More College Rankings Shenanigans

College is (ludicrously) expensive. 

For middle-class families, it makes sense that parents and teens should conduct cost-benefit analyses to determine whether college makes sense and, if so, where is the best fit. When you perform this analysis, you’ll find that not every major, post-college career aspiration, and college name are worth the money.

Which college is the best value for your money?

You’re in luck. Niche.com has created just such a list and one would think this would be very helpful for high school students and their parents.

Don’t waste your time. 

As with all college rankings, the criteria have two problems:

1. Once the criteria are known, the KPIs are easily gamed.
2. They generalize and average across all majors, all students, and all situations. 

It’s the generalization that really makes this list useless. 

Forget the list. Do this instead:

• Start by acknowledging that at 16/17/18 (55?), the student probably doesn’t know who they want to be when they grow up. Don’t worry. Give them permission to explore and change. Humans are amazing when we allow and encourage them to be.
• However, always choose a path to start on. Curriculum is one of the best systems for helping people figure out if the current path is the right one. Wandering without purpose rarely works — except in romanticized stories. Also, don’t confuse exploring and wandering without purpose. They might look the same, but they are not. 
• Do the math on expected earnings. All degrees are not equal. A practicing social worker and a practicing architect will not have the same expected earnings.
• With expected earnings in front of you, do the math on total cost of attendance. It just doesn’t make sense to go $200k in debt to finance some careers. Some it does. 
• Big, new buildings, facilities, and amenities don’t contribute to a career.
• Focus on degree, course of study, and cost of attendance. Not school name. 

There are a million other reasons and methods for choosing a college that might help you pick the best one, but seriously, leave the lists out of the equation.