The rankings that pit American colleges and universities against each other tend to let in a little bit of light and a whole lot of noise. They drive colleges to acts of bad faith - such as encouraging applicants who don't have a chance of getting in, so as to appear more selective. And they drive applicants (and parents) to do stupid things - such as believing that there are only four or five colleges in the whole country that really matter.
Last month, the Annapolis Group of liberal arts colleges agreed not to play along anymore with U.S. News and World Report, which puts together annual rankings in a best-selling issue. The association - which includes St. John's of Annapolis, McDaniel, Goucher and Washington colleges among its 80 members - declared that the rankings provide a false transparency and that the frenzy surrounding them has become destructive to American higher education. Anyone who has been through the college application process recently would have to agree.
The Annapolis Group promised to come up with a new way of providing snapshots of colleges for prospective applicants that is meaningful but also fair. That's a worthy goal - but in the meantime, there are a few points that applicants, who after all drive the whole business, should keep in mind:
You're about to sign up for an incredibly expensive four years. Find out as much as you can about the places you want to apply to - but don't look at the rankings, which don't tell you very much about what your experience is going to be like.
You get out of your education what you put into it, and that's going to be true just about anywhere you go.
If you intend to major in biology, avoid the college that just fired half its biology faculty. Also, avoid the college that's going to fire its biology faculty next year. You won't find this information in the rankings.
There are a lot of unhappy graduates of the nation's elite universities.
A college visit is useful because in the first 20 seconds you're there you'll know whether you want to apply or not. Most of the next three hours is wasted time.
When you apply to a college, look at a map. It may not be where you kind of have a hazy idea it is.
Most of the people you meet in life will have gone to colleges you never considered - or won't have gone to college at all - and, amazingly, they seem to manage.
The application deadline isn't until next fall, at the earliest. Enjoy the rest of the summer.