools” or “most wired colleges.” Rather than an arbitrary and subjective ranking system, students need objective and unbiased information to make a decision that will influence the restof their lives. Now, with College Rankings Exposed: The Art of Getting a Quality Education in the 21st Century (Peterson’s, $24.95), higher education consultant Paul Boyer empowers students and parents to take control of the college search process by teaching them what questions to truly ask to find the “right” college for them. College presidents, provosts, deans, and other higher education officials from a wide variety of institutions offer their views on rankings and what makes up a “qual- One publisher says students need real advice, not gimmicks. ity” education. Boyer discusses the phenomenon of college rankings and how they create unnecessary pressure for students and parents; why a high-ranking school may not necessarily be the right fit for every student; what’s really important in higher education and how rankings may not reflect how well colleges prepare their graduates; the success of rankings at predicting students’ progress after graduation; and whether we’re approaching a new era in how we measure educational quality. The ultimate response to the hijacking of the college planning process by college rankings, College Rankings Exposed is available wherever booksare sold.
