为了能更好地理解大学排名风行的现象，关键在于认真思考三个问题：它们为什么如此受推崇，它们的弊端在哪里，为什么它们对学生的择校有负面的影响？

是什么让公众如此关注排名？
因为申请过程中需要筛选大量的信息并承担很高的风险，所以寻找理想的大学是一项艰巨的任务。排名有直接的大众吸引力：它似乎帮助人们简化了梳理复杂和混乱信息的过程。过往的经验让我们有充分的理由去信任“专业人士”的建议和大学排行榜，因为这些理由都基于一个概念，那就是：众人假定排名系统能给他们带来简便有效的服务。

高校排名的弊端在哪里？
选择一所学校是一种更私人的，主观的而且将产生昂贵费用的决定。虽然择校比买一个吸尘器更为重要而且复杂，但实际上大学排名体系的调查方法还远远不如一个评估吸尘器的消费者报告更全面而科学。

另一个弊端是，他们允许一个名存实亡的主流媒体——《美国新闻与世界报道》发挥不恰当的影响力，而现在这个媒体只是作为排名承包商来运作。

为什么排名系统不可靠？
排名促使学生产生“你就读的大学象征着你在这个世界上的地位”的观点。这个观点可以这样诠释：“如果我就读了一个排名更靠前的学校，别人对我的评价就更高。”因此排名潜移默化地暗示学生（和家长）这样的信息：你上的大学能够定义你的价值和决定你未来人生的成就。

而事实是什么呢？这个国家（美国）有数百个优秀的本科课程，每个课程都能提供大量的学习机会，这超过了任何学生用大学四年时间能全部争取到的机会。学生可以通过这些机会得到锻炼并获得成就，而不是学生为学校做出什么贡献。

同时，衡量学校排名的标准通常与学生个人无关。排名的综合得分反映了校友捐赠率，师生比例，SAT平均成绩，毕业率，招生的录取标准和其他数据，而这些数据并不能涵盖优势课程，荣誉学位或者如何激发和支持学生求知欲望的基本方法的详细说明信息。排名虽然看上去简洁明了，但它不仅会误导学生，还对学生择校有不利影响。排名往往忽视了对申请人来说可能最重要的择校判断标准，如可以选择的特定的课程，学术和校园风气，与学校老师直面接触的难易程度，国际范围的事业发展机会及升学或者毕业的通过率等。

更好的方法
你的高中成绩单、老师的推荐信、课外活动、考试成绩和个人目标将决定大概有哪些学校会录取你。如果你的学校有一个优秀的升学指导办公室，你应该和你的升学指导顾问一起在这些不同类型的学校范围内进行合理的选择。

然后，深入了解不同类型的学校。这些学校是大型还是小型的？是专注于博雅教育还是专注于技术项目研究？是以高学术水准闻名还是以优秀创业精神，出众课外活动或者社交活动闻名？学校提供的优质课程是否在你的研究兴趣范围内？或者他们是否能提供有趣的国际发展机遇？对你来说，思考这些问题才是最重要的。

当你在审视不同类型的学校的时候，你的感觉和想法是会改变的。在仓促地下结论前，给自己一点时间去了解那些学校的不同之处，同时给自己一点时间去调整自己的想法。

也许你信誓旦旦地确定了某一类学校，而且你选出了一些很有可能录取你的学校。尽管如此，我强烈建议你申请一些不一样的同时你也感兴趣的学校，为什么呢？我经常看见很多学生在春季入学后，对该大学的观点和他们在上一个暑假访问时完全不同。由于学生在高三时思考着自己的未来，而且在申请的过程中他们了解了大学的大量信息，从而在某些重要的方面改变了他们的看法，因此，在春季时给自己留下一个选择的机会，这个机会或许是在去年秋天你没法预见的。

获得录取之后
1．当收到大学回信后，如果是拒信的话，你可能会细细考量信中的内容。这是很自然的，你忽然会觉得你没有得到的和不能得到的比你得到和能做到的东西要有价值得多。你会浪费宝贵的时间去思考应该怎么做才能被这个或那个学校录取。如果你的“梦想”学校没有录取你，你可能会要求学校的复议。但面对你拿到的任何一个薄薄的拒信，最好的回应只有一个，那就是坚信这是学校的损失，然后采取下一步的行动。

2．在你挣扎着精简了你的申请名单之后，万事顺其自然吧。你要心存感激，因为结局是美好的：你现在拥有一把这个地球上最伟大演出的门票。每一个学校提供的机会都比你用一辈子时间去追求到的要多很多。在这其中的某一所大学里，你将把友谊上升到一个新的高度，努力去冒险和探索你的精神世界，自己决定要做什么和怎么做，为你的成年生活打下基础，或是培养一个终生的学术兴趣和确定个人使命。把录取通知书贴在墙上。花一两天去体会你是多么地幸运，因为在你目前的情况下，你被赠予了全国乃至全世界各地大多数同龄人愿意付出任何财产而去体验的机会。

