[plorkyeran]

Is there actually a big fixation on university rankings? I had no idea what my school's ranking was (apparently it's now #40) and I'm not sure I've ever had conversation where university rankings came up outside of specifically talking about where a high school student is thinking about applying. Even then it's not like it's common for people to pick which school to go to out of the ones that accepted them based solely on rankings.

People who care about Ivies and the such don't care because the Ivies have a high ranking. Someone who went to Harvard who wants to use that fact to their advantage isn't going to say that they went to a "top 3" school.

[jldugger]

> Is there actually a big fixation on university rankings?

I've sat in department wide meetings where deans of engineering compared their schools to 'the competition,' both in terms of US news rankings and their own preferred metrics. Usually to bemoan how unfair it is that Texas is a petrostate with 10x the population that can fund top tier engineering schools.

But by and large, the tiers are static and a uni in the #47 slot isn't making to the top 10 any time soon. Might not even make top 40. For undergraduate education I think you're right, nobody really cares. There's really three categories of schools: private schools / ivies, flagship state schools, and the rest. I'm guessing if you asked employers to rank schools, they would largely match selectivity -- how hard it is to get into the school. (or more depressingly, how good the athletics programs are doing lately)

[AtlasBarfed]

If you dropped 200k-300k on an education, you'll be invested in either the continued value or and improvement in your investment's reputation, which as the years go on is really its only value.

[plorkyeran]

200k is about what I spent on my education and I can't say I've really had any reason to care about my school's reputation past my first job after graduation.

[AtlasBarfed]

Tech jobs generally don't care, but traditional management and those tracks really care about that.

Because getting a job in those areas is about abstract abilities that can't be (somewhat) measured with code tests, technology signifiers, and tricky questions like tech interviews.

So a certain school is a "class entry cue" for such tracks.

[roel_v]

Sure, but that first job is likely to determine the rest of your career, if your career path is somewhat traditional. So the school reputation would still have been quite important overall (especially if you wanted to aim high and get hired from a top employer right out of university).

[dntbnmpls]

> I'm not sure I've ever had conversation where university rankings came up outside of specifically talking about where a high school student is thinking about applying.

Most high school students/parents/guidance counselors/etc check the rankings, reputation, average salary of graduates, etc. It even extends to majors and rankings within majors - which might matter more.

> Even then it's not like it's common for people to pick which school to go to out of the ones that accepted them based solely on rankings.

Who said solely? Of course there are many other factors ( location, tuition, scholarships, etc ). But rankings/reputation/etc are a big part of a high schooler's college decision.

[ijidak]

The rankings mattered to me when applying to schools because it seemed like a useful metric to judge the quality of education I would get, and the usability of that education.

When you're making one of the biggest decisions of your life, rankings can help you know how good your choices are.

Not saying rankings are correct...

But for those applying, they likely appreciate having a ranking mechanism.

It's one of the few objective measures of universities available.

How do you know, otherwise, if this university that wants to charge you $40,000 per year is really going to deliver on their promise?

You can't just go back to school again and start over.

It's a life decision, so there is a desperate desire for the applying student to have an objective way of stack ranking the choices.

(Disclosure: I attended MIT. And I basically just applied to the top 5 or 10 computer science universities -- again, using rankings. And hoped to get into one of those.)

[commandlinefan]

> Is there actually a big fixation on university rankings?

I've observed that, among people who care about university rankings in hiring, there are exactly two categories: the top five, and everything else. If you went to #200, you're the "same" as somebody who went to #25.