How influential should college rankings be?

How should students use information from college ranking websites?

Should the government create their own ranking system?

In December of 2014, President Obama released information about the Department of Education’s plans to publish a new college ratings system by the fall of 2015 to help students compare the quality of different colleges. The plan includes policies concerning monetary aspects of college, such as tying federal financial aid to schools’ rankings, and its conception has spurred debate about the value of college rating systems in the context of the college application process.

Despite criticisms, an overwhelming majority of students clearly find existing college ranking websites such as U.S. News and the Princeton Review helpful, and rightfully so. They provide vital information about universities across the country that is greatly beneficial to students, such as schools’ academic opportunities, student activities, financial aid policies and campus environments.

Nonetheless, when these rankings become the main source of judgment of institutions of higher learning, misguided choices by high school seniors tend to proceed. There are some students who solely use online ratings as their frame of comparison for different universities instead of taking part in important activities to find the best educational facility for them—such as visiting campuses or researching programs on schools’ websites. And even for students who do participate in these activities, ranks still lurk in the back of their minds, constantly making them second-guess themselves because of the prestige attributed to a particular university or lack thereof to another.

Considering these existing sentiments toward college rankings, the White House’s system will probably be redundant and unnecessary. Current online rankings already provide a huge amount of information to students, and a government-sponsored scale will bring no new facts—rather, it will probably recycle existing information. Furthermore, Obama’s plan will allow Congress to link federal financial aid to school performance, which will likely only allow highly ranked schools to improve their performance and schools ranked lower on the scale to remain stagnant. Due to general mistrust in government by the larger American society, it is also difficult to encourage the government to take on the non-urgent issue of rating colleges and universities when even the most basic of tasks—like passing a budget without the risk of shutting down the government—cannot be completed.

There are thousands of colleges across the country, encompassing an almost limitless variety—from big to small, liberal to conservative, party hard to study hard—meaning that any given student will likely be able to find several schools at which he or she could be happy. The idea of the perfect college arises partially from the overemphasis on the effect any particular school has on an individual. If you’re a motivated, high-achieving student, you’ll be successful no matter where you go to school. College doesn’t change who you are—it merely provides opportunities to learn and grow. Whether you take advantage of those opportunities is up to you.