When searching for a university, the first thing that comes to most people’s mind is to search them by ranking. Whether it’s “top 50 schools in the UK” or “top universities globally, these are all common keywords used to begin looking into universities for most students. The usual recognized international rankings that people usually use are rankings such as the Times Higher Education’s (THE) World University Ranking, Top Universities' QS Ranking, Shang-hai University’s Academic Ranking of World Universities. There are also local rankings that people use such as U.S News Ranking for universities in the U.S. or Maclean's Ranking for universities in Canada.
As you are approaching university applications or conducting your research, we have compiled 4reasons why rankings aren’t always perfect.
There Are Major Disparities Among Rankings
There is no doubt that if you look at top 100 university rankings in different rankings, more or less, the universities that appear will be quite similar among them. However, if you look closely at the actual ranking of these universities, there are clear disparities among them.
Ranking Isn’t Everything
There is no question in my mind that ranking is something to consider when applying to university. Although ranking may be tied with factors such as reputation, research, or career prospects post graduation, there are many factors that are important to consider which cannot be quantified by ranking. These factors are usually more subjective in nature and differ depending on your preferences.
Some of these may include:
Weather Conditions
Amount of Clubs and Activities you enjoy
Things to do around your campus/city
How good the food is on campus
School Spirit
These factors are factors that you may consider important to you and are not typically reflected on rankings. You should always look beyond ranking and do in-depth research about factors that may affect your well-being while at university.
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Different University Rankings Use Different Criteria
As you have seen previously, there are large disparities among different university rankings. This is because each university ranking has its own set of criterias used in determining each university’s rank. One may be more focused on the amount of research produced, while others may be considering factors like acceptance rate or even post graduate employment prospects. Depending on what is important to you, you should choose your university rankings wisely.
No one ranking will be able to encompass all the factors that make a university perfect for you. You should use multiple rankings as a guide to get a good idea about where the university stands but you should also look into using other research methods in determining your university choice.
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Ranking is Hard to Quantify
Yes, there are numbers behind every university you are researching but what does that really tell you? What does it mean when a university is ranked 60th while another is ranked 82nd?
The truth is it is hard to quantify or make sense of these differences. Differences in ranking may only be due to minor differences and not necessary because one is much better than the other. When selecting a university, you should not dismiss a low ranked university simply because its ranked. Instead, try to understand how that ranking was determined and try to conduct further research to get a better picture of the university because it might be the university for you!
The Bottom Line
The ranking system isn’t perfect, but this doesn’t mean it isn’t useful. You should use different rankings as a guide for you to better understand where your university stands relative to others. When selecting a university, rank shouldn’t be the only determinant and a deal breaker for which university to attend. You should always consider other factors that are important to you that may not be included in the ranking systems.
I hope this article has helped you understand the ranking system better. Best of luck to you in your university research.