CameronOn Episode 115, How to Build a Balanced College List, the article briefly talks about how ranking may not accurately reflect a certain college’s true value. It's important to remember that college rankings and reputations can be subjective. Often times, it is quite common that some good colleges are not being recognized enough for the best prospect that they provide to their students. These colleges are not accredited for what they deserve primarily due to the lack of awareness among students, parents, and the general public. Instead of extensively dedicating their efforts to marketing and outreaching as more well-known institutes do, these schools focus on fostering the opportunities and connections that best facilitate the students’ growth.
On top of that, selectivity, research funding, and endowment size are likely the factors that determine a college’s national ranking; especially this year, when class size is no longer a criterion considered, a number of large, public schools have gone up to regain the places in Top 30. However, these measures may not fully indicate the quality of education or the unique strengths of a college. As a result, colleges that prioritize teaching excellence, community engagement, or other non-traditional factors may be underrated in ranking systems.
For instance, recently I had a chat with one of my former students, John, who studied at Worcester Polytechnic Institute for his undergraduate degree in Engineering. Currently John is a graduate student at Columbia University Engineering School; meanwhile, he is also working as a research assistant at Harvard Medical School. John has shared with me that after his completion of Master’s degree, he is heading to PhD to further research on Brain Computer Interface, Neuroimaging, Human Computer Interaction, Deep Learning, and Signal Processing, as listed on his Google Scholar page. And after that, start-up.
John attributes his success to the support and references that he had had from WPI, believing that he would have never ended the way he is today without the resources and insights provided by the private tech-oriented school located in Worcester, MA, with around 7,300 degree-seeking undergraduate and graduate students. John emphasizes that WPI is extremely friendly to those students with high motivation. As passionate and helpful as the professors are, students thus are referenced by these professors to seek research opportunities in Harvard and MIT, which are about 45-minute drive from WPI. As a matter of fact, when the pandemic was prevailing in the states, John had stayed on campus and he was introduced to work with a Columbia University professor on a project who later greatly helped him when he applied Columbia University. John is very willing to answer questions about his experience at WPI, he can even recommend a few professors whom he truly is grateful to.
Similar to John, my other student, Linda, also has greatly benefited from her undergraduate study experience at Pitzer College, a member of The Claremont Colleges, an association of five undergraduate liberal arts colleges and two graduate institutions. Undergraduate students can take classes, eat in the dining halls and participate in a wide variety of activities on Pitzer’s sister campuses: Claremont McKenna College, Harvey Mudd College, Pomona College and Scripps College.
Fully embracing the access to more than 2,000 classes available across the consortium, Linda had managed to take up to 50% of her entire courses at Claremont McKenna College and Pomona College, as well as reaching out to both students and professors there building connections. Four years later, with all the extensive interactions, support, and recommendations from her experience of attending Pitzer College, Linda was admitted to almost all the graduate programs she applied: most of the Ivy League, including the one she eventually decided to attend, Master’s in Asset Management at Yale School of Management.
Nevertheless, while overwhelmed by the recognition she had achieved, Linda also suffered from Imposer Syndrome. What Linda found to be truly inspirational of her Pitzer experience was that to cope with such anxiety and doubt, she decided to defer her enrollment at Yale University by taking a gap year. Founded her own education consultation studio, Linda had exercised her business sense as well as interpersonal skills to the full extent. With the support from the network comprised of students and professors from The Claremont Colleges, Linda was able to generate sales exceeding 2 million RMB within a year. Now officially a graduate student at Yale, Linda believes she has earned the spot with her own wisdom and effort, thus elevates her self-efficacy.
Neither John nor Linda was considered top student when they were in high school. Though the colleges they went, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Pitzer College, are rather low in terms of ranking (out of top 30), the support they had received during their time there is what prompted their tremendous growth.