Volume 96, Issue 27
Thursday, October 17, 2002
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EDITORIAL
Spanking the rankings
It's that time of year again.
Whether you're a green Grade 12 student or a hardened university graduate with a multiple page résumé, it's already time to start thinking about next fall. In an increasingly competitive university admissions process, students and administrators are looking to this season's latest university rankings to help them decide where to fork over their dough.
Currently, the nearly 300 students attending The Richard Ivey School of Business may be wondering whether they forked their dough in the right direction.
Ivey, a school that fancies itself as the best business school in Canada, was just ranked sixth by Business Week magazine among business schools in the world (excluding the United States) and third among Canadian schools.
And, while their studious CEOs-to-be ponder the significance of a single rating among many, Ivey's dean Larry Tapp, was quick to control damage by sending his second e-mail of the year, reassuring Ivey students that things are not as bad as they seem.
The problem with university rankings, whether the outlet is Macleans, US News, Business Week or any other publication, is that all of them have a different system for ranking schools.
There is no reason to unplug your laptop and run for the hills just because a rather arbitrary rating in a magazine suggests your school is inferior to another. While the publications that produce these rankings obviously do extensive research, can they ever truly encapsulate all that a school can bring to the table?
By the same token, to a person applying to schools around the country, the number attached to a university in an annual ranking can go a long way in determining where they eventually decide to apply.
It would make sense that, if you are smart enough to potentially attend an institution of higher learning, it might occur to you to look a little deeper than the thin pages of a magazine when determining your future.
Visiting a school and talking to alumni is a far more effective method of gaining a true understanding of what a university is about, yet, sadly, many people fail to do so – this is where the power of these ratings comes in.
Choosing a university based on a ranking is a bit like selecting your classes solely on the blurb you read in the Western academic calendar. Sure, a little abstract can give you some working knowledge of what a class is all about, but you'd be well advised to dig a little deeper before charting your academic path.
Rankings in reputable publications provide some insight into what a school
has to offer, but as your Grade 2 teacher always told you, it's important
to do your homework before you go to school.
LETTERS