As Universities Demphasize the College Ranking System, How Will Davidson Remain Relevant?

Gruber emphasized what he referred to as the simplistic, shallow nature of college ranking systems — especially the U.S. News and World Report rankings.

When high school students enter the college application process, they often begin their research by looking at lists of college rankings. However, these lists fail to reflect the complete college experience and can even drive colleges to fake their information; these shortcomings hurt colleges’ integrity and make it difficult for applicants to find a fitting school.

Davidson’s Vice President and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Chris Gruber sees problems with the lack of depth in college ranking systems.

“College rankings are not perfect,” Gruber said. “By their nature, they can only partially reflect the qualities that make the experience of higher education so distinctive and so valuable.”

Rankings separate national universities from liberal arts colleges and use an institution’s academic reputation, student outcome, financial and family resources, and alumni donations to gauge the quality of the school. Rankings tend to reflect schools’ wealth and reputation, which overlooks students’ experiences and deemphasizes fit.

According to Davidson’s Office of Planning and Institutional Research, some publications — like The Washington Monthly and The Wall Street Journal — favor large institutions over small liberal arts colleges like Davidson due to their greater focus on research.

“[These rankings] attempt to present a complex set of factors and necessarily end up oversimplifying these data points,” Gruber said.

Ranking systems also create competition between schools and drive some schools to fake their qualifications. Columbia withdrew from the U.S. News and World Report occurred after one of their own math professors questioned the legitimacy of the data that the university had submitted to ranking systems.

The New York Times reported that Emory University, Claremont McKenna College, and other schools have also submitted inaccurate data to rankings systems.

Davidson is now ranked fifteenth on the liberal arts college list for the U.S. News and World Report, however, it was a top ten liberal arts college when the class of 2023 applied. According to The Atlantic, rankings heavily influence students’ college admissions processes.

Despite this drop, Rojina Kheimendooz ‘23 believes that applicants should look beyond the numbers.

“I think a school only works if it fits you and a number doesn’t represent that,” Kheimendooz said.

Taylor McGibbon ‘26 also reflected on her college application process. Though Davidson’s ranking had dropped slightly by the time she applied, she still felt that its relative prestige was important.

“[Davidson’s ranking] was certainly not the end-all-be-all for my decision, but I knew how the ranking of a school could affect my postgrad opportunities and alumni connections,” McGibbon said.

While Gruber believes that college rankings provide imperfect information, he recognizes their merit.

He commented that, as long as publications explain their methodology and offer a “detailed presentation of the rankings,” they

“[enable] students and families to compare dimensions that are important to them.”

For instance, students can examine schools’ class sizes, levels of faculty interaction, and degree of academic challenge.

“[That information] makes those rankings useful to prospective Davidson students,” Gruber said.

Colleges themselves are beginning to

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