Every year the universities and colleges all over the country undergo the process of rankings. The rankings maybe “The best business schools”, “Top 50 universities” or “Top 100 programs in the West Coast”, potential students always use the rankings to decide which colleges to apply. Not only students, even the members and professors of universities consider the rankings as a serious business as it helps them to market their courses and programs.
But how honest are these rankings and are they really justified? Here are some dirty secrets behind the college rankings.
Many elite colleges resort to lots of marketing so that they receive a high number of applications. But it is found that most of these applications are rejected to make room for the wealthy kids. The kids of parents who donate big amounts of money to the school are the most preferred ones to receive the admissions. To appear clean and honest, these colleges also give financial aids to few students coming from low income families. The middle class as always suffer the most.
The average cost of a four year undergraduate degree has skyrocketed to 440 percent, which is four times faster than the rate of inflation. Yet despite this hike, parents and future students still rush to get into an institution of higher education. The colleges fool the students with financial aids with teaser interest rates that will hugely increase upon graduation and will make it difficult if not impossible to be repaid.
It has also been reported that a college is twice as likely to admit legacy applicants, or someone who has had a parent or other family member attend the college previously. Dartmouth itself confessed to admitting 29.7 percent of all legacy applicants in comparison to only 12.7 percent of non-legacies. Princeton University is found to one of the biggest culprit, with a legacy acceptance rate of 40 percent.
But perhaps the dirtiest secrets of colleges are the rampant racial preferences prevalent during admissions. Depending on the area the racial discrimination might very. Like in Texas two white students were denied admission in the University of Texas. The students filed a suit against the university which is still being hammered in the courts.
So what you see is not exactly the truth. There are lots of politics and misleading things behind the college rankings, you just have to keep your eyes open.
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