Hello again, William here with another article about college rankings. This time we are doing something a little different. Recently U.S. News and World Report published an article entitled Freshmen Cite Reputation, Cost Factors in College Choice Survey. This is about a recent survey conducted by UCLA across 234 American universities.

The survey found that “College has very good academic reputation” was the number 1 choice in why a freshman student chose the university they now attend. Although “Rankings in national magazines” was also a choice, it only scored 17.6% of votes as opposed to reputation’s 64%.

So what does this mean? It means that although high school students are looking at college rankings, most are making their final choice based on how prestigious the university is. Some national rankings (like U.S. News) actually factor in reputation into their ranking system. This means that rankings can still be a helpful tool when choosing a university.

Another telling thing in the survey was that the #3 and #4 choice were very closely related: “I was offered financial assistance” and “The cost of attending this college”. The price of tuition is something American students are very sensitive to, and they will often make their final decision based entirely on cost.

If you would like to read the full article yourself, just click the link here: http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-rankings-blog/2014/03/13/freshmen-cite-reputation-cost-factors-in-college-choice-survey. Remember, rankings are a helpful tool in choosing the right school for you, but you must make the final decision yourself.