Dr. Ray Ravaglia and Sheila K. Bauer, co-founders of AccessUSA

Given the unimportance of QS Rankings in its core constituency, it is unlikely that US universities are factoring them into their operations. Why should students do so?

The university ranking industry is inescapable. Universities worldwide spend significant money chasing rankings, and university administrators’ careers can be made or broken by the rise and fall of institutions in ranking league tables. New rankings emerge every year, with claims to providing unique value. At the same time, critiques of rankings are becoming more common.

Against this backdrop, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for parents/students to know what to do. Which rankings can be trusted, and which are better ignored?

One of the rankings often relied upon by international students are the QS World University Rankings. These rankings rely on four key metrics, contributing to 90 percent of the overall score. They are: Academic Reputation (measured by surveying academics), Employer Reputation (measured by surveying employers), Faculty/Student Ratio (measured by head count), Research Citations per Faculty (using publication data).

This data enables a prospective parent/student to evaluate the research impact and relative visibility of the universities and their graduates. While this might be valuable for selecting postgraduate institution or to an academic seeking a faculty position, it is practically useless for selecting where to pursue undergraduate education. Information about the quality of teaching or quality of the student experience is conspicuously missing. Nor do QS league tables provide any information about the economic impact of a degree from top-ranked universities. 

It’s also worth noting that US universities and students tend to ignore QS Rankings. A comparison of Google Trends for search terms ‘QS World University Rankings’ and ‘College Rankings’ shows that while the former outpaces the latter by a ratio of 6-1 in India, the latter outpaces the former 32-1 in the US. Given the comparative unimportance of QS rankings in its core constituency, it is unlikely that US universities are factoring the QS rankings into their operations. Why, therefore, should students do so?

The questions that students should be asking are those that will help them evaluate their return on investment. Specifically: Will universities high ranked by QS provide an excellent education? Will QS top-ranked universities position me for employment or postgraduate admission? Will they help me achieve my remuneration goals?

Answering the first question requires students to take a hard look at themselves. If you are a student who wants individual attention from your professors, signing up with a large university will be a mistake because you will not receive that type of attention.  If you don’t have stellar marks in high school, you should not go to a university with large enrolment. Each university is optimised for a certain student profile.

As regards employment and postgraduate admission, look for universities where internships are mandatory and where students can gain research experience in the first or second year. Large government universities often fail to provide internships to all students and reserve research for students in postgrad programs. Smaller, more nimble universities frequently have industry connections that allow them not only to provide internships, but to mandate internships for their students. Internships and undergraduate research experience is your best preparation for future employment or admission into best postgrad programs.

As for your economic/remuneration goals, this is where the QS World University Rankings fail spectacularly. There is nothing in their rankings that looks at economic outcomes. Students should instead look at rankings like New York Times College Mobility rankings based on the work of economist Raj Chetty (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/rose-hulman-institute-of-technology).

These latter rankings examine the likelihood of a student entering college from the bottom quintile of family incomes reaching the top quintile ten years after graduation. Excluding specialty programs in subjects like pharmacy and the merchant marine, while assessing the top seven universities with best outcomes, one is likely to notice unfamiliar names that most students in India are unlikely to recognise. The best universities for economic outcomes are: Rose-Hulman Institute: 78 percent, Kettering University: 75 percent, Harvey Mudd College: 74 percent, Claremont McKenna University: 68 percent, Babson University: 68 percent, Worcester Polytechnic Institute: 68 percent, MIT: 67 percent.

What’s most noticeable about this list is that no Ivy League schools are listed. Moreover, of the schools that are listed, only two have QS University Rankings. MIT is ranked #1 and Worcester Polytechnic Institute #905. 

As you search for universities, ask yourself what matters more to you: the likelihood that you will find yourself in the top quintile of salary earners or that you attended a university whose faculty had the most citations of their research papers? And then ask yourself which ranking you should pay attention to.

The information you need to make good decisions is available. It is just not where you are looking.