The Choice: 'Best Colleges'? Counselors Beg to Differ With U.S. News

2:34 p.m. | Updated See below for a response from U.S. News.

Your high school counselor may not be a fan of the U.S. News and World Report rankings of “Best Colleges,” at least based on the findings of a survey released Thursday morning.

In the survey by the National Association for College Admission Counseling, a leading membership group, a majority of college counselors responded that they had “negative opinions” of the U.S. News rankings and suggested that they “offer misleading conclusions about institutional quality.”

National Association for College Admission CounselingA graph from the report.

Specifically, most of the 1,157 high school counselors and 1,176 college admissions officers surveyed took issue with a number of factors that U.S. News uses in calculating its rankings, including data on admissions selectivity and alumni giving, as well as the assessments of college leaders. Most respondents said they considered those factors to be a “poor” predictor of college quality, or of no predictive value at all.

The respondents even challenged the headline that U.S. News strips across its annual effort to handicap institutions — “Best Colleges” — with most saying that the title “was not an accurate representation” of the information being conveyed.

The results of the survey, which the association said it began in May 2010 and recently finished analyzing, also underscored the extent to which the colleges and universities themselves attempt to gain favor in U.S. News.

“More than 90 percent of colleges believe the rankings put pressure on institutions to invest in strategies to maintain their rankings,” the authors of the study write, “though only 46 percent believe that their institution makes programmatic changes because of their rankings.”

To the extent that those surveyed found value in the rankings, it appeared to be in isolation of individual factors — like graduation and retention rates, as well as faculty and financial-aid resources. Most of the admissions professionals surveyed rated those elements to be “fair” or “good” indicators of college quality. Those surveyed also said that they had found “useful” material in articles accompanying the rankings, including those on “preparing for and narrowing the college search,” as well as “about paying for college.”

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In an email message, Robert J. Morse, director of data research for U.S. News, said:

U.S. News is very glad that Nacac conducted and published the survey. The results offer unique insights into Nacac members’ complex views toward our Best Colleges rankings. An example of this is highlighted by the results that show that despite having negative views toward the rankings, a very large percent of colleges use them very widely in their marketing efforts to prospective students and their parents.

The bottom line is that the report’s results prove that the U.S. News Best Colleges rankings are having a significant impact on Nacac’s members and colleges as well as being very influential in the college search process. U.S. News believes having ongoing open and frank conversations with Nacac is very important, and we look forward to further discussions about the report’s results and are optimistic about establishing a continuing dialogue with Nacac.