On Tuesday October 7th I will be giving a class on how to use a U.S. News college guide to help students and their families in the college search. However, one item that they are not likely to find in this year’s edition of the guide is a list of “up and coming schools.”
Unlike the other rankings in the U.S. News college guide which are based on some quantitative measures, the list of up and coming schools is based entirely on the results of a survey. According to the publisher:
College presidents, provosts and admissions deans were asked to nominate up to 10 colleges in theirU.S. News Best Colleges ranking category “that are making improvements in academics, faculty, students, campus life, diversity and facilities. These schools are worth watching because they are making promising and innovative changes.”
So, officials at national liberal arts colleges were asked to nominate other national liberal arts colleges, officials at national research universities were asked to nominate other national research universities, and so on. If a school was nominated by seven peers, it made the U.S. News college guide up-and-coming list.
This means that officials at any school that hoped to make the list had to hope that s/he had seven friends at other similar schools. This is not impossible; the “c-level” administrators at these schools change jobs. If they are competent and civil they’re likely to have made a few friends during their careers. If you’ve been in the job market yourself for several years you know that good friends take care of their good friends. It’s good politics, especially in higher education.
But this also means that the schools on the list may not be as great as their stature on the U.S. News college guide up-and-coming list. True, there may be some well-respected college presidents–the leader of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC), the #1 up-and-coming research university is someone to admire–but that’s no guarantee that the school will help the student. There are also no assurances that the improvements that these schools have in planning stages will be available in time to help the members of the incoming freshman class.
Good students (3.5+ GPA) should look for good schools. Good schools not only attract good students; they also retain them and successfully guide them towards a degree. Great schools not only excel at producing graduates; they offer career services and alumni relations support that will be there for the rest of their lives.
The U.S. News college guide has 14 National Research Universities, eight National Liberal Arts Colleges as well as several Regional Colleges and Universities listed as up-and-coming. The Regional school list appear to match up with where these schools appear in their regional rankings.
I have visited seven of these schools, including:
- University of Maryland-Baltimore County
- Drexel University (PA)
- Franklin & Marshall College (PA)
- Ursinus College (PA)
- SUNY-Geneseo
- University of Scranton (PA)
- James Madison University (VA)
I can understand why these seven schools are up and coming in the U.S. News college guide. They have good student success programs. All retain at least 85 percent of a freshman class. All excluding UMBC graduate at least two thirds of a freshman class within six years (UMBC is close, however at 65 percent). Those are the marks of a good school.
However, not all of the schools on the up-and-coming list are this successful.
I’m going to cover this in my October 7th class, but here are some pointers for those who can’t come that night.
- Check out freshman retention rates for any school that you are considering. I get concerned when a school loses more than 20 percent of a freshman class. In some cases, the school admitted students who could not do the work, in others the school has an educational model that does not prove to be a fit for everyone who decided to enter as a freshman. The magic word here is: “Ask.”
- If the school is known nationally or regionally for an academic program you want, especially in engineering or a health-related field, ask about the retention in the program as well as the career services. I have been to universities such as the University of Maine and the University of Rhode Island where the highest freshman retention rates and highest graduation rates were in the most demanding programs such as Engineering, Nursing or Pharmacy. Again, ask.
- State schools use six-year graduation rates more than private schools. Cost is one obvious reason, another is location. A state university campus in a large city such as Rutgers-Newark, Temple or Indiana-Purdue in Indianapolis has many students who drop to part-time status and take on full-time jobs before they complete their degree. A third reason is that different schools within a large public university have their own requirements; students might have to “back-track” to complete a degree if they change schools.
- If you’re interested in schools such as Drexel or Northeastern that offer cooperative education, compare the student success stats, retention and graduation, against public universities that also offer cooperative education. My experience is that the private schools that offer a five-year cooperative education program do not graduate their students within five years at higher rates than public schools that have a similar program. This means, for example, that Pennsylvania residents will find Penn State or Temple to be a better value for co-op than Drexel.
- Check out the career center at every school you visit. If you’re interested in a high-demand major such as engineering or a health-related field, ask about the services offered to prepare students for interviews and the connections between the school and prospective employers. Some schools have faculty who are more active in the job search than others. Some have more aggressive career services and internship assistance than others. There’s two sides to a relationship with a college: the student does the work, the school responds in kind by helping the student with direction towards their future.
Sometimes a school’s up-and-coming stature will work in your favor, especially if their president is regularly in the news–Drexel’s president, John Fry, for example, has excellent media relations skills and came from Franklin & Marshall, another up-and-coming school–but other times it won’t matter very much. It’s up to you to look beyond numbers and rankings in sources like the U.S. News college guide to find the best overall fit. A school is not good or great merely because a bunch of educators put their friend’s schools on a national list.
The post A Look At ‘Up and Coming’ Schools in the U.S. News College Guide appeared first on Educated Quest.
