Amy Potter: Rankings that send the right message

Last Friday, the girl in front of me leaned over to her friend and pointed out an article in The Daily Pennsylvanian. "Look," she said. "Penn is dropping in the rankings."

Unfortunately, she managed to miss the entire point of the article she'd been reading.

This proved to me a couple of suspicions: 1) Most readers don't get past the first paragraph in any article they read, and 2) People are undeniably drawn to rankings -- they're a sure-bet for the front page.

Atlantic Monthly beat me to at least one of those conclusions in its November 2003 issue.

With the first-ever and now-to-be-annual "College Admissions Survey," the editors managed to not only profit off the always-pertinent admissions process but also publish some quality journalism.

But this isn't the stereotypical commentary or ranking system. Atlantic Monthly's "College Admissions Survey" is refreshing.

Every year, rankings come out. Whether or not colleges admit to it, they take these rankings extremely seriously. For better or for worse, a school's rank carries a lot of weight, as it is the first and often times only impression the public gets of that particular university. Moving into the top 10 on the list of America's best universities is unparalleled publicity -- just take a look at Penn.

Whether students and parents like to admit it, those rankings do weigh heavily on their decision-making processes. People inherently want to get into (and thereby pay for) the best possible school. It's bragging rights and, in theory, bigger bucks down the road.

So the situation is clearly unavoidable. Rankings will come out, and ultimately they will matter. But what Atlantic Monthly did in its November issue was genius. They realized those constraints, but tried to be productive within them. Instead of solely compiling a load of jargon, statistics and personal insights, the magazine set out to educate the reader.

This compilation of articles did not deal with the schools themselves and why one should be ranked above the other. It did not try to tackle the ever-burning question in college admissions of which one is the best. It did not try to emulate the U.S. News and World Report annual guide to colleges and universities.

Instead, Atlantic Monthly rejected all that and even the entire premise of the current admissions process.

"Admissions is a battlefield in a brutal competition for prestige," the magazine reads. But that's what they call the "trophy system." In the "real system," students applying to college would theoretically find the best institutions for them as individuals.

Atlantic Monthly set out to teach the American public a lesson. With the help of writer Don Peck, the "College Admissions Survey" included a ranking which weighed three factors -- admission rate, SAT scores and high school rank.

But the point of this article -- which, to the chagrin of my classmate, placed Penn eighth -- was not the rankings themselves. Instead, it was to prove the point that selectivity indexes and rankings can be fraudulent and inaccurate. More so, it proved that diverse standards don't yield a lone conclusion -- namely, data for the top 50 schools could be reworked, twisted and refocused to garner an entirely different result at any time.

Ranking Harvard as the fifth best school (gasp) was a risk for Atlantic. And if they'd just printed the ranking without analysis or consideration, it might have flopped. Instead, the magazine forced its readers to take away a series of important conclusions.

Most importantly, the article stressed that a top ranking does not necessarily ensure happiness at any given institution. What should be important to applicants isn't what necessarily is important.

Translation: Spend less time satisfying our craving for the "best" and more time focusing on the big picture -- the long road ahead. What really matters at a school like MIT (Atlantic's No. 1) is that it's a place for students who won't mind walking to class for four months through bitterly cold weather and snowstorms. Maybe you like diverse architecture -- then MIT isn't the place for you. The point is, those minor details are huge and should be valued, at least more than average SAT scores.

Sure, this all seems naturally intuitive. But the fact that Atlantic Monthly took these ideas and put them into motion is praiseworthy. Hopefully, in due time, the admissions process can curtail this dogged competition back to its original intention -- to place thousands of prospective college students at the institutions that best suit them.

So next time there's an article that mentions a ranking, make sure to read past the first paragraph. Maybe there's information in there that's more useful.

Amy Potter is a senior World History major from Albuquerque, N.M. and executive editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian.

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