Editorial: College rankings don’t show full picture

Take pride, Panthers: Our school jumped six spots in the national college rankings. Take pride, Panthers: Our school jumped six spots in the national college rankings.

We think it’s great that Pitt’s place in the annual U.S. News and World Report national college rankings went up to 58th from 64th. We think administrators, faculty and current students should be proud of their positive collective impact on the university. And we think our campus certainly gets a boost of positive self-esteem from favorable rankings of any kind.

But we also think it’s nothing to make a big fuss over.

Many of us have younger siblings who will soon have to make a decision about which college to attend. A sizeable number of high school students in Pennsylvania will want to remain in the state because it’s cheaper, so they’re likely to compare Pitt, Penn State, Temple and other in-state colleges to see which one’s better.

So which school is the best option?

Is it Pitt at No. 58? How about Temple, way down the list at No. 132? And wow, did Penn State really crack the Top 50 at No. 45?

The numbers themselves are merely representations of one publication’s specific algorithms that attempt to define academic excellence and peer — read: subjective — surveys from notable administrators at each school.

But what a quick glance at the rankings doesn’t tell future college or graduate school students is how happy or successful they will be at their school of choice. A country valley sandwiched between two of Pennsylvania’s biggest cities might be the home of a higher-ranked university, but what about the learning environment? And the curriculum? And what about the intangibles that make students able to function in society?

No number, ranking or statistic holds the key to the door of your dream school.

Even when it comes to grad schools, which many college students consider each year, it’s common for students to opt for a program that falls in the Top 20. Using that logic, it might be tempting for some to take up Library and Information Studies — Pitt’s programs in this field are all within the Top 10, with Health Librarianship program ranked as No. 1 in the nation.

But no ranking can tell you what will work for you as an individual.

Picking a university or a grad school is one of the more important decisions in our lives. Letting numbers and statistics steer us one way or another is detrimental to our educational experience — something that should be tailored to fit a student’s personality, ambitions and ideas. The perfect school for a student should be tailored to his or her needs.

We think numbers have a place in choosing colleges and grad schools. But instead of overall rankings being most important, it’s ultimately a combination of numbers that opens the door to a successful — or unsuccessful — future.

We just have to crack that code for ourselves.