Good news, maybe, for schools that don’t fly in the rarefied air of U.S. News‘ top-ranked colleges and universities. According to a new report from My College Guide, high-achieving students see “strength in my intended major” and “financial aid availability” as more important than a school’s ranking.
My College Guide’s news release reports that more than 90 percent of the high-achieving (median GPA: 3.8) high school students surveyed indicated that strength of majorand availability of financial aid “would be ‘most important’ or ‘very important’ factors when making a decision to attend a particular college. Other factors included location (such as distance from home, 64%) and size (55%).”
Good news for colleges and universities that thought they couldn’t compete with the high-ranking institutions? Maybe. But the report goes on to say that “academic ranking or reputation” is still considered to be important by 89 percent of respondents.
(Source: UBdaily.)
P.S. – Lest you think we in higher ed are the only victims of U.S. News‘ rankingsmania, consider the plight of poor James Buchanan and 10 other presidents.
Andy writes! 
I love their title “New Survey of High School Students Reveals Unexpected Factors for Choosing a College.” Who is this ‘unexpected’ for? Every survey (for the web at least) I have ever seen says the same thing: majors and money. Those two elements are always the two most important topics for a website to address, so it only stands to reason that they’d be important in general?