Every spring, well-qualified students get turn down letters from colleges they’d hoped to attend. College admissions results are not a measure of how worthy a student is as a person or a strong predictor of their adult success. In spite of what some media outlets and popular colleges want you to believe, studies show that which college a student attends typically matters less than what the student does at their school. In other words, student engagement matters more than college rankings for laying a foundation for long-term success.
Choosing Student Engagement that Matters
A few years ago, researchers associated with Stanford University dug into the methodology behind college rankings, whether the ranking of a student’s college predicted career success, and what experiences really benefited students. The bottom line is that how a student uses their college years makes a bigger difference than the college they attend.
Participating in clubs and teams
Look for student groups related to topics you care about. These could related to major and career, like a finance club that manages a portfolio with real money, an engineering competition team like a solar car race team or a rocketry club; a club related to a personal interest like food insecurity or foreign affairs; or a group related to a personal affinity such as a faith group, fraternity or sorority, or political club.
Meeting with instructors and professors during office hours
At most colleges, instructors have office hours at least a couple times a week. Students can use this time to ask about class topics and problem sets. They can also inquire about the professor’s academic and professional interests, discuss potential research projects, and get advice about majoring in the professor’s department. It’s much easier for a professor to write a letter of recommendation for a student they’ve spent time with than for a nameless face in the back row of a lecture hall.
Attending extra study sessions outside of class
Especially with courses taught in large sections, it helps to do extra study sessions. At some universities, there may be an optional session with a graduate student or teaching assistant to go over the course material and give on the spot guidance for problem sets. Most colleges have on campus student success centers or tutors. Often these tutors are students who earned an A in the class in a past semester or are majoring in that subject area. If there isn’t official tutoring for a course, create your own study group of classmates.
Doing work related to academic interests through undergraduate research, internships, and coop positions
Many students list undergraduate research as a goal. Large universities often have lots of research, but it isn’t always accessible to undergraduate students. Consider if applying to an Honors program or attending a college dedicated to undergraduate teaching would offer more research opportunities. Students usually do an internships in the same term with academic classes. Internships can be paid or unpaid. In a coop, students usually do paid, full-time work instead of college classes. When you look at colleges, ask about how much support the college gives to help students find these opportunities.
Finding a mentor who shares your interests
Mentors can help you plan your college coursework, mention opportunities for research that you might not hear about otherwise, and give career advice. Some colleges have specific mentorship programs, but students who pursue other engagement opportunities (like office hours or clubs) tend to collect more mentors. When I tour colleges, I like to ask students about the connections they’ve made. Try asking an open ended question, like where they found mentors on campus.
Do College Rankings Matter?
Not ready to give up your well-thumbed college ranking? Most college rankings do not measure how much students learn during college, if they are able to declare their first choice major, what percentage of graduates are working in their field within six months of graduation, or how much student debt graduates have 5-10 years after graduation.
The biggest portion of one of the famous college rankings is reputation from officials at other colleges. These officials are asked to rate colleges they rarely (if ever) visit based on criteria they have no first hand knowledge of. As a result colleges may end up highly ranked, because they have a history of being highly ranked. (In other words, they are well-known for being well-known). This Lord of the Rankings episode from Malcolm Gladwell does a good job of laying bare the flaws in college rankings.
Related: 7 History Extracurricular Activities for High School Students
Conclusion
What does this mean for you? Don’t let marketing and hollow rankings drive your college search. Look beyond a handful of colleges that are famous for being old, rich, or good at sports. Dig into the opportunities within specific programs, because student engagement matters more than college rankings. Small liberal arts colleges and large state schools with honors programs may also offer many opportunities to engage and thrive – and that these colleges often have much more accessible admissions rates.
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