3．在某种程度上，你周围的人可能会否定你提出的关于发出录取通知学校的全部假设。不要让这些人否定适合你的或者保底的学校。抛开《美国新闻与世界报道》，不要纠缠于学校的选择或声望。你现在知道了很多关于大学的信息，比你第一次去参观院校时多很多。你会开始接到招生办和在读学生的电话。网上公告牌、脸谱网、被录取学生的论坛聚集着正在这些学校就读的学生。把这些作为一个全新的沟通媒介，且不要仓促地把你的任何选择放在一边。我都记不清有多少次听见有的学生说，“我希望能更深入地了解我的目标学校。我希望能和目标学校的在读学生有更多的交流。我以前真的不知道其他学校能提供什么机会，因为我曾经被那些自以为很熟悉的首选学校蒙蔽了双眼。”

4．最重要的一步是：如果可以的话，请去参观那些录取了你的学校，即使你已经参观过了。请让我重申：回去再拜访一次。记住，你知道的东西远比去年了解的多。而且第二次拜访是严肃认真的。你可以假装你从来没有去过那里，你会惊讶地发现一些学校自你上次拜访后已经改变了。为什么呢？因为你已经改变了，而且你有录取通知书在手，你的想法也随之不断发生改变。当你在参观的时候，尽量避免寻找不喜欢这个学校的理由–那些让你失望的地方。相反，试着把自己想象成一个学生，兴奋地享受着受教育的机会和校园气息。这可能让你自己融入到一个全新的意境当中。这是一件好事。

5．去做一些有挑战性的事情，我真的不建议学生在接受录取前做太多事情。你可以向父母或监护人询问他们对录取你的学校的真实想法。尽量让他们具体地说明白他们对这些学校的印象，在你熟知他们判断力的前提下衡量他们所说的话。为什么要做这些事？首先，他们关心你，而且可能了解你所不知道的自己。第二，他们往往会密切关注他们观察到的东西，比如你和你选的学校。第三，他们将支付或帮助你支付学费。你要向他们明确表示你希望自己做决定。你也要明确表示你可以看到一些他们无法看到的东西。但也要征求他们的意见，听听他们的想法，并对照你的想法好好权衡一下。

如果你能遵循这些步骤，且不忙于做出判断，你可能会惊讶地发现自己在认真考虑一些原本不在首选名单内的学校。如果不是这样，你最终还是认准你的第一选择，那你最好在那么多大学的激烈竞争下清醒地了解这个学校。这不仅对你有帮助，而且它会让你在抵达校园之后能更清醒和现实地知道自己期望获得什么。记住最重要的一条，没有大学是天堂，但所有大学都能为你提供难得的机会。

愿你能顺利获得录取，愿你能做出明智的决定，最重要的是，愿你能热情投入到正等待着你的精彩大学生活中去。

[文章摘自耶鲁大学官网]

To better understand the phenomenon of the rankings, it is important to look at three things: why they are so popular, what is wrong with them, and why they have a bad influence on college decision-making.

What Drives Public Interest in Rankings?
The college search process can be a formidable task of sifting through enormous amounts of information, and the stakes are high. Ranking systems have an immediate and obvious appeal: they seem to simplify making sense of complicated and confusing information. We’ve learned from experience that there are good reasons to trust their advice, and the college ranking lists depend on people making the assumption that they are providing a similarly useful service.

What’s Wrong with College Rankings?
Choosing a school is a far more personal, subjective, and ultimately expensive decision. Yet despite the greater importance and complexity of selecting a college, college rankings systems all take a far less thorough and scientific approach than Consumer Reports does when testing vacuum cleaners.

Another problem with rankings is that they allow the dominant player – U.S. News and World Report, a magazine that has actually gone defunct and exists now only as a purveyor of rankings -- to exert undue influence.

Why is That Bad?
Rankings promote the notion that the college you attend signals something about your place in the world. The signal translates as something like this: “People will think better of me if I attend a more highly-ranked school.” Rankings encourage students (and parents) to internalize the myth that where you go to college defines your value and determines your future success in life.

What is the reality? This country happens to have hundreds of outstanding undergraduate programs, each offering more opportunities than any student could possibly pursue over four years. It will be up to the student to make something out of those opportunities, and it will not be the school that makes something out of the student.

Meanwhile, the formulas used to rank schools are based on factors that in themselves are often irrelevant to individual students. Their composite scores reflect alumni giving rates, student-to-teacher ratios, median SAT scores, persistence to graduation, admissions selectivity and other data that provide little information about specific program strengths, honors programs or the general way in which the school lifts and supports student aspirations. The simplicity and clarity that ranking systems seem to offer are not only misleading, but can also be harmful. Rankings tend to ignore the very criteria that may be most important to an applicant, such as specific academic offerings, intellectual and social climate, ease of access to faculty, international opportunities and placement rates for careers or for graduate and professional school.

A Better Approach
Your high school academic record, teacher recommendations, extracurricular activities, test scores, and personal objectives will determine the range of colleges where you stand a good chance of admission. If your school has a good counseling office, you should certainly work with your college counselor to develop a reasonable sense of the different kinds of schools that lie within that range.

Then, look at different types of schools. Big schools and small schools. Schools focused on liberal arts and schools focused on technical programs. Schools known best for high academic standards and schools known best for their entrepreneurial spirit, outstanding extracurricular activities or social life. Schools with strong programs in your area of interest. Schools with interesting international opportunities. Decide which of these things is most important to you.

As you examine different types of institutions, your own feelings and thoughts are likely to change. Before zeroing in too quickly on what you think you want, give yourself time to absorb the ways in which colleges differ. Give yourself time to change your mind as you look at very different kinds of schools.

Perhaps you feel absolutely certain of the kind of school you want to attend, and you have a list of such places where you have a reasonable chance of admission. Even so, I urge you to apply to a couple of schools that do not fit the profile, but that you find interesting for one reason or another. Why? I have often seen students respond to a college very differently once they have been admitted in the spring than they did when visiting the prior summer. Students change in some important ways during their senior year in high school as they look outward to the rest of their lives, and they learn a great deal about colleges along the way. Give yourself the option in the spring of heading in a direction you did not anticipate in the fall.

After Colleges Accept You
1. As responses come back to you from colleges, you will tend to dwell on the rejections, should you get some. It’s only natural – what you didn’t get and can’t have feels suddenly infinitely more valuable than what you did get and can have. You will be tempted to waste valuable time pondering what you could have done differently to be accepted by this or that school. You may be tempted to appeal the decision, if you had a “dream” school that didn’t come through. But there is only one good answer to make to any thin envelope you may receive: “Your loss, baby.” Then move to step two.

2. After all the agony of narrowing down your list of applications, the universe does the final winnowing for you. Be grateful, because the outcome is wonderful: you will now be looking at a handful of admission tickets to the greatest shows on earth. Every one of your colleges has vastly more opportunities to offer than you could pursue in a lifetime. At one of these places you are going to take friendship to a new level, go adventuring and exploring to your heart’s content, make your own decisions about what to do and how to do it, lay the groundwork for your adult life, perhaps develop a permanent intellectual interest or personal mission. Put the acceptance letters up on your wall. Take a day or two to recognize how profoundly fortunate you are to be in your situation and to be presented with opportunities that most of your peers around the country and the world would give virtually anything in their possession to experience.

3. To the extent humanly possible wipe out every assumption you have made up to this point about the schools that have now offered you admission. Let there be no reaches, good fits or safeties. Throw away U.S. News and World Report. Stop obsessing over selectivity or prestige. You now know more – a LOT more – about colleges than you knew when you first visited any of these places. You will start getting calls from admissions offices and students who go to these schools. The bulletin boards, Facebook sites, and admitted students websites will light up with all kinds of people who actually attend these places. Treat all of this as a brand new enterprise and do not be hasty about putting ANY of your choices aside. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard a student say, “I wish I had looked more closely at the schools where I was accepted. I wish I had talked to more students who went to those schools and more students who went to the school I actually picked. I really had no idea what the others had to offer because I was blinded by what I thought I knew about what I thought was my first choice school.”

4. Most important step. If you POSSIBLY CAN, visit the schools that accepted you, even if you have visited them already. Let me repeat this. Go back for another visit. Remember, you know a lot more than you did a year ago. And now it is for real. Act like you have never been there before. You will be amazed at how some of the schools have changed since you first visited. Why? Because you have changed and you are changing now that you have your admission offers in hand. When you visit, try to avoid finding reasons not to like the school – things that turn you off. Instead, try the much more useful exercise of trying to picture yourself there as a student, thriving and enjoying both the educational opportunities and the campus scene. This may involve picturing yourself in some new ways. This is a good thing.

5. Do something that is very hard to do, and that I actually do not advise doing so much during the period before students receive their offers. Ask your mother, father and/or guardian what they truly think about the schools that have admitted you. Insist that they be specific about their impressions and weigh what they say in the light of what you know about their sense of judgment. Why do this? First, they care about you and may know you in ways you don’t know yourself. Second, they have often been paying very close attention to what they observe, about you and about the schools. Third, they are going to be paying or helping to pay for this. Make it clear that you would like to make up your own mind. Make it clear that you may view certain things differently than they do. But ask them, listen to what they have to say, and weigh it carefully against what you think yourself.

6. If you can follow these steps and hold off the rush to judgment, you may be very surprised to find yourself strongly considering a school you would not have originally put at the top of your list. And if instead, you end up confirming your first choice after all, you will have only done so after giving it a very sober examination in light of the competition. This is not only healthy, but it is going to make you much more knowledgeable and realistic about what to expect when you arrive on campus. Remember above all else that no college is going to be paradise, and that all colleges have something outstanding to offer you.

Good luck with your applications, good luck with your decision, and most of all, good luck engaging the fantastic college opportunities that are waiting for you.

[An extract from Yale University's official website]